According to an article written by Nikita Duggal, here are the top 8 new technology trends for 2020:

“1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has already received a lot of buzz in recent years, but it continues to be a trend to watch because its effects on how we live, work, and play are only in the early stages. In addition, other branches of AI have developed, including Machine Learning, which we will go into below. AI refers to computer systems built to mimic human intelligence and perform tasks such as recognition of images, speech or patterns, and decision making. AI can do these tasks faster and more accurately than humans.

Five out of six Americans use AI services in one form or another every day, including navigation apps, streaming services, smartphone personal assistants, ride-sharing apps, home personal assistants, and smart home devices. In addition to consumer use, AI is used to schedule trains, assess business risk, predict maintenance, and improve energy efficiency, among many other money-saving tasks.

AI is one part of what we refer to broadly as automation, and automation is a hot topic because of potential job loss. Experts say automation will eliminate 73 million more jobs by 2030. However, automation is creating jobs as well as eliminating them, especially in the field of AI: Pundits predict that jobs in AI will number 23 million by 2020. Jobs will be created in development, programming, testing, support, and maintenance, to name a few. Artificial Intelligence architect is one such job. Some say it will soon rival data scientists in need of skilled professionals. To learn more about potential jobs in AI, read about building a career in AI, or why you should earn an AI certification.

2. Machine Learning
Machine Learning is a subset of AI. With Machine Learning, computers are programmed to learn to do something they are not programmed to do: they learn by discovering patterns and insights from data. In general, we have two types of learning, supervised and unsupervised.

While Machine Learning is a subset of AI, we also have subsets within the domain of Machine Learning, including neural networks, natural language processing (NLP), and deep learning. Each of these subsets offers an opportunity for specializing in a career field that will only grow.

Machine Learning is rapidly being deployed in all kinds of industries, creating a huge demand for skilled professionals. The Machine Learning market is expected to grow to $8.81 billion by 2022. Machine Learning applications are used for data analytics, data mining, and pattern recognition. On the consumer end, Machine Learning powers web search results, real-time ads, and network intrusion detection, to name only a few of the many tasks it can do.

In addition to completing countless tasks on our behalf, it is generating jobs. Machine Learning jobs rank among the top emerging jobs on LinkedIn, with almost 2,000 job listings posted. And these jobs pay well: In 2017, the median salary for a machine learning engineer was $106,225. Machine Learning jobs include engineers, developers, researchers, and data scientists.

3. Robotic Process Automation or RPA
Like AI and Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation, or RPA, is another technology that is automating jobs. RPA is the use of software to automate business processes such as interpreting applications, processing transactions, dealing with data, and even replying to emails. RPA automates repetitive tasks that people used to do. These are not just the menial tasks of a low-paid worker: up to 45 percent of the activities we do can be automated, including the work of financial managers, doctors, and CEOs.

Although Forrester Research estimates RPA automation will threaten the livelihood of 230 million or more knowledge workers or approximately 9 percent of the global workforce, RPA is also creating new jobs while altering existing jobs. McKinsey finds that less than 5 percent of occupations can be totally automated, but about 60 percent can be partially automated.

For you as an IT professional looking to the future and trying to understand technology trends, RPA offers plenty of career opportunities, including developer, project manager, business analyst, solution architect, and consultant. And these jobs pay well. SimplyHired.com says the average RPA salary is $73,861, but that is the average compiled from salaries for junior-level developers up to senior solution architects, with the top 10 percent earning over $141,000 annually. So, if you’re keen on learning and pursuing a career in RPA, the Introduction to Robotic Process Automation (RPA) course should be the next step you take to kickstart an RPA career.

4. Edge Computing
Formerly a technology trend to watch, cloud computing has become mainstream, with major players AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud dominating the market. The adoption of cloud computing is still growing, as more and more businesses migrate to a cloud solution. But it’s no longer the emerging technology.

As the quantity of data we’re dealing with continues to increase, we’ve realized the shortcomings of cloud computing in some situations. Edge computing is designed to help solve some of those problems as a way to bypass the latency caused by cloud computing and getting data to a data center for processing. It can exist “on the edge,” if you will, closer to where computing needs to happen. For this reason, edge computing can be used to process time-sensitive data in remote locations with limited or no connectivity to a centralized location. In those situations, edge computing can act like mini datacenters. Edge computing will increase as the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices increases. By 2022, the global edge computing market is expected to reach $6.72 billion. As with any growing market, this will create various jobs, primarily for software engineers.

