2019 marked the beginning of 5G rollouts, new advances in AI, and the importance of data, but now we’re looking ahead to the next decade, which experts say will bring about a digital transformation to the global economy.
Researchers, telecommunication companies and other tech firms have long said digital transformation is imminent, but 2020 should be the year when technological advances bring us over that hump and truly transform the world.
According to research firm IDC – which published in late October a report detailing 10 technology predictions for the next few years – the products and services from digitally transformed enterprises will account for more than half of the global economy’s GDP.
“As more than half the global economy turns digital by 2023, a new species of enterprise will be required to compete and thrive,” said IDC Chief Analyst Frank Gens, in the report.
Companies risk being left behind if they don’t budget for the inevitable digital transformation
Per IDC, over half of all IT spending will be driven by digital innovation and digital transformation by 2024. With that increasing budgetary need, companies will shift their day-to-day IT functions to external providers like cloud services providers so more internal resources are dedicated to innovation. This bodes well for managed service providers, as companies continue to outsource their IT needs to stay competitive in this digital age.
Algorithms are becoming smarter, and artificial intelligence will soon be inescapable
According to IDC, at least 90% of all new enterprise apps will be embedded with AI by 2025. By 2024, over half of user interface interactions will use AI-enabled computer vision, speech, natural language processing and augmented or virtual reality. Research firm Gartner said 2020 will see the organizations become increasingly automated and human workers will become even more augmented by AI and machine learning than ever before.
The use of new technologies like AI and the IoT will require transparency and trust
With people becoming more aware of data collection efforts, your organization will want to evaluate how it both gathers, stores and uses that data. New devices tapping into the network, 5G, WiFi6 and the IoT will seemingly open us up to cyber attacks and data collection, so it should be incumbent upon your business to use these technologies in a responsible and secure manner. Although it is improving and becoming an increasingly prevalent co-worker, there are inherent trust issues with AI-based applications, so IDC and Gartner included this topic in their 2020 prediction research, suggesting legislation and the hiring of AI ethics-based executives.
The rise of edge computing
According to IDC, more than half of new enterprise IT deployments will be at the edge by 2023, up from less than 10% today. Further, the number of apps at the edge will increase by an astounding 800%. Gartner estimates that by 2023, there could be more than 20 times as many smart devices at the edge of the network as in conventional IT, empowering the innovation economy to truly tap into the IoT and encourage the development of smart communities and intelligent buildings.
A new era of cloud computing
Enterprises have, in large part, been successful in migrating to the cloud. Now, organizations are shifting their operations from the centralized public cloud to distributed cloud. A key part of providing those services, however, is ensuring connectedness and integration among an enterprise’s many cloud platforms and services. According to IDC, 70% of enterprises by 2020 will have unified VM, Kubernetes and mulitcloud management processes, tools and staff to support management and governance of cloud resources.
These new technologies and advances in others will not only change the world, but the way your business operates and interacts with its customers. This last decade brought with it new and disrupting technologies, and the next decade will continue with that trend.
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