Freeman Dyson, a renowned American Mathematician, once mentioned that “Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences.” With pandemic raging, this quote rings more true now than ever before.
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As it turns out, most people worldwide are wholly and solely dependent on technology for their existence itself, let alone for their communication needs. From communicating with family members who are staying apart to taking online prescriptions from doctors to grocery shopping, online payments to remote working, technology has a telling effect on our lives.
The accelerated use of new technologies globally means the time is ripe for technology companies to explore, innovate and add new feathers to their cap.
Aside from evergreen technologies such as artificial intelligence, AR & VR, cryptocurrencies, and much more, the current year is expected to pave the way for more exciting innovations and technologies.
Here in this post, we will talk about the top technologies that will rule 2022. Based on Gartner's and Mckinsey’s predictions and other additional research, I've compiled a list of 10 technologies that I anticipate will attract the most investments in the coming years.
Let's see what these technologies are and learn why they'll be trending in 2022.
Metaverse
It's impossible for a techie to be not aware of the term "Metaverse". Metaverse had been one of the most discussed technologies of the year 2021, thanks to the significant investments and attention it garnered from conglomerates like Meta, formerly known as Facebook and Microsoft.
Metaverse creates a virtual space where people can hold meetings, parties, attend concerts, and many more things. According to Bloomberg, Metaverse is on its way to a double digit market growth and is anticipated to reach approximately 800 billion U.S. dollars in 2024 up from $478.7 billion U.S. dollars reported in 2020.
Source: Bloomberg
For the unversed, metaverse can be described as a virtual world that involves the use of technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, voice and video communication, 3D holographic figures, and much more. Touted to be the next internet, metaverse brings the digital and physical world on the same platform.
The biggest bet on this technology is being made by Facebook, which has changed its name to Meta to reflect Mark Zuckerberg's growing attention towards Metaverse adoption.
Seoul, the capital of South Korea, announced its plan to enter Metaverse and became one of the first major cities to enter the world of Metaverse. The metropolitan government aims to make various public services and events accessible through the metaverse. This plan will allow the residents to file a complaint or tour museums or cultural sites by just putting on VR headsets like Oculus.
The program named "Seoul Vision 2030" is part of the ten-year plan of Mayor Oh Se-hoon and has attracted an investment of $3.3 million. The virtual platform will be developed by the end of 2022 and operational by 2026.
"Metaverse 120 center", a place that'll handle public services virtually, is expected to be launched in 2023. These platforms will envisage avatars of officials that'll handle various citizens' queries, thus eliminating the need to visit city hall physically.
This is high time for people looking for profitable and futuristic investment opportunities. Investing in Metaverse in this stage will surely be a genuine deal and a profitable one owing to its increasing market size.
Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation has been marked as one of the top trends in Gartner's list of top strategic technology trends of 2022. Hyperautomation is a concept or framework which aims to automate every possible task that can be automated in an organization.
According to a study, the worldwide hyperautomation market cap is expected to reach the U.S. $9.98 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 18.9% during 2020-2027. The study also states that the primary reason for the growth will be the rapid digitalization of manufacturing plants.
Hyperautomation involves the use of multiple high-tech technologies such as AI, machine learning(ML), low-code/no-code tools, robotic process automation (RPA), and many more.
Hyperautomation and automation are often misunderstood as one and the same thing , while the reality is slightly different. Automation is done to carry out a repetitive task without human intervention and is generally meant for a particular job using limited automation tools. On the other hand, hyperautomation aims to automate an entire ecosystem using multiple automation tools, including AI, machine learning, and RPA (robotic process automation).
Hyperautomation offers a range of benefits to organizations by eliminating repetitive tasks, thus saving precious time of human workforce and using their efficiency in more critical tasks. Hyperautomation empowers industries to manage operations with accuracy, speed, and regularity.
The products created leveraging hyperautomation ecosystem are generally perfect and are exact replicas with minimal flaws. The speed and accuracy of carrying out operations, in turn, result in lower costs and better customer experience.
Hyperautomation is rapidly gaining popularity and traction amongst industries such as retail, healthcare, banking, financial services, customer services and manufacturing.
Top Benefits of Hyperautomation:
- Improves workforce efficiency by automating repetitive tasks.
- Speeds up business operations.
- Reduces cost and helps generate higher profits.
- Brings consistency and efficiency to all automated business operations.
- Improves ROI
- Boosts and eases business scalability.
- Improves overall customer experience.
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
The Internet of Things (IoT) has been making rounds as one of the most promising technologies throughout these years. And it's anticipated that its importance "Internet of Things" will keep growing in 2022 and in the years to come.
"Internet of Things" spans multiple industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, logistics and transportation, retail, agriculture, and many more. As IoT adoption keeps growing, it is anticipated that global spending on IoT technology will reach $1.1 trillion by 2022.
It is being forecasted that the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the Internet of Things implemented in industrial operations and manufacturing-related operations, will become a highly demanded and successful use case of IoT.
