As employers, employees and entrepreneurs turn to the internet; the shift has sparked an unprecedented demand for fast-evolving technological solutions. Given the high stakes in 2021 and the technological trends that rose to the occasion, anyone interested in tech knows how quickly the latest tools can soon become obsolete.
So naturally, an update to last year's emerging technology trends is in order. Unlike the 2020 trends, which were solely focused on navigating the pandemic, this time, the list of emerging technology trends highlights strategic and innovative developments. These tech solutions are geared toward delivering digitalization, growth, and efficiency.
As expected, not every technology to watch in 2021 lived up to expectations since predictions are not always accurate. However, some of these technologies also changed lives in big ways during the year. Chief among them was the drug development revolution, mainly due to the messenger RNA vaccines and advanced covid-19 testing.
This technology has been under development for over 20 years. However, the outbreak of the pandemic marked a race to create viable vaccines. The breakthrough for messenger RNA vaccines came in late December 2020. At this point, the pandemic claimed over 1.5 million lives worldwide. But the approval of the vaccines in the US marked the eventual end of the pandemic.
The technology that backed these new covid vaccines has never seen therapeutic use, and it has the potential to transform medicine. Some of the possibilities include vaccines for diverse infectious diseases such as malaria.
But all the fuss about vaccines shouldn't prevent us from noticing the industry-wide ripples caused by other technologies. Thus, here are the technological trends to watch for the year 2022 and beyond.
Sustainable Energy Solutions
The only energy source to record increased usage during the pandemic was renewable energy. To be more precise, the use of renewable energy in the US rose by 40% ten-week after the lockdown started. Globally, the narrative was more of the same, with non-renewable energy consumption reducing as companies closed and workers remained indoors, resulting in an 8% decrease in emissions. Consequently, many predict an increased investment directed toward energy generation from renewable resources in the years to come. Per the estimations of The International Energy Agency (IEA), 2020 saw a 40% surge in energy generation from renewable sources.
Customer Data Platforms (CDP)
The Customer Data Platform Industry Update reports show that the industry has bounced back after a dip in 2020. CDP Company enjoyed expansion in the first two quarters of 2021. The sector increased from 131 to 151 vendors, added over 1200 workers, and secured about $550 million in investor funds. This growth comes as a fresh breath in an industry that went through a brief slump during the onset of the covid-19 pandemic over a year ago, per the CDP Institute.
Cloud-Native Platform (CNPs)
Contemporary office-based enterprise is making way for hybrid and more remote arrangements. Consequently, data infrastructure has to adjust to the geographically distributed nature of the present and future workplace. The adjustment makes distributed infrastructure and services a necessity, which are best provided in the cloud. Hence, making it highly valuable in several digital operations and even in the latest mobile app development trends.
Internet of Behaviors (IoB)
Due to the increased digitization of the world, businesses and organizations continue to rely more on information and data as key to success. One essential aspect of customer data is the internet of behavior, or IoB for short. It provides valuable insight into consumer behavior. To remain competitive and maintain an edge over emerging challenges, organizations can leverage IoB through data collection and analysis to improve customer interactions, understand consumer preferences, and purchasing decisions.
Cyber Security Mesh
The ever-increasing incidents of cyber-attacks show that the current standards of cyber security have several pitfalls and potholes. The situation is even worse as more people work from and use their own devices to access company infrastructure. Cyber Security Mesh presents a holistic method for addressing security pitfalls and holes associated with end-users and devices located outside network walls.
Decision Intelligence (DI)
Although it's been around for a while, Decision Intelligence (DI) is still relatively new in IT. This field emerged in 2012 after the research of Mark Zandari and Dr. Lorien Pratt. It is a technology designed to help companies and business leaders to understand the possible outcomes of a decision before making a move. It differs from artificial intelligence in that DI allows the commercial use of AI to achieve better profit and expansion.
Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation is a vital tool for future-proof organizations. It involves AI-enabled robotic processes but goes way beyond RPA to include other digital technologies like IoT to improve operation at every level of the business as well as customer satisfaction. Leveraging intelligent automation, coupled with the latest artificial intelligence technologies, raises the bar by connecting processes, people, and products to deliver hyperautomation. This technology aims to rapidly determine, analyze, and automate as many processes as necessary to achieve business resilience and increase growth.
Privacy-Enhancing Computation (PEC)
This trend is part of the "people centricity" category and comprises three technologies all meant to safeguard data while it is with users. PEC involves these three main aspects:
A safe environment for the processing and analysis of sensitive data. A decentralized approach to data processing and analytics. Data encryption and algorithms always precede processing and analysis of data.
Smart Work from Home Technologies
Before the pandemic hit, most people believed that organizations could not innovate in a dispersed work environment. If anything, 2020 proved this belief wrong as businesses looked for viable ways to adjust with sustainable and large-scale work-from-home solutions. More than one year later, successfully adapted companies have reached higher levels of competitiveness in the post-pandemic marketplace.
Source_ forbes.com
