2018 Tech Trends

Innovation Ahead

By Anca Gagiuc on Dec 19, 2017 in Technology

With 2017 drawing to a close, we’ve been thinking about the future. The current year’s tech trends have been big and impactful, with artificial intelligence topping the charts. How about 2018? Most likely, technology is set to focus on the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence and machine learning.

1. The Internet of Things

Pretty much everyone has heard about IoT as it can be found in almost any industry now. You must have noticed that everything is becoming ‘smart’. In your car, at home, in the office, or shopping—there’s smart technology everywhere, ready to collect data and connect to other devices in order to assist you with your tasks. Gartner states that by 2020, a quarter of a billion cars will be hooked up to the internet. No doubt the trend will continue to progress in 2018 and even expand to areas outside of those mentioned above.

2. Artificial Intelligence

Pretty much anywhere you look—tech conferences, development and discussions, AI is at the forefront. And rightly so as it’s no easy thing to have computers able to learn in much the same way as humans do. Behind its extraordinary advancement is the incredible explosion in data—the more data an AI system has, the faster it can learn and the more accurate it becomes. It seems like humanity is on a path without a return alley.

3. Machine Learning

This technology has already swept every platform into its net. All developers want to make life and software more intelligent and advanced. It will replace all those mindless, repetitive and time-consuming tasks, precisely what technology should do. We already have some automated processes, decisions, functions and systems, carried out by algorithms or robots. Machine learning is the next step and ever more industries will be impacted by it—truck drivers, bricklayers, doctors, journalists—no one is ‘safe’.

4. 3D Printing

Related to automation, 3D printing is a major force of disruption for several industries, especially manufacturing. This invention has opened up a world of new possibilities from construction to medicine as these days, the materials for 3D printing can be pretty much anything: plastic, concrete, liquid, metal, chocolate or even human tissue.

5. Blockchains

This technology acts as a decentralized, secure database, which makes it a very practical solution to the problem of storing, authenticating and protecting data. While it’s true that nothing is ever completely ‘hack-proof’, blockchain represents a big step forward from the current data security technology. The main thing about this technology is that the whole chain is self-managed, thus there is no person or organization managing the entire chain. The most prominent example is Bitcoin, which functions on blockchain technology.

6. Immersive Experience

Experiences such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality already change the way humans interact and perceive the world. Besides video games and videos, businesses can use immersive experience to create real-life scenarios and apply them to design, training and visualization processes.

7. Conversational Platforms

Chatbots are transforming how humans interact in the digital world. These are front-end interfaces for companies to communicate with their clients. Currently, companies can embed these bots on their home pages, or they can rely on platforms like Facebook for distribution. The trend will expand across all industries, including hospitality, dining and travel. Customer service, sales and marketing will get a complete overhaul.

8. Autonomous Driving

Self-driving vehicles will be ready to roll next year, but there’s still a long way until they become affordable to individual consumers. In other words, there is still a lot of research to put into this technology. But eventually, this new type of car will take over the conventional ones. Robo-taxis, delivery cars, public transportation means, these will all be driverless in a couple of years.

What would you add to the list?