From velocity to acceleration

I listed the top tech trends of 2019 and someone commented: But aren’t these the top trends of 2017-18 too? He was right. There is really no new trend anymore, but it’s just that all the old trends are picking up pace and converging. In fact talking of Digital Transformation, one CEO quipped: Really? Wasn’t IT always about transformation? Isn’t everything in IT digital?

In 1982, an American Coke-vending became the first Internet-connected appliance even though the term Internet of Things was coined at the turn of the century. Today there are more IoT devices than there are people. There are wearable IoTs and Industrial IoTs. They are everywhere, but by one upper estimate, there may be 500 billion of them by 2030. That means the current data explosion will be further supersized.

3D printing has been around for ages and can do more and more things with each passing day. When it reaches peak industrial scale, we’ll have smart factories all over and usher in Industry 4.0. Add Smart Homes with Smart Schools Homes and cities will get much smarter. Similarly the concept of Artificial Intelligence has been around for ages, but the applications in industry are increasing exponentially. There’s still dispute on what exactly AI is and how it is being applied, though Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing are marching forward and there’s no doubt about that at least.

Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality are getting more widespread and their applications encompassing greater number industries, like gaming, films, architecture, medical industry, training, education etc. Cybersecurity is just the latest term for something that most common consumers associated with the anti-virus industry, though of course there are more nuances to that.

All this is tough on the workforce—We all have to keep updating our skill levels. There’s a scare that AI may take away jobs, though it may end up creating many more job types in the end. Professions get redundant, but many more come in their place. The result today is that companies may well pick someone with the wrong degree and right skill over one with the right degree and wrong skill.

Maybe there’s only one trend of the last year, current year and next year. Digital Acceleration. The velocity was always there, but things just are really picking up a sizzling pace off late. That’s why the number of startups and unicorns are simply mushrooming, growing even more rapidly. It’s a great time to be alive as the IT industry is looking at total global domination. With that note, let’s see what the 2020s have in store for us.