Have you grabbed the newly launched iPhone 14? Well, Apple released the product starting September 18, 2022, and you can grab yours at your nearest Apple store and legal distributors.
As a futurist, we’re obligated to bring you insights to help you interpret the next frontier of tech trends. In some instances, the tech trends may take decades to materialise but our solid research provides a foundation to actualise and evaluate their viability. However, some trends cater to the immediate future for businesses and policymakers to explore.
Let’s look at the next frontier of technology trends.
The dominance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
While talking about AI, Google CEO Sundar Pichai remarked that it’s “More significant than fire or electricity” based on the expected impact on human civilization. Currently, everyone uses smart algorithms for shopping, browsing, traveling, and even consuming visual and written content. No-code solutions are on an upward trajectory as a service platform. Expect this to keep soaring. Understandably, the technology field is greatly endowed with resources which means people with AI-powered ideas will receive significant backing. In 2023, The Harvard Business Review argues augmentation of employees will take centre stage. Under this aspect, the publication urges employees to leverage the new capacities and efficiency offered by AI to increase work output.
AI will eliminate some of the work skills. However, as the authors of the Harvard Paper predict “using artificial intelligence (AI) at a larger scale will add as much as $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030” and this underlines the unwavering viability and durability of AI. Experts further say by 2040, the global workforce will be ‘unrecognisable’ due to the integration of AI. The downside is pushing more people into unemployment and low-paying jobs over time.
Synthetic content, the harnessing of the unique creative power of AI to create new images, sound, and information, is another AI application expected to surge in the coming months. Currently, natural language algorithms mimic human communication. An avatar can easily deliver my conference presentation without my presence and deal with arising questions.
Check out Tom cruise deepfakes on Tiktok to see the application of synthetic content.
Are human beings and machines in competition?
The Industrial Revolution opened up the trend of outsourcing human labour to machines. Manual and repetitive skills such as weaving evolved to include complex arithmetic equations thus requiring the application of machines. Therefore, human beings aren’t in competition, in the actual sense but rather a race toward improved efficiency and output.
Blockchain Trust
Today, when two parties wish to establish trust between them, a middleman acts as the intermediary. In the financial sectors, banks and companies such as PayPal verify the credential and minimise fraud. In the long run, the existence of anti-fraud and payment verification processes offers some form of assurance to consumers on the safety of their investments.
What if financial companies decided to act against our best interests?
The centralisation of most of these services increases their likelihood of manipulation and abuse. Theory of decentralization advocates for the removal of autonomy of control from one central organization or system. Achieving this requires integrating a decentralised platform built on encryption and consensus. It brings the debate to blockchain, data storage across multiple computers and/or systems, that ensures no one outside the network interferes with the data.
Using multiple interface systems opens new horizons for transacting and interacting by automating different business and social elements, even for machines within a shared system. Companies such as Balenciaga have started using blockchain technology for their digital assets. Consumers are required to authenticate their genuine products for showcasing in a virtual setting. Estimates show people will continue to spend more time online, and this will require some differentiation. A segment of consumers is likely to seek exclusivity and that’s how blockchain finds relevance.
Everyone is a stakeholder
The thought of establishing a decentralised autonomous organisation, an entity mandated to administer, develop, and manage the ground rules to govern the blockchain system. Any decisions would require approval from the stakeholders and executing agreements done by binding agreements for all blockchain members.
Metaverse – Internet of the Future
Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, thinks the next online world will mostly consist of virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR). This seems contrary to assertions by web3 platforms who hold the next environment will mainly be made of blockchains and dencentralised systems. These ideologies aren’t mutually exclusive and similarities exist such as the 3D content and a move towards differentiation. Metaverse, at its core, continues to elicit different reactions.
The fray to join Metaverse has seen lots of hangers-on seeking to appear ‘cool’ or build a reputation as having been part of the earlier adopters of the technology trend. In 2023, expect smaller companies and brands to start autopiloting for the metaverse while larger brands will start to see the results of their hard work as things start falling together resulting in cohesive products and services. If these plans succeed, the larger population should reap the benefits of the metaverse soon.
Bold Prediction
It’s expected with metaverse, consumers will detach from their smartphones since the platform opens new ways to access and experience it. For instance, when one looks at how people experience virtual reality, new devices such as headsets and smart glasses validate the incoming approach to new opportunities. Businesses must think hard about how to leverage these trends to build and provide immersive and satisfactory relevant products and services. It also offers them an opening to align their internal processes for maximum output. Some key areas to explore are remote working and project management.
A Hyper-Intelligent and Connected World
Commonly known as the Internet of Things (IoT) and it connects all other emerging trends in technology into the metaverse. Integrating sensors, tools, and infrastructure to train and enable the realization of digital trust. Its main focus is to increase utility for machine-to-machine interactions.
Most technological devices currently use different operating systems. In 2023, there will be conscious efforts to synchronise and harmonise them. Incoming trends are most likely to create global thresholds for interconnectivity among various tools. Consequently, technological devices will work together to solve complex human problems and improve interactions.
Top Technology Trends for Healthcare
From 2023 onwards, expect to see a boom in tech healthcare as consumers embrace the utility of tech devices in managing their overall well-being. Covid 19 accelerated the pace of tech innovations as the world sobered up to the necessity of fitness and better healthcare systems. The latest Apple watches carry out even life-saving diagnoses such as electrocardiograms (ECG) and monitoring oxygen levels. Google’s acquisition of Fitbit means more sophisticated health-related devices are in the pipeline.
Digital Editing Traits
Perhaps the most probable question is whether human beings will conquer death at some point.
The ability to replicate physical aspects such as through virtual online immersive experiences raises the possibility of transferring the same applications in the real world. Look at nanotechnology and how it breaks down materials to a point of manipulating them by equipping them with new traits. That’s why water-repellent and self-healing paints become a reality. Alternatively, the manipulation enables the creation of new devices and products, such as graphene, the thinnest compound known to mankind.
Gene editing continues to generate controversies as opponents argue it effectively alters normal human functioning. Thus far, only 29 countries practice and legalise the farming of Genetically Modified Foods (GMO). The Human Genome Project provides a basis for DNA understanding of changing of human genes.
Imagine living in a world where hereditary factors can be totally eliminated. Would that be the pinnacle of human freedom and autonomy? Unborn children can be prevented from diseases and plants are made resistant to pests and disease.
That’s digital editing and the limitless opportunities it offers moving forward. Expect scientists to explore and push this field further.