According to a study, the IIoT market is anticipated to reach $263.4 billion by 2027; meanwhile, the growth is expected to be at a CAGR of 16.7% from 2021 to 2027. Moreover, according to McKinsey, more than 50 billion devices will be connected to IIoT by 2025.
Top benefits offered by IIOT to the adopting businesses:
- Reduced chances of errors in operations.
- Better working efficiency as repetitive tasks are automated using technologies like AI and RPA.
- Offers predictive maintenance and remote monitoring.
- Enhanced safety for the employees.
- Reduced overall costs.
5G Technology
Internet connectivity is responsible for driving various economic and social factors. It has been seen that countries with superior and robust internet connectivity/availability are better economies, for example, China, Japan, the US, South Korea, the UK, India, and many more.
Internet Connectivity is the key to digitalization, which is one of the most crucial driving factors of the economies. 5G technology is seen as one of the most potent networks ever built, far better than its predecessors, including 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G.
With a speed of up to 20 Gbps, this network is one of the fastest wireless technologies ever developed. Faster connectivity, faster downloads, and ultra-low latency rates are helping people and businesses to grow and perform with maximum efficiency.
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As said by Hans Vestberg, 5G technology is paving the way for innovations and supporting other technologies like IoT, RPA, and AI to grow. It'll help fulfill the dream of a smart future where everything will be connected virtually, including machines, devices, and humans.
Top benefits of 5G Technology:
- Ultra-fast internet and download speed (upto 1 GBPS).
- Lower latency offered will help control remotely located devices in real-time, result in better gaming performance and many more benefits.
- According to Verizon, 5G will help in generating $12.3 trillion of worldwide economic output and support 22 million jobs globally by 2035.
- 5G technology can support upto 1000 times more devices than 4G.
Data Fabric
A data fabric is an architecture for data management that enhances access to distributed data and processes and orchestrates it to be used by consumers. Data fabric provides seamless access to data and its sharing in a distributed data ecosystem.
Irrespective of the kind of data and its location, data fabric allows users to access the data they need just in time. The most significant benefit of data fabric is self-service data delivery to the users.
This self-service capability allows users within an organization to get their hands on quality data of any kind quickly, so instead of wasting time on finding the data from all available resources, more time is spent on exploring and fetching valuable insights that could open roads to innovation helping a company to grow.
According to IBM, the adoption of data fabric by organizations can result in approximately 86%-158% return on investment (ROI). Today as digitalization keeps booming and reaching every nook and cranny of our world, the amount of data accumulated is getting bigger.
Managing this vast volume of data from many data sources is becoming increasingly difficult for organizations. Data fabric is helping the organizations by providing them a unified way of exploring the data and understanding their business and creating meaningful insights that can accelerate the organization's growth.
Summing up the benefits of data fabric:
- Enhances data visibility and improves data management.
- Better ROI opportunities for businesses.
- Unifies and centralizes a range of data for easier accessibility and better insights.
- Stronger data protection
Clean technology
Global warming is a term that almost every one of us has been hearing about since our school days. But today, in the 21st century, this threat has become very real, the biggest proof being the abnormal temperatures around the globe and rising sea levels due to melting glaciers.
Today as the world witnesses drastic changes and ill-effects of climate change and global warming, environmental activists and entrepreneurs like Bill Gates are looking to invest in clean technology.
Clean technology, aka cleantech or Greentech, involves the use of renewable resources such as solar and wind energy by businesses to carry out their operations to reduce the negative impacts from their side on the environment. This involves devising sustainable goals and practicing sustainable development by minimizing the use of fossil fuels, reducing carbon footprint, recycling, and much more.
Top benefits offered by clean technologies:
- Their adoption will help save non-renewable resources for future generations.
- They will improve uniform distribution and accessibility of facilities like electricity, water, healthcare, etc., to every kind of demography.
- They will help reduce carbon footprint thus helping reduce global warming.
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According to reports, the worldwide market for clean technology is set to reach over $2.5 trillion by 2022.
As a major boost to clean technologies, Bill Gates-backed firm Breakthrough Energy Catalyst aims to invest $15 billion in cleantech. The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that they'd be funding small businesses pursuing cleantech and sustainable energy goals with $35 million.
It's high time entrepreneurs invest in such technologies that produce value for the company while ensuring that their operations leave the most negligible negative impact on the environment. Clean technology is the biggest bet climate activists and entrepreneurs with sustainable goals can make to save the environment.
Cyber AI
Cybersecurity has been a considerable concern throughout the years, and the worries keep growing as digitalization spreads its wings and the majority of tasks and people are moving online. To fight against cyber crimes such as cyber theft, identity theft, and much more, industries and countries are heavily investing in cybersecurity.
According to Statista, the worldwide cybersecurity market will reach more than 345.4 billion US dollars by 2026. As artificial intelligence keeps ruling the world in different areas, it has now found its use in cybersecurity as well.
AI in cybersecurity is also known as Cyber AI. Though in the early stages of adoption, Cyber AI will be a promising move and is expected to grow by 19 billion US dollars between 2021 to 2025.
