The 7 transformative trends of the techade

We are moving from a mobile and cloud era to an era of ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence. Along the way, we are witnessing some standout trends, some unfolding faster than the others, but all of them powerful in their capacity for transformation. No matter who you are – a business owner, a working professional, or the government – these will almost certainly have implications for your work and your life, either now or in the foreseeable future.

Businesses will fly high with industry clouds

Industry clouds bring together common industry data models, application programming interfaces (APIs), and industry-specific components and standards. They are designed to deliver more value in less time, enabling quicker time to market. They also break down data silos, helping organisations take a data-first approach while adhering to industry compliance standards. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) as well as enterprises who need to keep managed services up and running continuously, will benefit greatly from moving critical applications to the cloud.  

Cloud will shower sustainability benefits

Over the years, climate-related events have underlined the need for harnessing technology to make communities and businesses more sustainable. Organizations are aiming to be carbon-negative, waste-negative, and water-positive. Transitioning to the Cloud can reduce carbon emissions associated with on-premises data center operations. Solutions such as Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability can provide real-time visibility into emission metrics and help organizations set sustainability goals and take measurable action to reduce emissions. According to Accenture , 94% of top CEOs cite sustainability as important or very important for the future success of their businesses.

AI and Inferencing at the Edge will transform experiences

Computing is becoming increasingly distributed and embedded in the real world. You can see it in wearables, safety monitoring of oil rigs, streaming video optimization, drone-enabled crop management, and many other small and big ways. All of this needs a robust edge infrastructure , where AI models can be deployed for inferencing in real time. According to a Gartner report , the percentage of industrial control systems that include analytics and AI capabilities at the Edge will increase sixfold in the next four years, from 5% today to 30% by 2025.

OpenAI Innovations will enrich all spheres of life 

 OpenAI’s core operating model is to conduct research in the field of AI to promote and develop friendly AI’s that benefit humanity. The first glimpse of the true power of AGI models are in the areas of NLP (GPT3). GPT-3 is the world’s most advanced language model that powers the next generation of applications across industries. Be it summarizing difficult text for a 2nd grader, sentiment detection for a text, turning meeting notes into a summary or having an open ended conversation with an AI Assist, the possibilities are endless considering the true potential of this NLP model.

Extended Reality (XR) will become an everyday reality

With hybrid working becoming the norm, Extended Reality technologies will create an online world that incorporates Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, 3D holographic avatars, video and other means of communication to help people communicate in both the consumer and the enterprise space. Today, enterprise-focused Mixed Reality headsets such as HoloLens 2 allow users to interact with holograms and create immersive experiences that can be used to solve problems in real-life settings ranging across construction, factory floors, operating rooms, hospitals, and classrooms.

Confidential Computing will come to the fore

Even as the pandemic accelerated the migration of data and applications to the Cloud, security got left behind. Decoupling data security from infrastructure could be the most vital line of defense in this context. Confidential Computing allows you to isolate sensitive data while it is being processed. Gartner estimates that, by the year 2025, almost 50% of large organizations will adopt Confidential Computing for processing data in untrusted environments and multiparty data analytics use cases. A recent study by Everest Group has projected the Confidential Computing market to touch $54 billion in 2026.

Low Code & No Code Evolution to reach its acme

The only way forward in today’s digital world is app innovation – collaborative, relentless, impactful, agile and cost-effective. There is a big shift in the way Enterprise Apps are being built. Around 500 million new apps will be built in the next five years – more than what were built in the past 40 years. This task cannot be left to tech developers alone, who are in short supply anyway; it needs to be made ubiquitous for citizen developers who possess industry domain knowledge. The average cost to develop an application is 74 percent less with platforms such as Power Apps.

This “techade” that we are in will present numerous opportunities for technology adoption and innovation. Let us be aware and responsible in selecting those that will benefit our business, our stakeholders, our communities, and our environment in a sustainable way.