Every year in October, research firm Gartner publishes its top 10 strategic technology trends for the following year. This year, it says the top trends tie into the ‘intelligent digital mesh’ as the foundation for future digital business and ecosystems.
The first three strategic technology trends explore how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are seeping into virtually everything and represent a major battleground for technology providers over the next five years. The next four trends focus on blending the digital and physical worlds to create an immersive, digitally enhanced environment. The last three refer to exploiting connections between an expanding set of people and businesses, as well as devices, content and services to deliver digital business outcomes.
David Cearley, vice president and Gartner fellow, says, “IT leaders must factor these technology trends into their innovation strategies or risk losing ground to those that do.”
The top 10 strategic technology trends for 2018 are:
AI foundation Creating systems that learn, adapt and potentially act autonomously will be a major battleground for technology vendors through at least 2020. The ability to use AI to enhance decision making, reinvent business models and ecosystems, and remake the customer experience will drive the payoff for digital initiatives through 2025.