Looking back on the past decade, it’s mind-blowing to see how technology has change the world – and from the business realm to the social sphere, nothing is quite the same as it once was. With keeping in contact now as simple as the click of a button and home technology available at your fingertips, even when you’re out and about, it seems that there is little that tech can’t do for us in this day and age – and any issue you can think of in your day to day life, the likelihood is that the brains behind some of the world’s most revolutionary tech firms have already thought of a solution.
As we make our way into a new decade, it’s exciting – and perhaps a little scary, in some ways – to think how different the landscape could look by then. And, with tech trends evolving and developing every single day, it’s tricky to predict where we might be ten years from now.
One thing we do know, though, is that some new tech trends are already beginning to make waves this year – and, with a whole host more on the horizon, 2020 could be a big twelve months for the industry.
So, if you’re eager to stay ahead of the game – whether it’s to keep your personal tech in check or to ensure your business remains on top – then read on, because these five tech trends are set to be huge – and by 2021, we’ll wonder how we ever lived without them.
VPNs
Virtual Private Networks – like the ones you can find here – have gone mainstream in recent years, and with good reason. Offering privacy and protection from online threats, they also afford the user anonymity. Over £30 million is spent on VPN technology each and every year worldwide, and with developments continuing to be made at a rapid pace, there is every reason to expect that number to increase even further in 2020.
Currently, all traffic on the internet is treated equally, but in recent years, internet giants have lobbied hard to end this – making way instead for a tiered internet based around a ‘pay to play’ principle. Even so, this is unlikely to be something that is passed without a fight. VPNs improve download speed and offer the kind of anonymity that will defeat online segmentation, keeping the internet the free-for-all it has always been – and always should remain.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence has become indispensable to businesses in recent years, enabling them to increase customer engagement, boost productivity and much more. Over 60% of companies are thought to have integrated AI into their practices, allowing them to drive digital transformation and accelerate results to levels that would have previously been unseen in their sectors.
In 2020 and beyond, we can expert to start seeing AI tech built into both enterprise and consumer tech and from Apple to Amazon, it’s only a matter of time. Many of these tech giants have already acquired AI start-up firms to help bring their vision to life – but before it can be fully rolled out, a number of issues will need to be addressed and ironed out – from preventing misuse via ‘deepfakes’ to errors with facial recognition.
5G
The fifth-generation wireless technology for digital cellular networks has already begun its ascent into mainstream use, and virtually every telecommunications service provider in the world has started to deploy antennas. Smarter, faster and more efficient than its predecessor, 4G, it promises mobile data speeds that easily outdo those that are currently available. They are thought to be as much as 100 times faster, in fact – giving it the potential to wipe out 4G entirely within the next two years. This is even more likely thanks to the rapidly increasing number of devices logging onto our internet around the world – at a rate that 4G will soon no longer be able to cope with.
One thing is for certain; these top trends are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the technological developments we can expect to see in 2020, and from Intel to Multicloud, some impressive things are in store for us over the next twelve months.
Set to make our lives easier than ever before, things could look very different by the time we reach 2021 – but with numerous new concepts in the making in the background every day, it could be something else to revolutionise the modern world entirely. Watch this space!
