5 tech trends that will have a long-term impact on businesses after 2022

It is difficult to comprehend the impact of technology on businesses and society as a whole. This year’s annual Thoughtworks Looking Glass report attempts to put a wide range of technologies into context so that business leaders can see where technology is leading them.

The report examines the impact of 100 current and emerging technologies in a comprehensive manner. The report, divided into lenses, “offers industry leaders recommendations on how to best compete and become disruptors themselves.”

“We use the Looking Glass lenses to help make sense of all of the individual trends, with the lenses akin to the big’storylines’ that we think will be important,” said Michael Mason, Thoughtworks’ global head of technology. “It’s also interesting to think about the lenses in different combinations.

What are the implications for a specific industry or organization if we combine the evolution of the human-machine experience with an explosion in AI? While we provide some of these combinations in the report, readers can use this exercise to stimulate their thinking.”

Collaboration with AI

The first lens, Partnering with AI, examines how businesses can capitalize on the rapid adoption of machine learning and AI. To accomplish this, businesses must first understand where technology works well and where it does not. Problems that require creativity or intuition, for example, are not the best use cases for AI. In these situations, AI should be used to supplement, not replace, human decision-making.

AI works very well in other areas, such as deploying chatbots to answer basic questions or escalate a customer request to a human customer service rep. Dynamic pricing, recommendation systems, anomaly detection, and supply chain optimization are all areas that benefit from AI-driven automation.

Some trends to watch in this space include: privacy respecting computation, AutoML, federated learning and, in the most distant future, quantum ML.

Evolving the human-machine interaction

The following lens focuses on the human-machine interaction. As everyone is aware, this is an area that could be improved. This section focuses on the emerging concept of the metaverse, which is a realm of reality in which the real and digital worlds collide. This market is dominated by extended reality applications such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR).

The authors of the report anticipate that there will be increased focus in this area as VR and AR device makers and startups try to cash in. According to Emergen Research research cited in the report, the metaverse market is set to explode, growing 40 percent year on year to $800 billion by 2028.

Brain-computer interfaces, retinal projection, affective emotional computing, and, in the distant future, the metaverse are all technologies to keep an eye on.

Realizing the Platform’s Potential

The third lens focuses on platform development as a fundamental business strategy. According to the report, this is an area “rife with ambiguities,” because even the concept of a “platform” or “platform approach” can be difficult to define.

“A successful platform approach is dependent on defining terms,” according to the report. “Platforms can drive various types of value, and misalignment or misunderstanding among stakeholders about these will result in subpar or wasted efforts.”

To avoid these issues, the report suggests first defining what you want to achieve, the results you want, and ensuring that all stakeholders understand and share the same goals.

“A platform is a catalyst or accelerator; having the platform allows you to do something faster,” Mason explained.

Today, three types of platforms are in use, according to Mason:

• Developer-focused infrastructure platforms that reduce risk and accelerate time to market by using a standardized, validated approach to security and compliance.
• Platforms for business capabilities that help to accelerate new product development by providing a set of APIs that encapsulate existing business capabilities and make it easier to build new services using existing resources.
• Platform business models generate value by facilitating interactions between consumers, peers, and service providers.

Fog computing, trust ecosystems, machine-to-machine collaboration, and, in the distant future, private IoT PaaS platforms are among the technologies to keep an eye on in this space.

Threatening technology’s growing influence

The report’s authors investigate the idea that even good technology can be used for bad purposes through this lens.

“‘Hostile’ tech, by our definition, can include not only criminal tech like malware and hacking tools, but also use cases like advertising and customer targeting,” according to the report. “Bias in algorithms or machine learning systems is one example. Because of unplanned and unnoticed distortions in the way they were constructed or developed, these may exhibit ‘hostile’ tendencies toward certain customer groups without being compromised or deliberately designed that way.”

Even lawful activity, such as tracking people as they surf the web, can be viewed negatively by some, while others freely give up their privacy in exchange for perceived benefits such as targeted advertising.

The report’s authors recommend being respectful of customer wishes, avoiding intrusive targeting, and rooting out bias AI to avoid alienating customers and improve trust.

Privacy-respecting computation, privacy-aware communications, differential privacy, and, in the distant future, quantum machine learning and the metaverse are some trends to keep an eye on in this space.

Accelerating the transition to sustainability
The fifth and final lens considers the big picture as well as the long-term viability of technology-fueled growth and consumption. Consumers, governments, and investors are all demanding greater environmental accountability from businesses, according to the report, as “going green has gone from being optional to a business imperative.”

“”While technology is a major contributor to climate change, and most tech companies are attempting to address this…,” according to the report, it “can also help make our everyday lives more sustainable, for example, by supporting smart cities that optimize traffic to reduce pollution.” The transition to a more sustainable world is accelerating, and this trend has far-reaching business implications.”

Some of the implications include government policies and legislation mandating energy efficiency and sustainability; investors preferring companies with high environmental, social, and governance standards; and businesses leveraging green initiatives to attract new customers and retain existing ones.

“There are two key trends to be aware of,” Mason explained. “The first is that consumers are increasingly aware of the need for sustainable practices and are concerned about environmental impacts and climate change, and they will absolutely change their purchasing behavior based on a company’s perceived sustainability stance. However, this is not the same as basing a purchasing decision on an actual ESG rating.”

Some technologies to keep an eye on in this space include: circular economy technology, blockchain for sustainability, green software engineering, and, in the distant future, the metaverse and DNA data storage.