It’s almost the end of another year, and predictions for 2019 tech trends are rolling in. Many of last year’s predictions rang true for 2018, including the rise of cybercrime-as-a-service, data sovereignty, and hybrid cloud connectivity. It looks like some exciting technologies will finally take off next year and become more commonplace, like augmented analytics, AI integration and edge computing. After analyzing predictions form Gartner, Forbes, Tech Republic and others, here are what we think will the top 9 predictions to watch out for in 2019.
Autonomous Things & Robotics
Use of autonomous things, such as robots, drones and appliances will increase this year, particularly in certain industries. Toward the end of this year, we saw Moxi being successfully tested in hospitals in Texas. Moxi is an autonomous robot that helps nurses change sheets and deliver supplies to patients. She also interacts with patients. We will start to see autonomous things do more tasks traditionally done by humans in the following year. Gartner predicts five groups of autonomous things moving ahead in 2019: robots, vehicles, drones, appliances, and agents.
Augmented Analytics
Augmented analytics use machine learning algorithms to identify patterns, helping humans find insights hidden within mass volumes of documentation, web pages, images and other digital resources that would take humans years to comb through and analyze. Gartner predicts by 2020 40% of data science tasks will be automated, resulting in increased productivity and a 5x increase in citizen data scientists.
The Network Edge
The edge has been a concept commonly associated with IoT devices, like autonomous vehicles, wearables, smart cities and robots. However, the edge is something SaaS companies and anyone that must serve users over a network with minimal latency has to think about.
We expect to see many more companies looking for edge data centers in 2019, attempting to get as close to their users as possible to reduce latency and network backbone costs. As a sign of what’s to come, the cloud itself is moving to the edge. AWS recently launched Outposts, bringing the cloud to other data centers so companies can have both an edge data center deployment and the cloud closer to their users.
5G Begins, but Will NOT Be the Norm
5G network hotspots will launch in a few cities around the world, but 5G will be far from commonplace. This is partly because the range of a 5G tower is only a third of a mile, whereas a 4G tower reaches a 30-mile radius on average. Not only will the infrastructure not be widespread, but Apple does not plan to launch a 5G-capable iphone in 2019. So, we predict we will start to see 5G in 2019, but it will not be everywhere.
CEOs Get Involved in Digital Transformation
Daniel Newman, principal research analyst at Futurum Research, predicts CEOs will be forced to be involved in digital transformation in 2019. Some companies have been successful at digital transformation, while many others haven’t. This is largely because changes have been sporadically implemented throughout different departments of organizations instead of coming from the C-suite. Without a cohesive strategy that involves the c-suite and the entire company, it is nearly impossible to make digital transformation a part of the company’s culture and drive lasting change.
Digital Twins
A digital representation mirrors a real-life object, process or system. Digital twins can be linked to create models of larger systems, like smart cities or manufacturing plants. In the next year, Gartner predicts digital twins of IoT devices used to model systems and improve decision-making will become more common. Digital twins provide data on new devices and news systems, giving developers insight into how a product could perform more effectively and efficiently and allow them to experiment with what-if scenarios. Digital twins of entire organizations are also emerging to enable real time monitoring and improve processes. These giant models include everything from roles and responsibilities to customer interactions, strategies, technologies, products, services and distribution channels.
IT-as-a-Service Becomes the Norm
Most companies already outsource at least some of their IT, whether it’s the data center, data storage, cybersecurity or software. Many experts predict companies will continue leaning in the direction of IT-as-a-Service, and IT outsourcing will continue to increase in 2019.
Public Cloud Will Experience a Major Attack
Many cybersecurity experts are predicting an attack on a major cloud provider in 2019. “It’s a matter of when, not if a top cloud vendor will suffer a breach, comprising the sensitive information of major companies,” reports Macy Bayern from Tech Republic. CEO of Hysolate and CISO of Zscaler (both cybersecurity firms) also predict a major attack or breach on the public cloud in Forbes’ cybersecurity predictions for 2019.
Cybercriminals Harness the Power of AI
Malicious chatbots will trick people into clicking dangerous links, thinking they are being helped by customer support. Just as AI will help companies combat cybersecurity, cybercriminals will harness the power of AI to supercharge their abilities to probe networks for vulnerabilities. AI will also be used to carry out extremely realistic disinformation campaigns. Videos have already been created with AI to trick people into thinking politicians are saying something they aren’t. Attackers will also focus on biometric hacking, exposing vulnerabilities and exploiting facial and thumbprint recognition software.