If you wish to get a thorough understanding of edges means, and how is it different from cloud computing, give it a read here!

5. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
Virtual Reality (VR) immerses the user in an environment while Augment Reality (AR) enhances their environment. Although VR has primarily been used for gaming thus far, it has also been used for training, as with VirtualShip, a simulation software used to train U.S. Navy, Army, and Coast Guard ship captains. The popular Pokemon Go is an example of AR.

Both VR and AR have enormous potential in training, entertainment, education, marketing, and even rehabilitation after an injury. Either could be used to train doctors to do surgery, offer museum-goers a deeper experience, enhance theme parks, or even enhance marketing, as with this Pepsi Max bus shelter.

There are major players in the VR market, like Google, Samsung, and Oculus, but plenty of startups are forming and they will be hiring, and the demand for professionals with VR and AR skills will only increase. Getting started in VR doesn’t require a lot of specialized knowledge. Basic programming skills and a forward-thinking mindset can land a job, although other employers will be looking for optics as a skill-set and hardware engineers as well.

6. Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity might not seem like emerging technology, given that it has been around for a while, but it is evolving just as other technologies are. That’s in part because threats are constantly new. The malevolent hackers who are trying to illegally access data are not going to give up any time soon, and they will continue to find ways to get through even the toughest security measures. It’s also in part because new technology is being adapted to enhance security. As long as we have hackers, we will have cyber security as an emerging technology because it will constantly evolve to defend against those hackers.

As proof of the strong need for cybersecurity professionals, the number of cybersecurity jobs is growing three times faster than other tech jobs. However, we’re falling short when it comes to filling those jobs. As a result, it’s predicted that we will have 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs by 2021.

Many cybersecurity jobs pay six-figure incomes, and roles can range from the ethical hacker to security engineer to Chief Security Officer, offering a promising career path for someone who wants to get into and stick with this domain.

7. Blockchain
Although most people think of blockchain technology in relation to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, blockchain offers security that is useful in many other ways. In the simplest of terms, blockchain can be described as data you can only add to, not take away from or change. Hence the term “chain” because you’re making a chain of data. Not being able to change the previous blocks is what makes it so secure. In addition, blockchains are consensus-driven, so no one entity can take control of the data. With blockchain, you don’t need a trusted third-party to oversee or validate transactions. You can refer to our Blockchain tutorial for a detailed and thorough understanding of the technology.

Several industries are involving and implementing blockchain, and as the use of blockchain technology increases, so too does the demand for skilled professionals. In that regard, we are already behind. According to Techcrunch.com, blockchain-related jobs are the second-fastest growing category of jobs, with 14 job openings for every one blockchain developer. A blockchain developer specializes in developing and implementing architecture and solutions using blockchain technology. The average yearly salary of a blockchain developer is $130,000. If you are intrigued by Blockchain and its applications and want to make your career in this fast-growing industry, then this is the right time to learn Blockchain and gear up for an exciting future.

8. Internet of Things (IoT)
Many “things” are now being built with WiFi connectivity, meaning they can be connected to the Internet—and to each other. Hence, the Internet of Things, or IoT. The Internet of Things is the future and has already enabled devices, home appliances, cars, and much more to be connected to and exchange data over the Internet. And we’re only in the beginning stages of IoT: the number of IoT devices reached 8.4 billion in 2017 is expected to reach 30 billion devices by 2020.

As consumers, we’re already using and benefiting from IoT. We can lock our doors remotely if we forget to when we leave for work and preheat our ovens on our way home from work, all while tracking our fitness on our Fitbits and hailing a ride with Lyft. But businesses also have much to gain now and in the near future. The IoT can enable better safety, efficiency, and decision making for businesses as data is collected and analyzed. It can enable predictive maintenance, speed up medical care, improve customer service, and offer benefits we haven’t even imagined yet.

However, despite this boon in the development and adoption of IoT, experts say not enough IT professionals are getting trained for IoT jobs. An article at ITProToday says we’ll need 200,000 more IT workers that aren’t yet in the pipeline, and that a survey of engineers found 25.7 percent believe inadequate skill levels to be the industry’s biggest obstacle to growth. For someone interested in a career in IoT, that means easy entry into the field if you’re motivated, with a range of options for getting started. Skills needed include IoT security, cloud computing knowledge, data analytics, automation, understanding of embedded systems, device knowledge, to name only a few. After all, it’s the Internet of Things, and those things are many and varied, meaning the skills needed are as well.”

