The Future is Now: An Early Look at 2017 Tech Trends (Part 1)
As the 2016 Tech is almost complete and in the books, and companies are steadfastly working on their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year to strategically place their organization ahead of the competition, it’s never too early to look at the trends which are taking shape for 2017. However, before outlining the specific trends, we needed to find out if companies see the trends as worthy of future investment. The answer is a resounding “Yes”.
Per the Market Research firm Gartner, companies worldwide will spend $3.5 trillion on IT in 2017, with the largest expenditure to be in software and services, as they all hurry to buy their tech via cloud computing, where technology is hosted in the company’s data center and delivered as a service over the internet. In fact, while software spending has increased 6% this year on average, 2017 is predicted to increase another whopping 7.2%. This clearly means that tens of billions of dollars are out there to apply to the new trends of the future.
All industries are influenced by trends. This is especially true in Technology, as past trends have most likely, already run their course and are now obsolete. So, the trends of today and next year are going to become the mainstream in business 5 years from now. Gartner Research has recently released its list of emerging tech trends for 2017, and it encompasses three main themes: Intelligent, Digital, and Mesh. In this article, we will describe the trends which fall into the ‘Intelligent’ theme category, as described by David Cearley, V.P. and Gartner Fellow, at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2016 in Orlando, Florida this past October:
Three Trends in Intelligent Tech to Watch for in 2017
Artificial Intelligence and machine have grown exponentially and will increasingly augment and extend virtually every technology enabled service, thing or application. Creating intelligent systems that learn, adapt and act autonomously rather than following pre-programmed directions will be the main battleground for technology vendors for the next 5 years!
Trend #1: AI and Advanced Machine Learning
AI and machine learning (ML), which include technologies such as deep learning, neural networks and natural-language processing, can also encompass more advanced systems that understand, learn, predict, adapt and potentially operate autonomously. Systems can learn and change future behavior, leading to the creation of more intelligent devices and programs. Organizations seeking to drive digital innovation with this trend should evaluate several business scenarios in which AI and machine learning could drive clear and specific business value and consider experimenting with one or two high-impact scenarios
Trend #2: Intelligent Apps
Intelligent apps, which include technologies like virtual personal assistants (VPAs), have the potential to transform the workplace by making everyday tasks easier (prioritizing emails) and its users more effective (highlighting important content and interactions). Using AI, technology providers will focus on three areas — advanced analytics, AI-powered and increasingly autonomous business processes and AI-powered immersive, conversational and continuous interfaces. By 2018, Gartner expects most of the world’s largest 200 companies to exploit intelligent apps and utilize the full toolkit of big data and analytics tools to refine their offers and improve customer experience.
Trend #3: Intelligent Things
New intelligent things generally fall into three categories: robots, drones and autonomous vehicles. Each of these areas will evolve to impact a larger segment of the market and support a new phase of digital business but these represent only one facet of intelligent things. Existing things including IoT devices will become intelligent things delivering the power of AI enabled systems everywhere including the home, office, factory floor, and medical facility. As intelligent things evolve and become more popular, they will shift from a stand-alone to a collaborative model in which intelligent things communicate with one another and act in concert to accomplish tasks.
In our next blog, we will further discuss the 2017 trends in Tech as described by Gartner, as well as the trends in our local Chicago area market from CultureFit’s Staffing Director and Principle Partner Eric Edelsberg. For more information on the trends discussed above, or if you are an IT expert looking to advance your career, talk to one of our IT Staffing Professionals at CultureFit.
