Another year is coming to end and analysts are back to anticipating new trends in technology and business. Nowadays, software development has become an important part of business and developers have become an advantage for companies to help innovate, change, and expand businesses. Anything from problem-solving to strategic decision-making relies on developers’ abilities and experience.

Here are some of the revolutionary trends that have shaken up 2020 so far and will continue to do so heading into 2021 and beyond.

Covid-19 is transforming the digital world

This year, COVID-19 was unprecedented, meaning that every organization, big or small, was in no way ready for what happened. It has completely altered everything in many sectors across the globe.

Online shopping has taken off in a significant way, meaning that more individuals are shopping online for essential and non-essentials, drone deliveries, or takeout deliveries.

Also, without a question, remote working is now becoming a new, traditional way of working.

People from all generations and all income levels around the world are more than ever embracing digital services and incorporating them into their lives. It has never been more relevant for organizations to be able to deliver full, simplified, customized, and more relevant digital solutions and services.

Artificial Intelligence

AI is still a growing trend and it has already shown a lot of functionalities that 10 or 20 years ago, people would have thought are only possible in movies.

AI is present in home appliances, phones, hospitals, agriculture, in the manufacturing industry, the military, and so on. It has been and it continues to be the base for many technological developments such as face recognition, data processing, recognition of speech and the list goes on.

The main advantage of AI-powered machines is that they are capable of processing data at an incredible speed and precision. Thus, within seconds, a job that would take a professional a few hours can be completed. And the outcome will be just as accurate, if not more precise.

Also, AI is less prone to errors, can work 24/7, and can be deployed in dangerous and complex situations.

Internet of Things

In the modern world, IoT is found almost everywhere. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that IoT is the trend among big corporations.

So far, in the form of smart lamps, smart fridges, IoT devices are mostly used in home automation. Also, wearable devices such as smart glass and activity trackers are very common IoT technology applications. In addition, several IoT technologies that are present in smart cities are traffic and waste control, urban safety monitoring, and water delivery.

The main concern regarding IoT is security. IoT users will face the challenge of hacks, data breaches, leakage of information, and so on. The issue is that most IoT devices are not equipped right out of the box with security features. Therefore, additional steps toward security must be taken to make this innovation consistently enjoyable.

Cybersecurity

Each day, different types of cyber threats are found. IT security software, virus protection, and other cybersecurity protections are the only things standing between our data and malicious threats. Threats remain inevitable as long as the internet is used, and so the cybersecurity industry will still continue to flourish.

New technological innovations in cybersecurity are occurring today. Technologies are being developed, for example, to address deep-fakes and open-source vulnerabilities. Advances in blockchain security, homomorphic encryption, and zero-knowledge evidence are also applicable.

Alternatives to cloud computing

Cloud adoption is essential especially for small businesses, but nowadays, there are other technologies that might put cloud computing on the second plan.

The first on is edge computing – the practice of bringing information closer to the position where it is necessary. This allows data bandwidth to be saved, response time to be improved, and is most useful for IoT devices. It is stored more closely instead of transmitting data all the way to clouds or data centers. This helps in the almost real-time data processing.

The second one is fog computing – developed to overcome the cloud computing issue that is unable to process large quantities of data in time. Each function, storage, analysis, processing, is transferred to the edge of the network with fog computing. This is excellent for handling the data flood in a connected society.

5G network

The next major challenge in mobile internet connectivity is 5G network. It has now become a phenomenon in some areas after nearly a decade of growth. It provides an unparalleled speed of transmission that far outperforms its predecessor, 4G. And when we speak about gigabytes per second transmission rate, 5G is basically faster than almost every available home broadband.

The adoption of 5G is going to make huge leaps. What was once only performed on machines can now also be performed on intelligent devices. IoT gadgets would also be able to interconnect more easily. Also, it is now possible to do tasks that require complex operations. Drones, autonomous vehicles, and smart cities are included in this.

The main disadvantage is that at least for now, the 5G network is still incomplete because it’s only available in certain countries and signal droppings are to be expected.

By 2024 it is expected that 5G networks will cover 40% of the globe.

Virtual Reality

VR will continue to expand its use and aside from games, will continue to be used in other forms of entertainment, such as theme parks, for education – especially in this pandemic era when it is more essential than ever, and for other industries such as medicine for surgery or aviation for flight simulation and so on.

Augmented Reality

AR technology has also been of great benefit to various industries. AR is used in improved navigation systems to display the route over a real-time view of the street. Augmented Reality can also be used by certain neurosurgeons to project a 3D image of a brain to assist them in surgery. In the military, in order to see critical conditions such as their speed and altitude, pilots wear AR helmets, and the examples can go on and on.

Chatbots

Chatbots are usually used in customer service, being one of the most popular technological trends of today, and will continue to grow.

A chatbot is a software whose primary purpose is to imitate human conversation. We might assume, from that definition alone, that this technology has a certain degree of implementation. It’s not just a new and hyped technology anymore, but it has entered the stage of maturity instead. That, however, does not mean that it has no space for growth.

In the future, chatbots will handle 85% of customer interactions and it is expected that 50% of big companies will be spending more on chatbots than mobile applications.

Blockchain

Blockchain will become big in the field of IoT.  It turns out that technology is a viable solution for IoT devices to provide security.

However, the emergence of this technology does not signify the extinction of cryptocurrencies. Currently, Bitcoin is already a major thing, and there are other cryptocurrencies to look for. This involves Tether, Ripple, and Ethereum, all of which are working their way towards improving Bitcoin.

Overview

So, it’s no wonder that these trends will continue to dominate discussions and forums in 2021, while older, more mature technologies are trying to get along with the times.

For now, we can only say that the pandemic will only speed up these trends, as companies look to leverage technology to manage through the crisis and better position themselves for the eventual recovery.