These technologies are promising that anticipates great opportunities and great challenges for business owners. Embracing change and adopting new technologies and trends will keep your company competitive in the market. Focusing on new digital transformation will help your business grow.

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Resources:

>https://www.simplilearn.com/top-technology-trends-and-jobs-article

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Technologies from smartwatch to smartphone to computers to robotics, made their way to this modern world which will likely emerge to a much better, faster, more portable and higher-powered than ever before. With all of these revolutions, technology has also made our lives easier, faster, better, and more fun.

The advancement of the technologies have provided quicker ways to communicate through instant messaging apps and social media platforms.

“Social media isn’t the only big statement digital technology has made. Neither is social media the only way technology has had an impact in everyone’s life… Before mobile technology, you had to search through a dictionary to understand the meaning of a word. Now you can look words up in a dictionary app or quickly search the Internet. Beyond words, you can search for practically anything on the Internet using search engines like Google and Bing.” says Kristijan from an article in Aging In Place.

Another article from The Future of Things provided HR Technology features that helps businesses in some ways, “Businesses already adopted many changes that entirely modified the way some tasks are being handled, and that’s for the better. The tendencies that happen in business at the moment will have a direct impact on the profitability of companies. There are official reports created by trustful research companies and business magazines that emphasize the current global market. One of the reports was published by Accenture in 2017, and it presented a vision that finally contoured now.

Executives can now rely on software programs that are able to organize the information they need in order to keep the business running. Back-office and HR technology represents the future of managing a business. This could lead to saving huge amounts of money. Cutting costs on managerial services by using software that gathers all processes together and handles them at once represents a big step forward for the business industry. Here are some features that business owners can use since the technological boom happened:

Tracking time efficiently
Tracking time implies many calculations and human errors can lead to serious consequences. Having a program handling this task is safer and rapid. Time tracking in businesses is directly linked to internal costs and margins, that have to be estimated correctly. Every business should invest in customization time-tracking software programs to improve profit rates.

Having all expenses in one single place
Calculating mileage can be troubling if the expenses are not stored properly. Having the business receipts in one place only and automatically calculating the mileage or the taxes based on the respective receipts can minimize errors and reduce the time spent on completing these tasks.

Handling client invoicing better
Client invoicing often involves legal issues, so it’s best to handle them technologically rather than manually. One way to do it is by generating and storing them in a program. Streamlining payments and recovering costs has never been so easy.

Storing documents in the cloud
Physical archives should remain in the past. Only regulated businesses require hard copies of their documents. Modern businesses have the chance to store all their documents in the cloud. Since cybersecurity improved visibly in the past few years, there is nothing to worry about.

24/7 access
This is one feature that business owners should appreciate the most. The fact that they can access complex databases from the comfort of their home, without being required to go to the office to make a major change or send a report is perhaps the biggest benefit of them all.

These are processes that previously required one employee for each category. Entrepreneurs can now use a simple program to handle all of them at the same time, without requiring further guidance or paying five different salaries. Buying a software license instead is much cheaper and ten times more effective. An online electronic solution could save entrepreneurs a lot of money, time – which is the most precious resource – and energy.”

Artificial Intelligence

It was also posted in Forbes that “The companies succeeding with AI are those that are reorienting their entire business around the technology. Their leaders are finding ways to incorporate advanced data analytics and automation into marketing, business development, customer service, and virtually every other business process. By making AI part of their DNA, these companies are poised to capitalize as advancements continue.

Of course, implementing AI — or any new technology — isn’t without its hurdles, especially for companies without an abundance of in-house technical expertise. But early adopters understand that the technology is still in its infancy and embrace the challenges that accompany integration. They know it’s better to face those difficulties now than to sit on the sidelines and miss the opportunities that AI will present in the near future.

If you’re a business leader planning your own AI implementation, there are several steps you can take to both minimize short-term challenges and maximize long-term value.

1. Align AI use with specific business objectives.
2. Turn existing jobs into “superjobs.”
3. Teach your team to work with data and AI solutions.

Technology has truly left a huge impact and will definitely continue to evolve and will surely evolutionize our lives.

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Resources:

https://aginginplace.org/technology-in-our-life-today-and-how-it-has-changed/

https://thefutureofthings.com/12195-how-technology-will-shape-the-future-of-business/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/serenitygibbons/2019/09/19/the-technology-of-the-future-is-changing-business-today/#36eb93ae4fe1

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