In today’s fast-paced life, technology has taken the rein of the world and emerged rapidly. The rate at which technology is evolving is almost exponential today. For business organizations, new technology helps to reduce costs, enhance customer experiences, and increase profits.
Nearly 50 billion devices will have internet connectivity by 2030. Below are few tech trends for year 2022.
1- Computing Power/ Smarter Devices
According to Forbes Computing power will continue to explode in 2022. We now have considerably better cloud infrastructure, and many businesses are re-platforming to the cloud.
We are also seeing a push towards better networks – 5G is being rolled out, and 6G is on the horizon. That means even more power in our phones, in our cars, and in our wearable devices.
Growing computer power is enabling us to create smarter devices. We now have intelligent televisions, autonomous cars, and more intelligent robots that can work alongside humans to complete more tasks.
In 2022, we’ll see continued momentum for this smart device explosion, including the introduction of intelligent home robots.
1-Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence is one of the most consistently evolving technologies in the world. Its widespread use symbolizes its potential to provide solutions in multiple industries, from health, security, and education to logistics and information technology.
AI is constantly evolving, and newer applications for this technology continue to spring upon the scene. Today’s most popular AI applications are image and speech recognition, navigation programs, voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, and much more. Other uses for AI include automation in manufacturing, guiding self-driving cars, operating as smart online assistants such as Siri or Google.
Organisations are looking to use AI to analyse customer and business interactions to derive insights and identify triggers. It will help them predict the demand for services such as hospitals or tourism and aid in the improvement of resource allocation for various projects.
Machine Learning (ML) is a part of AI and uses supervised learning to learn new functions. It has seen a massive surge in demand for skilled professionals, making it an attractive trend to watch.
2- Low-code/no-code
Over the past year or so, low-code/no-code platforms have become well established. They allow users to easily prototype, iterate and customize applications with little to no experience, making software development happen faster and at a fraction of the cost. They can also serve as an accelerator for large-scale digital transformation projects. These days, many apps are developed by what we call the “iGeneration” — a tech-native cohort of professionals that is well versed in basic programming skills and has an appetite to innovate and create digital tools outside their domain expertise.
Now that this technology is widely available and its benefits have been established, organizations need to make the necessary cultural shift. But this move from a top-down to a bottom-up approach is easier said than done. The democratization of technology changes the dynamics of your organization. Established hierarchies are altered as the balance shifts toward greater agility and cross-functional collaboration. Business and IT functions need to come closer together. While the C-suite needs to get comfortable translating business demands into digital requirements, technology leaders need to demonstrate that their agenda delivers tangible business outcomes. To benefit from the potential of low-code/no-code technology, organizational and cultural change now needs to follow suit with technological advancements.
3 -Quantum Computing
The trend of quantum computing enables machines to handle information in a fundamentally different way from traditional computers. Quantum computing will potentially give us computing power that is a trillion times more powerful than what we get from today’s advanced supercomputers.
Quantum Computing is a type of computing that focuses on developing computer technology based on the principles of quantum theory. This theory explains the behavior of energy and materials on atomic and subatomic levels. In other words, it performs calculations based on the probability of an object’s state before measurement instead of just 0’s and 1’s.
Quantum Computing can easily query, analyse and take action based on given data, regardless of the source. It played a major role in preventing COVID-19 and developing new vaccines. These computers are exponentially faster than normal computers.
Quantum computers could fundamentally change how we approach problems like logistics, portfolio management, and drug innovations.
4- Metaverse
Facebook’s name change to Meta put a spotlight on the metaverse, described as the next evolution in social connectivity.
The metaverse is a virtual, three-dimensional space that people can log into as avatars to socialize, work, shop, collaborate, or play games together.
Companies are investing in novel technologies to bring the metaverse to life, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). For example, VR headsets enable people to explore and immerse themselves in digital worlds and share experiences.
Metaverse real estate sales reached $501 million last year and have already topped $85 million this year, according to MetaMetric Solutions. Thanks to blockchain technology, people can own these virtual assets or even make in-game purchases.
