The world is developing incredibly fast, which means that something becomes trending when something else may become outdated. With the IT industry, one can claim that these changes occur at the speed of a sound.

Based on the technological advancements from the last period, we can predict what is and will be trending in the next few years.

Today’s world welcomes a bunch of innovations, up-to-date technologies, and crazy fresh concepts, that immediately become a reality. The present and future tech scenery is all about the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Augmented Reality. But will these technologies continue to develop and maintain their supremacy?

Let’s dig into the main development trends and predictions that will emerge in the next few years:

The number of IoT projects is expected to increase substantially

IoT technology tends to attract high interest and enormous investment. Offering plenty of advantages, IoT has the potential to innovate a wide range of areas of life and business.

Basically, IoT is a network that connects all physical objects to the internet via network devices or routers and exchange data. IoT enables objects to be controlled remotely across the existing network infrastructure.

The future of IoT is mainly for big ideas such as smart houses, smart offices, smart cities – which can incorporate a huge spectrum of IoT solutions. By using IoT apps, many companies can simplify and automate the workflow, connect teams, collect and analyze detailed real-time consumer data, enhance marketing strategies and targeting, and more.

More than that, the future of IoT has a vast possibility of developing in the automotive industry in the next years. It is said that by 2025 the development of driverless cars is supposed to enter mass production. IoT will rely heavily on sensors for reading data inside the vehicle, as well as external, environmental data. As technology advances, the cars will get smarter and safer.

Augmented Reality technology will continue to gain popularity

Being popular, AR technology is effectively applied to solve different tasks and problems in many areas. There seems to be a large number of devices that support AR, and it’s an essential feature of mobile apps and games.

Thanks to the Pokémon Go trend in 2016, most people think of Augmented Reality as a kind of advanced and modern scavenger hunt, a fascinating but constrained new technology with little or no application outside the mobile gaming world. The fact is, AR has far-reaching implications from gaming to marketing, training, and simulation in almost every contemporary area.

Once AR finds a reliable, fully functional platform and it becomes obvious that a huge amount of people is becoming AR-proficient, AR’s potential will start to be fully realized. Every industry would benefit from accepting AR, from architecture to education, sports, military training, and retail commerce.

Soon, many industries will see increased AR activity, such as:

• E-commerce – Many companies will be integrating AR into their websites and mobile apps.
• Digital marketing – AR technologies will continue to improve the way customers engage with brands.
• Geolocation – The ability of mobile devices to inform us of our surroundings will be greatly improved over time.
• Educational resources – Researchers are already trying to find new and helpful ways to use AR in training situations. The military and healthcare industries are creating powerful AR training simulations.

A higher focus on improving non-tech fields with tech solutions

Nowadays, there is a powerful need for implementing tech solutions for workflow automation, business performance improvement, and simplification of employee work.

Many businesses have complex software systems integrated, but there will be many areas, for example, agriculture, where these systems can be integrated. (In one of our articles we discussed how custom software can benefit any business, being a more suitable solution than out-of-the-box-software. Check it out HERE)

For instance, in agriculture, emerging technologies can be developed to improve crop yields. IoT applications, for example, can be used efficiently for data gathering, temperature control and regulation, and much more.

The rise of Artificial Intelligence

Computer power is growing, algorithms and AI models are becoming more advanced and powerful, and, maybe most important of all, the world is producing an immeasurable amount of data. Data, measured in billions of gigabytes every day, is gathered by networked devices in nearly every industry. As a result, AI is being closely interwoven into almost every aspect of our lives; from our vehicles and medical devices to robots and entertainment.

Artificial Intelligence will continue to develop in promising ways for both businesses and consumers. The buzz that has surrounded AI until now is rapidly being replaced by a more concrete reality, providing organizations with an opportunity to maximize AI’s rewards in a result-driven manner.

AI ‘s progress involves advanced cognitive systems that are capable of doing what machine learning systems can not do. They will come into contact with human experts smartly and fluently. Will give them perceptive interpretations and answers, even at the edge of the network or in robotic devices. People can see and operate across the board with machines filled with unique and advanced intelligence.

For instance, huge ship fleets currently operate primarily unmonitored and uninstrumented, particularly in comparison with other forms of transport such as jets and smart cars. If we imagine supertankers as larger-than-average IoT devices, then they can be linked, tracked through satellite networks, and effectively organized through cognitive AI. AI systems can even anticipate shipping patterns to provide insight into supply and demand.

Blockchain will revolutionize business processes

Blockchain technology became popular due to its successful adoption of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. This distributed digital ledger has many benefits as it can keep the records of all data or money transactions made between any two parties in a secure, and transparent manner.

A recent Trend Insight Report from analyst firm Gartner made the following predictions:

• Through 2022, only 10% of companies will achieve any radical transformation by using blockchain
• By 2022, at least one innovative business built on blockchain technology will be worth $10 billion
• By 2026, the business value added by blockchain will grow to just over $360 billion. By 2030 will grow to more than $3.1 trillion

Cybersecurity is one of the most promising areas for blockchain technology with expected growth. Data tampering is a massive problem for companies of all sizes. Blockchain technology can be used to prevent exploitation, to keep data secure, and to allow users to verify the validity of a file.

Blockchain technology will be transformative in the tech and IT sector in the coming years. Will fundamentally change business operations in many industry sectors, but it requires time and effort to be adopted. Nonetheless, we can expect governments to finally accept blockchain benefits soon, and start using them to improve financial and public services.