Gartner lists 35 technologies divided in 5 distinct trends in the 2018 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies-- a list with a focus on the technologies promising to bring a "high degree of competitive advantage" over the next 5 to 10 years.
The list is derived from over 2000 technologies set to blur the lines between human and machines. One such technology is, perhaps obviously, AI, which is set to play a critical role in enabling ubiquitous, always available companies connected into the business ecosystems of the near future.
“Business and technology leaders will continue to face rapidly accelerating technology innovation that will profoundly impact the way they engage with their workforce, collaborate with their partners, and create products and services for their customers,” the analyst says. “CIOs and technology leaders should always be scanning the market along with assessing and piloting emerging technologies to identify new business opportunities with high impact potential and strategic relevance for their business.”
First of the 5 trends of the 2018 Hype Cycle is "democratised" AI-- AI available for the masses, thanks to technologies such as AI Platform as a Services (PaaS), artificial general intelligence, autonomous driving (levels 4 and 5), autonomous mobile robots, conversational AI platform, deep neural nets, flying autonomous vehicles, smart robots and virtual assistants. Democratised AI technologies populate 3 of the 5 sections of the Hype Cycle and some, such as deep neural nets and virtual assistants, will reach mainstream adoption over the next 2-5 years.
Emerging technologies need revolutionary foundations able to provide the volume of data required, advanced compute power and ubiquity-enabling ecosystems. Enter digitalised ecosystems, brought about by blockchain, blockchain for data security, digital twin, IoT platform and knowledge for graphs. Blockchain and IOT have already crossed the peak, and should mature in the next 5-10 years.
Gartner predicts the next decade will see the start of the "transhuman" era-- an age of hackable biology, depending on lifestyle, interests and health needs. One still has to see how society will take to such technologies, which include biochips, biotech (cultured or artificial tissue), brain-computer interface, augmented reality, mixed reality and smart fabrics.
Increasingly human-centric technology brings about transparently immersive experiences able to extend and enable smarter living, work and spaces. Technologies allowing such a trend include 4D printing, connected home, edge AI, self-healing system technology, silicon anode batteries, smart dust, smart workspace and volumetric displays.
The final trend is ubiquitous infrastructure-- an always-on, available and limitless infrastructure environment brought about by the mass adoption of the cloud. 5G, carbon nanotube, deep neural network ASICs, neuromorophic hardware and quantum computing support this trend, and are set to reach the plateau of the Hype Cycle over the next 2-5 years.