30 Jan Top technology trends for 2020

A new decade has begun and your entrepreneur side is flourishing more than ever.

You are a serial … not a killer, but a serial entrepreneur. Full of ideas, sometimes so many, that in times you don’t know which one to kick off first. 

You are in the brainstorming phase, using your divergent thinking, talking to your colleagues, your fellow company members, your friends, your teammates. But one thing you do have clear, you want to innovate.

To help you inspire, diverge and converge into that visionary idea that is wondering inside your head is that we put together this post of technological innovation trends for 2020. Without any further ado, here we go!

Hyper Automation

How to automatiza tasks that are done by a human? That is hyperautomation’s mission. 

There is no such thing as a single technology that can replace a human being, but throughout the combination of different advanced technologies such us robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, intelligent business management software (iBPMS) and digital twins (DTO), it is in fact possible to automate tasks that were once done by a human while doing them more effective.

Even though this trend is far from new, it is inherent in the sole purpose of software, reaching a sophistication degree like never before and making an everlasting impact in the industry thanks to today’s combined advances in technology.

If your startup or company is thinking about optimizing current processes into making them more efficient, you have found yourself in a great moment in time. The market value of automation is expected to be worth USD 300 billions by 2025.

Multi experience

It is no secret that users are demanding new experiences. A mobile app just doesn’t cut it any more.

Forget about the concept of a single computer as the point of interaction and think about experiences that involve, multiple computers, multiple sensors, multi touch touchscreens, augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, voice and robots. Multiple combinations of this technologies will create an experience for your users that will become unique and memorable.

If you are a developer, keep in mind multi experience development platforms (MXDP). According to Gartner, by 2023, more than 25% of enterprise apps will be developed and/or executed through a MXDP.

Use this demand in your favor and think creatively, how can you design a multi sensorial experience for your customers.

Democratization

Learning how to develop computer software programs can take years of training, even more to develop or learn how to utilize advanced software that can help solve today’s complex world problems.

All of this is changing, thanks to good practices in software engineering, open source software and its inherent values and purpose, and artificial intelligence.

We found ourselves today in a world where it is easy to gain access to technical and/or business knowledge, without the need to invest time and other resources in extensive training.

Advanced technological solutions are being built into components that are easily re utilized as commodities. This enables a common citizen to acquire a software that is already designed with artificial intelligence and be able to utilize it without the need to possess specific technical knowledge, therefore obtaining quality results that were impossible otherwise.

Have you thought about how your startup can make technologies more accessible for everyone?

Augmented humans

What can you do to augment the physical or cognitive abilities of human beings together with the use of technology?

If your company or startup belongs to the health industry, you could think in implanting technology inside or over the human body to augment its physical capabilities. For instance, you could design a wearable (technology that is worn) for adults and older people that could prevent accidental falls or bumps. In retail, this technology is used to increase the productivity of the workforce.

To get your creativity started, keep in mind that that physical abilities augmentation is classified in 4 categories: sensorial augmentation (vision, ears, perception), appendixes (exoskeletons, prosthetics, that enhance biological functions), cerebral (implants to treat ataques) and genetic (genetic somatic and cellular therapy).

On the other hand, the increase of cognitive abilities is focused on enabling humans to think and make better decisions.

Think creatively, how can you increase humans abilities to learn and make better decisions through the use of information and applications?

Even though this trend collides with ethical dilemmas and cultural issues to say the least, it is fascinating to think that it might be the next step in human evolution … and augmented evolution

Oh, and by the way, the market value of human augmentation is expected to be worth 3 million USD by 2023.

Transparency and traceability

With the mass adoption of artificial intelligence, machine learning and hyper automation taking smarter decisions for humans, it has come the time to govern and properly log artificial intelligence’s actions, with the purpose of making it more transparent and fair.

This trend is focused on six key elements of trust: ethics, integrity, openness, responsibility, competency and consistency.

Blockchain could be a technology that sheds light into the transparency and traceability of AI, have you thought about it?

Edge Computing

Cloud computing has disrupted the way we operate today, but this centralized model is no longer the only alternative available.

The edge computing is a distributed model that has come a long way throughout the years, and is expected to continue to grow ever further.