Forward-looking businesses are already creating spaces in the metaverse — virtual worlds where users come together via avatars to interact with each other and their surroundings. Some even enable its citizens to own virtual assets on the blockchain and trade these publicly as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Even as the technology for the metaverse is being built, businesses are gearing up for a radical transformation.
5- 3D Printing
Related to increasing automation, the invention of 3D printing is disrupting manufacturing, and other industries, in many positive ways. In traditional (subtractive) manufacturing, objects are cut or hollowed out of material, such as metal, using something like a cutting tool. But in 3D printing (also known as additive manufacturing), the object is created by laying down, or adding, layers of material. The materials used in 3D printing can be pretty much anything: plastic, metal, concrete, liquid, powder, even chocolate or human tissue!
With 3D printing, far more complex shapes can be created than in traditional manufacturing – and using less material, too. It also allows for much greater customisation of products, without worrying about economies of scale.
6- Cybersecurity with AI
Increase in cyberattacks, email phishing scams, and ransomware is forcing cybersecurity firms to search for tech solutions to address the vulnerabilities. Criminals are hacking individuals’ accounts, countries’ critical infrastructure, and businesses of all sizes, causing millions of dollars in losses.
Workplace digitization and remote working in response to the COVID-19 virus made it a priority to retrain employees on online safety to reduce data breaches and losses.
Businesses are also adopting new cybersecurity technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), to monitor and guard networks against hackers in real-time rather than responding to the threat after the damage is already done.
7- Edge Computing
The demand for edge computing devices is steadily growing due to the large volumes of data that enterprises produce and need to analyze. today, millions of data points are collecting user information from various sources such as social media, websites, emails, and web searches. As the amount of data collected increases exponentially, other technologies like cloud computing fall short in several situations.
Till a decade back, Cloud Computing was one of the fastest-growing technologies. However, it has become fairly mainstream, with the market dominated by major players such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
As more organizations adopted Cloud Computing, they found several limitations in the technology. Edge Computing helps to bypass the latency that Cloud Computing causes and helps organizations to get data into a data center for processing. It can exist ‘on edge’, in the sense that it is closer to where the data processing will ultimately take place. Edge Computing is used to process time-sensitive data in far-off locations with limited or no connectivity.
8-Blockchain Technology
Blockchain, an innovative breed of distributed ledger, enables companies to track a transaction and do business with unverified parties — even without the assistance of financial institutions. This new capability significantly lessens business conflicts; it also adds other benefits such as append-only data structure, transparency, security, immutability, and decentralization.
Blockchain technology has enjoyed massive adoption and continues to disrupt many industries, from gaming and governance to finance. According to the International Data Corporation, companies will spend almost $6.6 billion on blockchain solutions in 2021, a 50 percent increase from the previous year. This number is expected to grow beyond $15 billion in 2024. With the new rise of NFTs and the metaverse, blockchain will become more important in 2022.
9- NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) with AI
NFTs are digital assets that are transforming the online market, making it possible to revalue products or goods that, until now, had circulated on the network for free.
NFTs, blockchain-based registries show digital ownership of different items such as art, collectibles, or music, they allow creators to access new technologically sophisticated revenue streams and interact with users and fans in innovative ways.
In addition, one of the big trends this year will be the use of Artificial Intelligence for the creation of NFTs. Models such as GAN’s (Generative Adversarial Networks) are capable of generating new content once they have been trained with the right dataset. These networks can generate unique and exclusive works of art, which makes them very attractive within the field of NFT’s.
9- Genomics
The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to two scientists, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna, for their work developing a method for genome editing. Genomics, gene editing, and synthetic biology are a top trend of 2022 because these advancements can help us modify crops, cure, and eradicate diseases, develop new vaccines like the COVID-19 shot, and other medical and biological breakthroughs.
Nanotechnology will also allow us to give materials new attributes by manipulating them on a subatomic level, so we can create things like bendable screens, better batteries, water-repellent, self-cleaning fabrics, and even self-repairing paint this year.
References:
https://www.itproportal.com/features/top-10-essential-technology-trends-you-must-follow-in-2022/
Alia Noor (FCMA, CIMA, MBA, GCC VAT Comp Dip, Oxford fintech programme, COSO Framework)
Associate PartnerAhmad Alagbari Chartered Accountants