Future of technology in 2021

Technology today is growing at such a rapid pace, enabling faster processes and more innovative designs. What does that mean to us? It means that we should be staying with the current technology trends and keeping our eyes on the future, since it might affect our jobs or instead, open new opportunities. So here are top technology trends for 2021 that you should learn about.

Internet of Behaviors (IoB)

Techniques such as facial recognition, tracking and big data are on the rise. These are also increasingly linked to other information, such as purchases and device usage. This data will increasingly be used by companies and organizations to influence human behavior in the future. That's why the Internet of Behaviors, or IoB for short, is seen as a major trend for 2021.

We could take as an example of the current Covid-19 pandemic: with the help of information from various sensors or RFID chips, companies could determine whether the employees of a company regularly wash and disinfect their hands. Facial recognition could be used to check that mouth-nose masks are worn correctly. And smart speakers could indicate that they are failing to comply with hygiene rules.

We avoid the term surveillance in connection with the IoB, even if this trend is likely to amount to it. After all, the market augurs point out ethical and social side effects that could be problematic in terms of data protection and, depending on the region, limit the implementation of the IoB trend.

Let's take fitness trackers as an example. Their data could not only be used by health insurance companies to record the physical activities of users and to reduce premiums for healthy behaviors. Combined with data from the supermarket, they could also be misused to increase premiums when shopping unhealthy goods.

Whether or not it is held back by privacy concerns and privacy rules, forecasts assume that by the end of 2025, more than half of the world's population will be confronted with an IoB program, whether private, commercial, or state.

AI (artificial intelligence) management

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more and more important, more mature, and entrenched in more and more areas of the business and private world. This makes it all more important to manage AI projects well. Only 53 percent of AI projects currently manage to leave the prototype stage behind.

In order to reach the production stage, AI Engineering (AI) management is needed. This is a discipline that focuses on controlling and managing life cycles for a variety of operationalized AI and decision-making models, such as machine learning or knowledge graphs.

Hyper Automation

Behind hyper automation is the idea that everything that can be automated in a company is also automated. Several technologies, including machine learning, are used to achieve this goal.

Finally, the aim is to quickly identify those processes in a company that require additional automation. If these are known, a rapid implementation of automation should be possible with various techniques.

Many companies have a huge catch-up, so 70 percent of companies will now launch dozens of hyper automation initiatives. Hyper Automation is now inevitable and irreversible.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Robotic Process Automation is another technology that automates jobs, especially repetitive tasks that people use to do. It is similar to AI and Machine Learning. RPA uses software to automate business processes such as processing transactions, dealing with various data, interpreting applications, or even sometimes replying to emails.

Forrester Research estimates that RPA automation will be a threat to 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.

IT professionals that are looking into the future and trying to understand new technology trends, Robotic Process Automation can offer a lot of career opportunities, like consultants, business analysts, project managers or developers. These jobs are well-paid so you might want to keep an eye on this tech trend!

So what’s in it for you?

You might get frightened out thinking that there won’t be any need for human workforce or human interactions in the industries anymore. But that is not true. You not only have to create the machines, but also manage and maintain them which requires a lot of hands-on work. So stepping forward together with the technologies will open up more opportunities for you as well.