Technology trends in 2020 will come with both unfathomable innovation and intricate connectivity, drawing the social responsibility of businesses to respect the ethical lines of the consumer data breach. According to a PwC report, AI Products by 2030 will contribute over $15.7 trillion to the global economy.
In 2020, technologies will move toward the mainstream and begin impacting daily life. The next generation of wireless network, 5G, will begin to take hold, for example, and may work as a catalyst for other things like smart cities and smarter mobile and wearable devices. Augmented reality eyewear, which places digital content in the context of the real world, will begin to appear, and may use fast 5G connections to the cloud to identify people and things for us. The role of AI will increase in business, and the public will become more aware of it. Here are some of our top five tech trends we expect to see in 2020 and beyond.
1) Automation 2020: Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation takes applications for task automation to the next level. It enables the application of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, to increasingly automate processes and augment human requirements.
In some cases, it can mean the creation of a digital twin of the organisation – allowing visualisation of how functions, processes and key performance indicators interact to drive value.
But as no single tool can replace humans, hyperautomation will involve a combination of elements. Such tools include robotic process automation and intelligent business management software.
2) More Autonomous Things
Autonomous things, which include drones, robots, ships and appliances, exploit AI to perform tasks traditionally undertaken by humans. This technology operates on a spectrum of intelligence ranging from semiautonomous to fully autonomous and across a variety of environments including air, sea and land.
While currently, autonomous things mainly exist in controlled environments, such as warehouses, they will evolve to include open public spaces. Autonomous things will also move from standalone to collaborative swarms – such as the drone swarms used during the Winter Olympic Games in 2018.
3) 5G will Become Meaningful
For Brits, 5G is technically here already, with multiple networks offering the ultrafast mobile standard in denser urban areas. But there are few devices that support the new standard yet – and fewer still that are acceptable to the gadget-obsessed early adopters who would otherwise be first on board, since the flagship devices from manufacturers such as Samsung, Google and Apple continue to be 4G only. That will change this tear, when you can expect hardware like the Pixel 5, iPhone 12 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S11 to support the faster connections.
4) Digital Wellbeing on the Rise
Both Apple and Google launched their screen time controls in 2018, and upgraded them this year. Ross Sleight, chief strategy officer at tech accelerator Somo, thinks this trend will continue – and will start to impact on regulation. “Many people are now very aware of their addictive habits and are trying to disengage,” he says. “A shared responsibility for wellbeing falls on to each one of us: the companies designing applications and user interfaces that play on our psychology, but also on policy makers.” How that would look in practice is likely to be the result of years of legal wrangling – but watch the proposals bubble up over the next year.
5) The next iPhone could have four rear cameras
The smartphone industry seems to be following the trend set by Gillette and one-upping itself on an annual basis. Other phones already have four cameras, so why not Apple? The company would have a good reason for adding another lens: while the iPhone 11 Pro is perhaps the best smartphone camera on the market, it falls far short in one specific area, with just a 2x optical zoom at the highest level. So, a bigger zoom lens would be well received by any users who like shooting big things far away or small things nearby.
What other trends will define this year? How will our relationship to technology change—again? Whatever happens, we know it’ll be exciting!
