A range of tech trends, some inchoate and others more established, are likely to change how we access information, crunch data, make decisions, view the world around us, interact with our devices and communicate with each other in the coming year. Let us take a quick look at some of the top ones.
Ever Faster Connectivity
Voice as UI
Voice assistants – Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, Cortana, and Bixby, among others – are an obligatory staple of virtually every smartphone, tablet and later-generation laptop on the planet. Increasingly, they are also serving as primary or secondary user interfaces in everything from smart speakers to cars. While these assistants still struggle with the nuances of human communication, their AI-powered capabilities have been improving by leaps and bounds with every interaction. While you will not be having a heart-to-heart with your favorite voice-enabled device any time soon, it will get better and better at understanding your more complex commands.
AI as a Service
This somewhat new as-a-service offering is gradually making the data-crunching power of artificial intelligence accessible to even small firms, which typically lack the considerable wherewithal needed to acquire and configure the equipment and software that machine learning tasks require. The list of firms offering artificial intelligence-as-a service (AIaas) and machine learning-as-a-service (MLaas) include the usual suspects – Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM – and smaller, lesser-known startups such as ForecastThis, Dataiku, and BigML.
Prescriptive Analytics
Final Thoughts
These tech trends intersect in much the same way threads do in a tapestry. For instance, faster connectivity makes the process of gathering data from IoT devices more efficient. In turn, this data makes it easier to refine predictive analyses and voice-as-UI services. Apart from these current and possible future benefits, these intersections and tech trends are interesting to track because nobody knows the full extent of the changes they will set in motion. Will they lead to an Edenic utopia or a Skynet? Time will tell.
The Atlanta Small Business Network, from start-up to success, we are your go-to resource for small business news, information, resources.
While you’re here, don’t forget to subscribe to our email newsletter for all the latest business news know-how from Atlanta Small Business Network.
This has been a JBF Business Media production.