It has been anticipated that cyber AI will emerge as one of the most reliable cybersecurity measures, which will allow organizations to respond faster to any threats posed by attackers. Thanks to AI and its strong analytics capabilities, any future attacks and flaws in the system which can be used by attackers can be figured out in advance to keep the system secure all the time.
Ironically, AI is also being used by attackers to boost AI-driven cybercrimes. Using AI, it's easier for attackers to find flaws in the systems. In these cases, cyber AI can help organizations prepare for AI-driven attacks by using predictive intelligence, anomaly detection, and machine learning tools to detect flaws which are already in use for AI-driven cyberattacks.
Summing up the benefits offered by Cyber-AI:
- It’s one of the strongest tools in the fight against AI-driven cybercrimes.
- Better analysis of system security strengths and weaknesses.
- Strong analytics capabilities will help respond faster to any attacks and advance detection in case of anomaly.
Bio Revolution
Bio revolution is a term that expresses the massive disruption and transformation in the field of biological science brought about by the involvement of leading technologies such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, computing, automation, and many more.
From empowering genome sequencing, treating incurable diseases, predicting pandemics to devising sophisticated and efficient farming methods, bio-revolution is heavily affecting economies in a better way. This revolution will affect all spheres of life, be it solving global hunger problems by fueling innovation in agriculture or fighting deadly pandemics.
The proof of the biggest boon of bio revolution is the scientific response to the Covid-19 pandemic where best biotechnologies such as genome sequencing and RT-PCR techniques helped identify coronavirus to mRNA technology the key contributor to the development of covid vaccines.
It would have been impossible for us to fight the ongoing pandemic without biotechnology.
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As the bio revolution keeps making a global impact, according to Mckinsey Global Institute, biology-based innovations are anticipated to generate 4 trillion US dollars in terms of economic impact in the upcoming decades.
Particularly, the biological innovations in the field of agriculture, food production, and aquaculture might result in economic returns of up to $1.2 trillion over the next decade or two. These stats are evidence of growing popularity and the need for bio-revolution.
Summarizing benefits of Bio Revolution:
- It will boost innovation in biological science which will lead to cure of incurable diseases.
- It will help predict pandemics in advance.
- It will heavily influence the economy of countries by improving various sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, aquaculture and many more.
- It will help solve major global problems like hunger.
Quantum Computing
Quantum computing is a compelling computing technique based on the principle of quantum mechanics or, say, theory. Quantum computing involves the use of famous principles of quantum theory such as superposition, entanglement, and quantum interference. It is often considered one of the fastest computing techniques and can easily solve the problems associated with the most complicated systems.
Just as binary computing, on which traditional computers are based, uses two binary numbers, 0 and 1, for computing, quantum computing involves qubits. Qubits are basic units of information or data in quantum computing. Unlike binary, where data can be stored in the form of either 1 or 0, qubits can hold information in both 1 and 0 simultaneously or as a superposition of 0 and 1.
These qubits are ingredients that make quantum computation faster, and as the number of qubits linked together increases, the computational power increases exponentially. Quantum computers are based on quantum computing, making them faster than traditional ones.
According to Statista, the worldwide quantum computing market is anticipated to reach 8.8 billion US dollars by 2027, up from 412 million US dollars reported in 2020.
The interest in the field of quantum computing has been increasing as big companies like IBM, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Toshiba, and many more have been heavily researching and investing in it.
Benefits of quantum computing:
- It will help solve the most complex computational problems faster.
- Owing to their superb processing power, they can help in new drug and materials discovery and development.
- Computational power can be increased drastically by increasing the number of qubits linked together.
Cloud Computing Technology
Cloud computing technology has become widely popular these days due to the numerous benefits it has to offer. Cloud computing technology basically provides users with access to various kinds of software, storage, databases, files, servers, and much more over the internet via internet-powered devices.
The cloud services can be accessed via any device connected to the internet, such as computers, tablets, smartphones, smartwatches or wearables, etc.
Hard drives were traditionally used for storing and accessing data, softwares, servers, and much more. These traditional storage tools had limitations, such as size constraints and economic constraints, as the cost of hard drives increased significantly with an increase in size.
Cloud computing services economically and efficiently solve these drawbacks of hard drives. Moreover, cloud technology can access any services or resources faster and cost-effectively. Furthermore, these cloud services are reliable and secure in terms of data backup facilities.
The popularity of cloud technology will keep soaring as it continues providing businesses of all sizes with the resources they need to function cost-effectively and efficiently.
The popularity and market size of Amazon Web Services, an on-demand cloud computing platform powered by Amazon, is the most significant example of the growing popularity of cloud computing technology.
Benefits of cloud computing technology:
- It offers a cost effective way of storing data and access to the best servers and softwares.
- Enhances data and organization security.
- Boosts collaboration amongst employees by enhancing data visibility.
GoodFirms Opinion: It's high time for entrepreneurs and investors to focus and invest in these trending technologies to innovate and build things that will rule the future.
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