Three new trends key to businesses’ digital economy survival

Artificial intelligence (AI), transparently immersive experiences and digital platforms are the emerging technologies set to dominate the business arena in the next ten years, according to Gartner’s latest 'Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies' report.

Key to businesses surviving and thriving in the digital economy over the next five to ten years, the megatrends are expected to provide unrivalled intelligence, create profoundly new experiences and offer platforms that allow organisations to connect with new business ecosystems.

"Enterprise architects who are focused on technology innovation must evaluate these high-level trends and the featured technologies, as well as the potential impact on their businesses," said Gartner research director Mike Walker in a statement on Tuesday.

Viewed collectively, the trends paint a picture of significant opportunities for companies, with human-centric enabling technologies within transparently immersive experiences, such as smart workspace, connected home, virtual reality and the growing brain-computer interface, the “edge technologies” pulling the other trends along Gartner’s Hype Cycle.

“AI-everywhere emerging technologies are moving rapidly through the Hype Cycle. Technologies such as deep learning, autonomous learning and cognitive computing are just crossing the peak, which shows that they are key enablers of technologies that create transparent and immersive experiences,” commented Walker.

Further, digital platforms are rapidly moving up the Hype Cycle, showing the possibilities of new information technology realities.

Technologies such as quantum computing and Blockchain are poised to create the most transformative and dramatic impacts in the next five to ten years,” Walker noted.