Technology Trends For 2020 That Will Affect Businesses A technology trends only because it is addressing a problem or giving a completely new perspective to solve an existing problem

Every year, we get a list of technologies that will be trending throughout the year. At times, we find these trending technologies repeat themselves. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) has been a trend for the past several years. The same goes for machine learning (ML).

So, the question here is if we should consider these technologies outdates for this year? The answer is a "no' and one cannot deny any existing technology, blatantly. Because all these technologies keep on evolving with every passing year. A year went by leaves them a little better and efficient than before.

In this article, we will consider technologies that are going to make a difference in this year. A technology becomes trending only because it is addressing a problem or giving a completely new perspective to solve an existing problem in the present time, differently.

Let's look at some of the technologies that are going to make a mark this year with a higher impact.

Human Augmentation

Aldous Huxley wrote the remarkable Brave New World in 1932. He had made a prediction of technology intervening with humans. However, the book was based in the year 2540 but some technologies of today are tending towards merging with human intelligence in a promising manner.

Human augmentation is one such technology that has taken one step ahead of other technologies to support human activities.

And the good news is that some of the businesses today are already using this technology to make a difference and innovate contemporary ideas. For example, Spotify has shown a very good example wherein the sensor taps the heart rate of the person, and it chooses the music to soothe the mind.

Google has already patanted the contact lens that comes with multi-sensors that also measures the glucose level from tears. These are examples that show how well the human augmentation technologies are tracking the scope of business and also helping humans towards better possibilities and some jaw-dropping results.

Hyper-Automation

As we know, AI and ML have shifted most of the work processes towards automation but there is another technology called hyper-automation that is taking it even further.

Hyper-automation is including contemporary technologies such as natural language processing, robotic process automation, and cognitive process automation to refine the existing technology. However, with hyper-automation, it becomes much easier to give your workforce a better work engagement and manage work with the help of different tools and also support working practices that are frictionless in every possible way.

Hyper-automation ensures efficiency, quality and overall productivity with better safety. So, a technology that can interpret data, take decisions, and also make predictions is going to be a well sought-after technology this year.

However, the question that always remains with hyper-automation is, how many businesses are going to give it the sole responsibility to complete work on its own?

Drones

The basic property of a drone is it can fly and it can be controlled by remote control. There are many businesses all over the world which are leveraging this idea for various purposes. Amazon is already delivering packages to customers through drones.

Having said that, the coming new year will find some new ways to use drones in some different manner. How you reintroduce an existing technology with the help of some new ideas gives it a completely new shape.

Any technology that has some entrepreneurial spirit reintroduces itself from time to time. For example, drones have much scope that can be used in the agriculture and farming industry for assessing crops and livestock.

It also helps in marking boundaries or planning fencing. They are also being used to maintain an irrigation system, and do flora and fauna management in a much better manner.

AI for Security

AI has taken all the way new shapes to make a difference in the area of maintaining security. It is very likely to take some of the best ideas of security further with real-time tracking and analytics. So, making it more robust and user-centric and overcome the very advanced threats to security.

Global business grows its risk of cyber attacks exponentially. According to Capgemini, 21% of enterprises are paying a heavy price for the cybersecurity breaches due to unauthorized access.

Since the global enterprises are facing several issues related to security, so it has become a big issue for all to give AI some onus to deal with such security instances that are not being dealt with human intelligence solely. AI's biggest benefit is the speedy tracking of any existing threat and making the infected points visible.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is a very promising technology for 2020, and it is reducing many hurdles of design and the limitations of human imagination. Augmented reality is making it more creative by providing some unique solutions to the existing problems.

The year 2020 will come with many options to get some concrete solutions to some of the real problems because augmented reality comes with a better scope of engagement with the users. Businesses are likely to give augmented reality more responsibility to give users a virtual experience of the product or services to help them in the final purchase decision.

I have cited these technologies to help in understanding the kind of business scope they bring. Having said this, any technology looks for every possible way to serve and make things simpler for users.

With every passing year, an existing technology adds a few things and changes its shape towards something better. Once they start serving differently, the trend. So, all the above technologies have tremendous potential to serve humans and that is why they are most likely to trend well in 2020.