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Insight to the Best and Worst Tech Trends of 2018 Tech products may not always gain popularity and can be a failure as well here are the most talked about good and bad trends of the year

By Sumit Peer

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2018 has been a year of upheaval and growth in the tech industry. A number of changes took place, some of them for good and some of them for worse. It is understandable that with technical growth there might be some leaps and bounds which might be in the wrong directions.

These are some of the worst tech trends which took place in the year 2018 and in contrast, some of the best tech trends which helped the tech industry in the same year:

1. Robocalls: Automated Irritation

The advantages of NLP took a wrong turn when the already irritated calls from the sales companies now turned into automated calls. The organizations may have thought that it would be highly cost-effective to replace people with automated voice systems but this may have led to a significant decline in the organization's image and furthermore, loss of the customer base.

2. The Cryptocurrency Bubble

In the midst of 2018, cryptocurrency seemed to be something out of the dream with people (mostly "techies") investing in and out throughout the entire spectrum of the cryptocurrency wave. With bitcoin leading the wave, it seemed like cryptocurrency was about to change a whole lot of paradigms is not just the financial but also the tech industry. This, however, turned out to be a bubble and towards the end of 2018 the downfall o the cryptocurrencies was high and dry, leaving many the same way.

3. Apple Watch Walkie Talkie

Apple's signature move of keeping it elite did not turn out too well for the Apple watch push talk feature. Customers may not have taken so much liking to the "only talk to fellow apple watches" as much as they may have with the iMessage service.

4. Automated Systems for Warfare

Not so much as worse but more towards the ethical paradigms, using automated systems for warfare such as Vision systems, swarm killer robots and recognition systems which are now in the very inception stage and under talks may be something which the tech industry can do away with.

In retrospect to these trends, there have also been some very amazing trends which we cherish in the tech industry.

1. 3D Metal Printing

Rapid prototyping has been on the rise in the past couple of years and just needed the clunk of metal to reach the true potential. With 3D metal printing in the growth, there will be tremendous breakthroughs in the manufacturing processes currently constrained due to manufacturing capabilities of conventional manufacturing machines.

2. AI For Everybody

AI is no longer the lab rat to be kept in research labs of big companies and universities. With the tremendous technological growth, AI is now accessible to one and all and has implications in possibly all walks of life and in all demographics of customers. Companies like Amazon, Azure, Baidu, etc. Are making sure that AI is now a commonplace implementation and the user is very much in the loop.

3. Mobile and Remote Workforces

If we talk about the core industry, it seems like the industry is now realizing just how much connected it actually is. It is now very much possible to allow workers to work from remote locations and even on the go at all the times without venturing into any kind of loss in terms of revenue or profits.

4. Robotics Will Not Threaten But Enhance Jobs

It was a very widespread notion that robots are going to take away all the jobs and this will lead to catastrophic results for the economy and industry. That notion seems to be fading away with time as people realize that the jobs are only about to be enhanced and even more so, new jobs will be created.

Sumit Peer

Founder and CEO, Aurelius Corporate Solutions

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