We are in a technologically advanced era, which is more or less like a 4^th Industrial Revolution and we can confidently assume that technology is growing lightning fast. Businesses irrespective of their sizes and capital have to keep up with the major tech trends if they wish to avoid the risk of lagging. This is why one needs to understand the key trends so that they can utilize the latest technology to their benefit and grasp the potential opportunities.

Let’s have a look at the biggest technology trends to watch out for in the year 2020:

Artificial Intelligence (AI): Perhaps one of the most transformative evolutions till know is ‘Artificial Intelligence’. Businesses today have already started exploring the possibilities of this technology and how they can deploy the same within their business environment to make the operations smoother and streamlined.

In 2020, the technology will grow into a whole different level and people will increasingly work alongside AI, which will give way to designing and deploying personalized AI-system for businesses. At the moment, we can expect the AI applications to be deployed through add-on service platforms, which allows users to simply enter their data and pay-per the algorithms or resources used.

Watch out for – Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

5G: UAE is the first nation in the Arab region to roll-out 5^th generation cellular wireless network, which is also popularly known as ‘5G’ in short. 5G means super-fast download and upload speeds or in layman’s language ‘really fast internet on your 5G enabled smartphone’. It was in the year 2019 that the technology was introduced to the world however it was confined to major cities only. The year 2020 will see widespread reach and adaptation of 5G networks with affordable data plans and improvised coverage. Having better connectivity speed does not only imply better movie or gaming experience but that businesses will be able to utilize stable and high-end internet connections from anywhere. This will lead to better data collection (more real-time data) and transfer, which again will support the creation of a smarter autonomous business system.

Self-driven: Self-driven cars have become a reality now, at least some part of it and it’s just a matter of a few years when self-driving cars will be riding beside you. Apart from ‘Tesla’, Google’s sister company ‘Waymo’ completed a trial of autonomous taxis in California, transporting more than 6200 people. ‘Self-driving’ is a concept, which will not be limited to just cars or taxis but will find its way to heavy shipments as well. However, deploying the concept in a full-fledged fashion would require serious amendments to the existing infrastructure, regulations and overall social attitudes as well. These technological breakthroughs will make headlines in the times to come.

Modern Medicine: There have been multiple reports of ‘Apple Watch’ detecting irregularities in a heartbeat and informing its wearer, thereby saving lives. This is how technology is holding the potential to transform healthcare at an unprecedented rate and devices such as these will allow us to tackle the issue way before the occurrence of any symptoms.

Thanks to the data-driven quality that technology will soon be able to provide, doctors will be able to develop precision medicines targeting specific issues in patients, thereby delivering fast and effective results. Modern technology amalgamated with AI will change the way how we perceive ‘Genomics’.

Computer Vision: The word ‘Vision’ in computing terms talks about a system that identifies items, objects, people and places from visual images, everything collected by a camera or a sensor. A common and current-day example of that is the ‘smile’ feature in most of the smartphone cameras we have today. So if you are smiling while staring at the camera then it will automatically ‘click’ your picture. Another great example is ‘Google Image Search’.

As we pass through 2020, we will experience more of such features being deployed in several devices around us. For instance, camera sensors in cars detecting hazards and acting accordingly or cameras/ scanners in production line identifying ‘faulty’ items. The face-detecting cameras we see at the immigration counters have already set a benchmark, but in 2020 we may see the technology expand to unimaginable limits.

Blockchain Technology: Now this is a technology that we have covered in our previous blog as well.

To define Blockchain simply, it is a chain of blocks, but not in a literal sense. Logically, the ‘blocks’ are ‘digital information’ and the ‘chain’ is the ‘public database’ where this digital information is stored. If things stick to plan, expect to see Facebook’s own blockchain-based cryptocurrency ‘Libra’ which is going to raise some eyebrows.