Top 4 Digital Technology Trends to Stay Ahead in 2021
Digital transformation has become mainstream for every business. With the challenges of COVID-19, it has become obvious for leaders to think and implement digital solutions across their organizations. Looking in terms of profitability, IDC predicts that by 2022, digital services and products will be responsible for 80% of new revenue growth.1
But along with digital strategy, enterprises need a future-ready connected environment, supported by adaptive technology operating models to deliver better products and services at market speed, meet customers changing demands and expect increased returns.
Creating Future-Ready IT
“A future-ready IT function is at the heart of a future-ready enterprise. There’s no longer a business strategy and technology strategy. There is just a strategy, and technology is driving it.”
– Steve Bates, KPMG U.S. CIO Advisory Principal and Global Center of Excellence Leader.
Today enterprises depend on IT not just for new sources of competitive differentiation but to support their ongoing business process. The effectiveness of a business is directly tied with its IT service delivery environments. This signifies how important it is for IT professionals to stay updated with new technology trends, if not by desire but certainly by necessity.
Here are the top 4 technologies that IT services companies need to look at, to provide high end consulting and technology services in 2021.
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Edge AI with Edge Computing
Edge AI starts with edge computing, a distributed paradigm that brings computation and data storage closer to the location of the device. Edge AI refers to AI algorithms that process data locally on hardware devices without connection. This helps to reduce system processing load and data transmission delays.
Edge computing can generate data through deep learning on the cloud to develop deductive and predictive models at the source of the data. Edge AI is turning out to be an important technology across a variety of industries particularly when it comes to data processing and data privacy. Especially for self-driving cars and factory robots, which need high-speed processing with minimum latency.
Deloitte predicted that in 2020, more than 750 million edge AI chips (specifically designed to perform or accelerate on-device machine learning) will be sold, representing a cool US$2.6 billion in revenue.2 With the use of these edge AI chips, companies can not only collect data from the connected devices but analyze and convert it into action, reducing the cost, complexity, security challenges of sending the bulk of data into the cloud.
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Internet of Behaviors (IoB)
In its recent strategic predictions for 2021, Gartner announced that the Internet of Behavior is something we’ll become increasingly aware of in our daily lives and work. It’s not the first time when technology is collecting and using ‘digital dust’ of the people. But as IoT and data collected is expanding, we need new ways to understand it.
Internet of Behaviors refers to the process of analyzing data gathered from users’ online activity from a behavioral psychology perspective. It combines existing technologies such as facial recognition, location tracking, and big data that focus on the individual directly and connects the resulting data to associated behavioral events, such as cash purchases or device usage.
These analyses can then be used to design the User experience (UX), Search engine optimization (SXO), final products or services offered by companies, and think of new approaches to market them to keep up with the competition. The organizations can even leverage IoB to monitor compliance with health protocols during the ongoing pandemic. Computer visions can determine if employees are complying with the masking protocol at work and thermal imaging to identify those with fever.
Gartner predicts that by year-end 2025, over half of the world’s population will be subject to at least one of the IoB programs, whether it be commercial or governmental.3 While the IoB is technically possible, extensive ethical and societal debates persist about the different approaches employed to affect behavior.
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Hyper Automation
Hyper automation is the next major phase of digital transformation. It combines advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and robotic process automation (RPA) to automate tasks and processes that once were done by humans. This allows organizations to overcome some of the limitations of approaches and move beyond the margins of a single technology.
Hyper automation is not meant to replace humans, but to increase flexibility in their workflows, improve productivity, and get more done with fewer resources. It can automate, simplify, design, measure, and manage any tedious task across the enterprise especially in times of Covid -19 when remote working is a necessity.
That’s not all, it provides a better customer experience, reducing operational cost, and boosting profitability. Gartner predicts that by 2024, organizations will lower operational costs by 30% by combining hyper automation technologies with redesigned operational processes.4
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AI PaaS and AI Marketplace
We are now entering into an era of marketplaces run by AI. McKinsey predicts that by 2030, 70% of all companies including marketplaces might have adopted AI-driven solutions to streamline operations and improve productivity.5 AI-Driven marketplaces use large volumes of data to accelerate operations, deliver enhanced personalized user experience as well as real time services.
Gartner defines AI PaaS as a set of AI and machine learning (ML) platform services used for building, training, and deploying AI-powered functionalities for applications. Unlike conventional application marketplaces like Playstore or app store, AI-driven marketplace offers AI applications according to industry-specific use-cases. The organizations will be able to choose applications as per their needs.
IT services companies will play a crucial role in building and sustaining such a marketplace partnering with AWS, Azure, and GCP. Data scientists with good domain-specific knowledge and developers with cloud services understanding will highly contribute to the growth of such a marketplace.
iLink helps you to stay ahead of the game!
In a digitally driven world, the future of IT plays a critical role in delivering the promise of the connected enterprise. Today, many IT functions are willing to take the leap but may lack the strategic approach to get there. Our experts at iLink, helps you to embrace new technologies in your digital transformation journey and over come challenges in your specific niche.
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Endnotes
1. https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2019/03/creating-future-ready-it-function-today.pdf
