Technology Outlook For 2019: What Experts Are Saying
It’s that time of year where everyone is predicting the future. As we move from 2018 into 2019, the technology industry certainly has seen a slew of new developments and will foresee many more technological advancements in the next one year and beyond. CXOToday comes up with a list of opinions from experts in the IT industry to know what they believe would be the top tech trends for 2019. Excerpts.
Vijender Yadav, CEO at Accops Systems
Makarand Joshi, Area Vice President and Country Head, India Subcontinent, Citrix
“We see four key technology trends shaping the next stage of transformation, in 2019.
Cloud Integration – The next wave of transformation through cloud technology will be through its integration with AI, machine learning, analytics and robotics
Shantha Maheswari, Managing Director – Industry Practice, Accenture Advanced Technology Centers in India
Accenture sees two broad factors shaping the retail industry – on one hand, rapid advancements in technology are enabling retailers to create innovative experiences for products and services to consumers; and on the other hand the fundamental definition of retail is itself evolving.
In the Accenture Technology Vision 2018, we said that the world is reimagining itself not just around digital innovationbut, by extension, around the companies that provide the innovative services. People are not just using companies’ products and services, but are feeding information and access back to them, and retail is perhaps one of the best examples of this trend. As a result, to deliver such “integrated innovation,” retailers need a profound level of insight into, and integration with, people’s lives and their partners’ business. As a result, technologies like analytics and artificial intelligence in the retail industry will enable retailers to develop more personalized experiences for consumers.
Retail will also be one of the early trend-setters in the adoption of immersive experiences for consumers, effectively changing the way people connect with information, products, services, experiences, and each other. We can expect more virtual reality and augmented reality-based solutions from retailers to woo their customers and enrich their experiences.
Additionally, retailers who are more progressively adopting technologies to grow their business will realize that theyneed to build a greater degree of trust with their customers, and this is significant. The expansion of customer touch points will force retailers to transition from a fixed real estate distribution strategy to a dynamic marketplace-level service strategy. To grow in the future, retailers must use innovation to reimagine offerings, selling and operating models. Emerging technologies will create new affiliations and partnerships in the industry, enabling retailers to achieve new levels of growth and differentiation. Technologies like AI, robotics and automation will significantly influence supply chain and logistics.
Attackers won’t just target AI systems, they will enlist AI techniques themselves to supercharge their own criminal activities. Automated systems powered by AI could probe networks and systems searching for undiscovered vulnerabilities that could be exploited.AI could also be used to make phishing and other social engineering attacks even more sophisticated by creating extremely realistic video and audio or well-crafted emails designed to fool targeted individuals. AI could also be used to launch realistic disinformation campaigns. For example, imagine a fake AI-created, realistic video of a company CEO announcing a large financial loss, a major security breach, or other major news. Widespread release of such a fake video could have a significant impact on the company before the true facts are understood.
And just as we see attack toolkits available for sale online, making it relatively easy for attackers to generate new threats, we’re certain to eventually see AI-powered attack tools that can give even petty criminals the ability to launch sophisticated targeted attacks. With such tools automating the creation of highly personalized attacks–attacks that have been labor-intensive and costly in the past–such AI-powered toolkits could make the marginal cost of crafting each additional targeted attack essentially be zero.
Srikanth Sundararajan, Partner of Ventureast
“Global trends are very clear, with the availability of more and more data, businesses will have to be data driven to enable efficiency and competitive advantage. Data alone is not enough, it is the leverage of data in a precise and smart manner that will help organizations. AI, NLP, Machine Learning are all key ingredients in enabling organizations to analyse and leverage data in smart ways. It is not only big data, but deep data because one is able to now collect data at a very granular level and piece together a unified view of the organization. A good example of this is the cross over between IOT (especially IP enabled devices) in the area of predictive maintenance. A baseline or a data twin of a particular equipment is created, refined and compared with actual field data to enable a more accurate and efficient way to provide maintenance. This is especially useful where each equipment is very costly, such as turbines, oil rig components, probes, engines, medical equipment, unmanned vehicles. Companies like Samsung, Bosch, Siemens are already making forays here.
The use of blockchain as a smart, secure, immutable data store will also gain momentum as a more mainstream activity, especially in enterprises; there has been some seminal work being done in this regard by IBM Research Labs. Deep learning as it relates to feature extraction from images will also provide immense benefits in the area of health care, environmental sciences, security etc. Advances in mobile technology, and AR/VR will also change the communication landscape and how content will be shared and consumed. BOTs as means to create efficiency, and advances in the area of RPA have already brought in efficiency gains in the area of back office automation and customer support. In short the next 5 years will be an exciting ride, with plenty of opportunities to create new companies focused on the above areas.”
Gaurav Tikoo, CMO, TRANSSION India
“The Indian smartphone industry is going through a paradigm shift and the players emerging victorious will hold the capability of serving the diversities. Diversity by way of catering to the lowest strata of first-time smartphone users, and by providing the best of experience to users who are in pursuit of entering the premium segment. The 7-15K category will deliver maximum contribution in 2019, thus making it the segment that smartphone players will place their bets on. Also, AI-enabled cameras will soon become a “must-have” feature in the mid-range and under 10K segments. Artificial Intelligence led camera features like Auto-Scene detection, beauty mode, and face unlock will witness further refinement, thus boosting their efficiency. Augmented Reality will no longer be a buzzword, and we envision these phones to deliver real-life virtual experiences on-screen and everywhere. 2019 will go beyond dual camera setup and will have multiple camera module as the key trend to look out for.”
Ankush Sachdeva, CEO, ShareChat
“Contrary to common belief that videos are the most consumed format of content, regional language internet users have been found to be using text in images format, revealed ShareChat Year End Report. While, videos in regional languages are witnessing an upswing, text behind backgrounds are the most preferred content format for creation and consumption.
“With people being able to access social media in their regional languages, user generated content is expected to grow by leaps and bounds. These would be content created by common people in towns and cities capturing real time events and happenings around them for the people around them. Advanced camera technologies and machine learning will act as catalyst that will swell up UGC which will outgrow studio content. Further, regional language usage has upped the UGC game in the market and we will soon see many content in Indian dialects spoken amongst certain communities becoming mainstream and popular. Another shift we expect is the way e-commerce has been happening in India. In order to tap local consumers, e-commerce will become hyperlocal with small shops starting to think of online presence using social media.”
