New Technologies

• Blockchain

While Bitcoin continues to shake up market analysts, blockchain might have finally found its spot in 2018. According to Gartner, ‘as of February 2018, blockchain was one of most searched terms on the website, a 400% in 12 months.’ While the financial industry would be the first ones to begin employing blockchain, various others from entertainment and healthcare to hospitality wouldn’t be far behind. This shift to blockchain technology wouldn’t obviously happen overnight, but once it find its hold, which might happen in 2018, there would be no turning back.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This year, AI will not just be about automation or predictions. The number of unique use cases will increase at lightning speed and complex algorithms will be required to execute these tasks. Autonomous vehicle will become a mainstream reality. Self-programming techniques have already become powerful enough to make AI develop its own code; providing immense opportunities to programmers for building unimaginable systems. The increased optimization and speed of development in AI has led to its adoption in various industries at breakneck speed, including hi-tech, telecom, automotive, financial service and healthcare, to name a few. This year Artificial Intelligence is anticipated to automate more complex processes, providing forward-looking intelligence and creating business value.

• Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT is the conceptual framework to enable connectivity and embed intelligence in devices. It is expected that in 2018, an increased number of products would be designed and manufactured for home and office, which would be embedded with the computer chips for communicating with mobile devices and wireless networks, offering better user experience. SMEs would see reduced energy costs and enhanced productivity as IoT would be used in most of the offices for improving security, saving energy and reducing costs.

The IoT spending in 2018 globally would continue majorly in manufacturing and consumer IoT mainly with respect to smart homes that include home automation, together with smart and security appliances.

• Chatbots

According to Gartner, ‘more than 50% of enterprises will spend more per year on bots and chatbot creation than traditional mobile app development by 2021’. Gartner has further introduced the term ‘post-app era’ and states that chat bots will revolutionize app development immensely and eventually become the front face of AI. Apps downloaded from app store will become one among many options for customers. Thousands of organizations have already started using the conversational interface, just like how Google and Apple did, to interact proactively with customers.

• Augmented reality (AR)

Augmented reality will be a priority for various businesses this year. Augmented reality in 2018 would move into a new direction, which would bring more number of people into the game. Based on an IDC press release, “The commercial sectors will represent more than 60 percent of AR/VR spending in 2018 and grow to more than 85 percent of the worldwide total in 2021.”

It is obvious that enterprises have understood the potential of AR and it is getting heaps of investment due to its scope in the automotive, telecommunication, medical, manufacturing and marketing fields. It has even gone ahead of VR, which had once been the talk of the town.

• Cyber Security

Last year was not a great year for cyber-security. There were a numbers of prominent cyberattacks and the infamous WannaCry ransomware. In spite of the consistent flow of security patches and updates, the numbers of attacks continue to rise.

Today’s technological driven business environment cannot afford to lose the battle against traditional static system firewalls and virus software. Hence, one of the top investment priorities for 2018 would be cyber security.

Contact us if you need any assistance in driving your digital transformation approach using these latest new technologies.