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Information technology (IT) plays a major role in our daily lives, with each breakthrough shaping the way we work and relax. As soon as the latest technology reaches mainstream adoption, several new trends emerge and continue the endless cycle of innovation and disruption.
Those who keep up with the latest IT industry trends can take advantage of emerging technologies and use them as powerful force multipliers to achieve a competitive advantage. Here are the trends whose impact will likely be the most significant shortly.
1. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI and ML)
AI and ML are together responsible for more attention-grabbing headlines than any other information technology trend in recent years, so they deserve the top spot on our list. Together, they make it possible for computers to learn from data and perform tasks on their own—just like we humans do.
So far, AI and ML have been used to boost diagnosis speed and accuracy, recognize and transcribe speech, filter spam messages, perform routine back-office tasks, gain insight into customer behavior, automate claims processing, enable self-driving vehicles, enhance smartphone-taken photos, and much more.
Despite being seemingly omnipresent and capable of achieving increasingly impressive results, AI and ML are still in the early stages, and it will take some time before the systems based on them have anything comparable to human common sense. But when (and if) that happens, the world won’t be the same.
Imagine a world in which robotic process automation (RPA) systems in factories can reprogram themselves on the fly based on incoming data from various information systems or a world in which chatbots cannot only help us find the answer to a simple question but potentially mimic live human interaction. This future isn’t far away thanks to advancements in software development, AI, and ML!
2. Datafication
The total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally reached 64.2 zettabytes in 2020, and it’s projected to grow to more than 180 zettabytes by 2025 as the digital transformation of societies, industries, and individuals continues.
All this data hides valuable insights that can be unlocked through various predictive analytics and big data techniques and used to support decision-making processes, inform product development, and enable environmental sustainability, just to give three examples.
However, the translation of human activities into data, a concept referred to as datafication, has a potential dark side: the data can be used not just to help mankind thrive but also to control, oppress, and manipulate.
3. Hyperautomation
Most digitally transformed organizations are already systematically analyzing large quantities of data to discover inefficiencies. The same organizations are more and more often implementing business process automation solutions, including those powered by AL and ML algorithms, to automate as many processes as they can.
This hyper-automation of everything in an organization can improve productivity, optimize workflow allocation, and reduce operating costs, among other things. Organizations that don’t waste time on routine tasks can better focus on higher-level activities like planning and strategy.
4. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)
The VR and AR market was valued at just $14.84 billion in 2020, but it’s already projected to reach $454.73 billion by 2030. The most popular social media network in the world has even changed its name to Meta to signify its focus on building the metaverse, an immersive virtual world facilitated by the use of VR and AR headsets.
Use cases for VR and AR are currently being explored in most industries, including healthcare, entertainment, education, military, tourism, sports, fitness, and others.
The VR and AR headsets, such as the Meta Quest 2 or the Microsoft HoloLens 2, demonstrate the tremendous potential of this new technology trend, but they leave a lot to be desired in terms of graphical fidelity, user interface design, comfort, and ecosystem maturity—just like early smartphones and desktop computers before them.
5. Next-Gen Wireless Systems
We have come a long way since the dial-up era and download speeds are measured in kilobits per second. Today, we can stream high-definition video, play online games, and download gigabytes of data in minutes from anywhere over Wi-Fi and cellular data, and next-generation wireless systems will soon deliver even faster connectivity speeds and better availability.
Wi-Fi 7, also known as IEEE 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (EHT), should be finalized by early 2024 and enable data to be wirelessly transferred at speeds equal to those supported by the Thunderbolt 3 standard (40 Gbps). 6G mobile networks are expected to bring a similarly impressive boost in performance to support applications beyond current mobile use scenarios, such as VR and AR.
At the same time, Elon Musk’s Starlink is rapidly expanding its satellite internet constellation to provide satellite internet access to individuals and businesses in the remotest areas. Currently, Starlink has approximately 3,000 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), and the FCC has already granted SpaceX permission to fly 12,000 Starlink satellites.
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6. Edge Computing
A bulk of the enormous quantities of data generated today has to first travel from its source to the cloud before it’s processed and turned into actionable insights. That’s not a problem when it comes to regular business data, but even a tiny delay can have major negative consequences when data is used to inform important real-time decisions, such as those made by driverless cars or intelligent bots on the factory floor.
That’s why there’s been a trend of computation and data storage moving closer to data sources, and this trend is called edge computing. By processing data right at the network edge using in-device computing capability, latency can be significantly reduced for faster response times and enhanced customer experiences. Cloud computing, though fairly popular today, may find itself rendered obsolete in coming years thanks to emerging trends like this that promise to deliver more streamlined user experiences across all aspects of our digital world.
7. Quantum Computing
Quantum computing is a nascent technology that relies on quantum mechanics to solve complex problems. Unlike the transistor-based computers we all know and use today, quantum computers are not limited to “on” (1) and “off” (0) states. Instead, their quantum bits, or qubits for short, can be both 0 and 1 at the same time in different probabilities.
The result is a massive increase in computation power when performing specific calculations, such as those used in cryptography, database searching, weather forecasting, or drug discovery and development.
Despite how quantum computing is often presented, it’s unlikely ever to replace classical computing because quantum computations never yield deterministically correct answers, so it’s necessary to use classical computations to interpret them.
8. Low-Code and No-Code Development Platforms
According to recent estimations, the low-code/no-code development platform market is on track to reach $159 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 28.8 percent. The growth is driven by the fact that organizations across all industries are interested in tools that allow regular employees with little to no programming skills to innovate, expand, and optimize by building their business applications.
It’s no coincidence that low-code/no-code development platforms like Microsoft Power Apps are gaining popularity amid a developer skill shortage, which is predicted by IDC to increase from 1.4 million full-time developers to 4.0 million in 2025. While drag-and-drop development will never make real developers obsolete, it does extend the ability to build compelling software solutions to people who otherwise wouldn’t have dared to do so, and that’s a boon to everyone.
9. Zero Trust Architecture
The traditional approach to cybersecurity is based on the assumption that some devices are more trustworthy than others. This approach is called castle-and-moat security because it separates devices into two groups: those that are inside the castle walls and those that are outside, behind a moat.
Back when all employees gathered inside the same office to sit behind the same desktop computers, the castle-and-moat approach worked fairly well. Now that 24 percent of employees are in hybrid work arrangements, splitting their time between working in the office and working from home, a new approach to cybersecurity is needed.
Zero Trust Architecture, also called perimeters security, has emerged to address the cybersecurity challenges of modern hybrid work environments with its “never trust, always verify” approach. Those who implement it never trust any device by default, regardless of where it is located and who uses it.
10. Metaverse
From its humble beginnings in the 1980s, the internet has grown to become an essential part of our daily lives. Some of the largest tech companies in the world believe that we’re now on the verge of a new iteration of the internet, called the Metaverse.
During the Connect 2021 conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding of Facebook to Meta, making it crystal-clear to the whole world that the largest social media company in the world is ready to expand the internet into three dimensions.
The new internet Meta and others are actively building are facilitated by the use of virtual reality and augmented reality headsets like the Meta Quest 2 and Microsoft HoloLens. If their vision comes true, it will change the way we work, shop, study, relax, and generally go about our lives.
Conclusion
The world of information technology is never still. Since the 1950s, we transitioned from mainframes to desktops and laptops to mobile devices and wearables—and that’s just the evolution of computing devices. There are already many new IT trends that will shape our lives in ways we can’t even fully imagine at this point, and we’ve identified and described those you should know about to help you prepare for what’s to come.