e-Zest; a global IT services company specialized in digital transformation with digital, analytics, cloud, enterprise mobility; has released the Technology Trends report that could disrupt businesses and revolutionize enterprise technology in the next 18-24 months. The report describes how companies presently must sift through the hype surrounding these technologies and find solutions offering real potential.
The 2017 report outlines emerging technologies that blend science and applied technologies that offer true potential to harness ongoing technology disruption. e-Zest's annual Tech Trends embodies insights from the research team of e-Zest and global network of e-Zest professionals that helps envision current and future priorities; roadmaps and investments for startups, organizations and venture capitalists.
As per the report, here are some key trends that will transform the business landscape in 2018 and beyond:
AI and intelligent things will sharpen the ability to enhance decision making, reinvent business models and ecosystems, and remake the customer experience. The likes of IBM Watson, Salesforce Einstein, SAP Leonardo and other major companies launching embedded AI right into their platforms is a sign of what is in store.
Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies will represent more than half of worldwide blockchain global business value-add by 2023. By allowing parties to exchange commerce transactions by being independent of individual applications, blockchain holds many potential applications in sectors like finance, government, supply chain and more. However, many blockchain technologies are latent and largely unregulated and require skills to apply it rightly.
2018 will demand many companies to realize Digital Commerce is imperative in today's business market. Websites that support visual and voice search will increase digital commerce revenue. As voice-based search queries grow as a search type, it will accelerate mobile browser and mobile app-based transactions on many e-commerce sites. The top digital giants like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook’s investments in AI and machine learning is evident in how quickly visual and voice-search technologies will accelerate in the next few years.
IoT makes its way to the top with billions of ‘Things’ on the internet today. However, it isn't just about the IoT, these three key trends are what makes it IoT irresistible — the analytics, edge computing, and 5G processing - all driven by the IoT at their core. With IDC predicting up to 40% of all computing to happen at the edge in a couple of years, by 2020, IoT technology will be in almost all electronics for new product designs. IoT-enabled products with smartphone activation will emerge at the beginning of 2019.
AR and VR combined with conversational platforms will emerge giving rise to the battles for smartphone-based AR and MR in 2018 with a spectrum that includes head-mounted displays (HMD) for AR or VR, as well as the smartphone- and tablet-based AR.
Given the omnipresence of mobile devices, Apple’s release of ARkit and iPhone X, Google’s Tango and ARCore, and the availability of cross-platform AR software development kits such as Wikitude, smartphone-based AR and MR will continue to grow exponentially in 2018.
As Augmented reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and mixed reality change the way people interact with the digital world, vendors will compete to deliver this as a business model. Mixed reality will emerge as an immersive experience of choice where users interact with digital and real-world objects with a presence in physical worlds. Combine this with conversational platforms, and a fundamental shift in the user experience will emerge to an invisible and immersive experience giving rise to the smartphone-based AR and MR.
As user attention shifts from individual apps on mobile devices to post-app technologies such as bots and chatbots, the impact will be seen in most areas where there is communication between humans. This will increase employee or customer engagement as they can quickly automate tasks to free up the workforce for more routine work when deployed as chatbots or virtual assistants.
Edge computing in which information processing, content collection and delivery are placed closer to the sources involves user/things or edge of the networking that favors distributed models. For enterprises, particularly for those with significant IoT elements, a good starting point could be using edge-specific networking capabilities. When implemented together with cloud, edge computing offers a delivery style that allows for executions of disconnected aspects of cloud service.
"These trends and its impact go beyond the CIOs and IT department, there are factors changing every aspect of business”, said Devendra Deshmukh, CEO and Founder, e-Zest, while expressing his thoughts on emerging technologies. Since these technologies will have huge implications for the enterprise as a whole, we are required to invest in R&D to be ahead of the curve. We work with fortune 500 companies as niche digital tech partner, develop a strategy for prioritizing their investments and harnessing these new technologies."
"Leaders understand that to remain relevant, they will need to develop a quick innovation response to these disruptive forces”, said Mandar Thosar, VP of Marketing, e-Zest. “Hence it is extremely important that we do research to transcend the noise and excitement and translate the potential of emerging technologies into a well-defined set of priorities with tangible business impact."
These technology trends will create a foundation for the next generation of digital business models and ecosystems, driving the significant potential for disruption and digital initiatives through 2025.