This model aims to distribute the logic that is traditionally centralized in cloud services into smart devices at the edge of the network (also called nodes), therefore gaining its name “Edge Computing. It’s main purpose is to minimize communication latency, moving information processing and analysis closer to the source.  

What is also interesting about it, is that it not only moves information closer to the source, but also part of the application’s logic.

With a market value estimated at 28.84 billion USD by 2025  by Grand View Research, together with Gartner estimating that 50% of enterprise information will be generated in these types of models by 2022, the edge computing is without a doubt, an industry that represents a tremendous opportunity that shouldn’t be neglected.

Have you grout about how your company or startup can apply edge computing to disrupt the world with IoT experiences? Or even better, how to apply it to smart cities?

If you want to know more information about this trend, we invite you to read our latest blog post about edge computing: EDGE COMPUTING, THE FUTURE OF DATA PROCESSING IS HERE.

Distributed cloud

Nobody said that there was only one cloud did they?

Look on the bright side. The era of the centralized cloud is shifting towards decentralized clouds. Providers of public services in centralized data centers are migrating towards new distributed centers that remain under their domain of control.

The vendor is still responsible for the architecture, delivery, operations, governance and service updates. 

This model presents several advantages. First, data centers can be located anywhere in the world, and not necessarily in a single location. This translates into better response times and lower communication latency, thanks to the data center being closer to the user. 

Furthermore it eases legal and security challenges that represent having all data centralized in a single DataCenter in one country. You can read more information about data sovereignty here. 

Autonomous robots

Latin America isn’t quite used to this trend, but for EEUU or other advanced countries, it is becoming more common to interact publicly with autonomous robots, drones, ships or any other smart autonomous device.

Their level of independence varies from semi to full autonomy, and their domain of operation might be terrestrial, maritime or aerial.

Have you seen Domino’s autonomous pizza delivery robots?

The global market of autonomous robots is expected to grow to 64.08 billion USD by 2026, according to Business Wire. Even more, the segment that presented more growth within the industry is the Unmanaged Aerial Vehicles (UAV) aka drones.

Have you thought about designing or using an autonomous drone to solve a repetitive task that humans do inefficiently? Applications are truly unlimited. 

Blockchain 

The Blockchain is a decentralized database that allows unknown parties to do transactions directly without es third party intermediaries in a safe, trusted, reliable and transparent way. This is in fact the technology that powers well known cryptocurrencies such us Bitcoin.

You can even implement smart contracts that run in the blockchain and eliminate the need of third parties judging that the contract is in fact fulfilled. Everything is done automatically in a secure, trusted and transparent way for all parties.

Even though this technology has the power to transform industries and the global economy, it is still immature for the enterprise sector due to interoperability and scalability problems.

Blockchain is being utilized in experimental smaller scale projects and according to Gartner, it is expected to be fully scalable to the enterprise sector by year 2023.

Does your job involve doing contracts on a daily basis? Have you thought about how to digitize them and transform them into smart contracts using blockchain in order to guarantee their fulfillment? Sounds quite interesting, doesn’t it!?

You can read more information about blockchain technology in our blog post Trust in the Blockchain, everything you need to know about this new technology

AI Security

Cyber attacks are becoming more and more complex and are occurring more frequently than ever in the past years. But there’s good news, artificial intelligence is helping companies be better prepared for these threats.

Cyber security firms are training AI systems to detect viruses and malware, utilizing complex algorithms that can recognize malicious patterns in the software, to then isolate them from the system.

Artificial intelligence is utilized to prevent not only viruses or malware but also any kind of suspicious activity, such us suspicious login attempts. In these cases, the authentication process has been redesigned to be completely dynamic enabling the software to make smarter decisions in real time that are unpredictable to hackers.

Fortune Business Insights forecasts that the market of cyber security is expected to be worth 289.8 billion USD by 2026, with a CAGR of 10.6%.

Imagine how cool it would be for a startup to apply AI to prevent phishing attacks!

The force lies within you

Wow! That was surely a lot to digest. We hope that this trends have been of inspiration for your company or startup, and that this 2020 you start disrupting the industry paving your way to success.

Remember to consider us your partner through your entrepreneurial journey. We know it’s not easy out there, you can count on us.