CONTRIBUTOR
Personally, I’m amazed at the technology we have available to us.
It’s astounding to have the power to retrieve almost any information and
communicate in a thousand different ways using a device that fits in your
pocket.
There’s always something new on the horizon, and we can’t help but
wait and wonder what technological marvels are coming next.
The way I see it, there are seven major tech trends we’re in store
for in 2017. If you’re eyeing a sector in which to start a business, any of
these is a pretty good bet. If you're already an entrepreneur, think
about how you can leverage these technologies to reach your target audience in
new ways.
1. IoT and Smart Home Tech.
We’ve been hearing about the forthcoming revolution of the Internet-of-Things (IoT)
and resulting interconnectedness of smart home technology for years. So what’s
the holdup? Why aren’t we all living in smart, connected homes by now? Part of
the problem is too much competition, with not enough collaboration—there are
tons of individual appliances and apps on the market, but few solutions to tie everything
together into a single, seamless user experience. Now that bigger companies
already well-versed in uniform user experiences (like Google, Amazon, and
Apple) are getting involved, I expect we’ll see some major advancements on this
front in the coming year.
2. AR and VR.
We’ve already seen some major steps forward for augmented reality
(AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology in 2016. Oculus Rift was released,
to positive reception, and thousands of VR apps and games followed. We also saw
Pokémon Go, an AR game, explode with over 100 million downloads. The market is ready
for AR and VR, and we’ve already got some early-stage devices and tech for
these applications, but it’s going to be next year before we see things really
take off. Once they do, you’ll need to be ready for AR and VR versions of
practically everything—and ample marketing opportunities to follow.
3. Machine Learning.
Machine learning has taken some massive strides forward in the
past few years, even emerging to assist and enhance Google’s core search engine algorithm. But again, we’ve only
seen it in a limited range of applications. Throughout 2017, I expect to see
machine learning updates emerge across the board, entering almost any type of
consumer application you can think of, from offering better recommended
products based on prior purchase history to gradually improving the user
experience of an analytics app. It won’t be long before machine learning becomes
a kind of “new normal,” with people expecting this type of artificial
intelligence as a component of every form of technology.
4. Automation.
Marketers will be (mostly) pleased to learn that automation will
become a bigger mainstay in and throughout 2017, with advanced technology
enabling the automation of previously human-exclusive tasks. We’ve had robotic
journalists in circulation for a couple of years now, and I expect it won’t be
long before they make another leap into more practical types of articles. It’s
likely that we’ll start seeing productivity skyrocket in a number of
white-collar type jobs—and we’ll start seeing some jobs disappear altogether. When automation
is combined with machine learning, everything can improve even faster, so 2017
has the potential to be a truly landmark year.
5. Humanized Big Data. (visual, empathetic, qualitative)
Big data has been a big topic for the past five years or so, when
it started making headlines as a buzzword. The idea is that mass quantities of
gathered data—which we now have access to—can help us in everything from
planning better medical treatments to executing better marketing campaigns. But big data’s greatest
strength—its quantitative, numerical foundation—is also a weakness. In 2017, I
expect we’ll see advancements to humanize big data, seeking more empathetic and
qualitative bits of data and projecting it in a more visualized, accessible
way.
6. Physical-Digital Integrations.
Mobile devices have been slowly adding technology into our daily
lives. It’s rare to see anyone without a smartphone at any given time, giving
us access to practically infinite information in the real-world. We already
have things like site-to-store purchasing, enabling online customers to buy and
pick up products in a physical retail location, but the next level will be even
further integrations between physical and digital realities. Online brands like
Amazon will start having more physical products, like Dash Buttons, and physical brands like Walmart will start
having more digital features, like store maps and product trials.
7. Everything On-Demand.
Thanks to brands like Uber (and the resulting
madness of startups built on the premise of being the “Uber of
____”), people are getting used to having everything on demand via phone apps.
In 2017, I expect this to see this develop even further. We have thousands of
apps available to us to get rides, food deliveries, and even a place to stay
for the night, but soon we’ll see this evolve into even stranger territory.
Anyone in the tech industry knows that making predictions about
the course of technology’s future, even a year out, is an exercise in futility.
Surprises can come from a number of different directions, and announced
developments rarely release as they’re intended.
Still, it pays to forecast
what’s coming next so you can prepare your marketing strategies (or your
budget) accordingly. Whatever the case may be, it’s still fun to think about
everything that’s coming next.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
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