Digital Transformation starts from these 10 strategic trends for 2019

Which are the challenges that companies will have to face in 2019? A research made by Gartner, IT Consultancy firm, shows the most important strategical trends that companies should take as point of reference. Some are avant-garde projects, others are applicable only in some areas, other then are already modifying everyday life. Surely these themes will be exploited next year and, anyway, all these technological trends will have, sooner or later, a strong impact on society. David Cearley, VP and Gartner Fellow, explains that the combined effect of all these trends will create major opportunities. Among these, it is striking that ethical and privacy themes, related to digital world, emerge.

Here you have the 10 strategic technological trends for 2019 :

1. Autonomous things: Robots, drones and autonomous vehicles are part of this area. These are objects that will use Artificial Intelligence to automatize processes that previously were performed by humans. Automation goes beyond rigid programming models and uses Artificial Intelligence to achieve advanced behaviors that interacts more naturally with environment and people. “We can expect a passage from standing-alone intelligent things to a swarm of collaborative intelligent things, with multiple devices working together, regardless of people or human inputs”, said Cearley.

2. Augmented Analytics: advanced analytical skills will quickly move towards mainstream adoption. Automatic information got from augmented analysis will be incorporated even in business’ applications used in different areas, such as HR, finance, sales and marketing. The processes of data generation, information generation and data visualization will be automatized.

3. AI-Driven Development: Data Scientists will have to cooperate with applications developers in order to create new solutions optimized for AI.

4. Digital Twins: Virtual representation of processes are developed to make tests, improve functionalities and prevent errors. By 2020, Gartner believes that there will be more than 20 billion of sensors, connected terminals and digital twins at work.  Implemented since the beginning of a process, digital twins will improve, day by day, their abilities to collect and visualize data, apply analyzes and respond effectively to business goals.

5. Empowered Edge: Soon, the trend will be to maintain data traffic and local elaboration, with the aim of reducing traffic and latency. Edge Computing and Cloud Computing will evolve as complementary models on servers located locally and on devices themselves, rather than as centralized services.

6. Immersive Experience: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality are changing the way in which people see Digital. This guides to the future immersive user experience. “Over time, we will move from thinking about individual devices and fragmented user interface (UI) technologies to a multichannel and multimodal experience”, says Cearley. “This multi-expert environment will create an environmental experience in which spaces that surround us define the computer rather than individual devices. Effectively, the environment is the computer”.

7. Blockchain: nowadays trust is placed in banks, compensation rooms, governments and in many others institutions like central authorities that have a “unique version of truth” maintained safely in their databases. Blockchain provides an alternative trust mode and removes the needs for central authorities to arbitrate transactions. IT Managers should start evaluating the blockchain, even if they will not adopt aggressively these technologies soon.

8. Smart Spaces: a smart space is a physical or digital space in which human beings and technology-enabled systems interact in an increasingly open, connected, coordinated and intelligent ecosystem. Technology becomes an integral part of our daily lives: at work, at home, in streets and in public places.

9. Digital Ethics and Privacy: Ethics and Privacy are a growing concern for individuals, organizations and governments. People are increasingly worried about the way personal information are used in both public and private sectors, so it will be necessary to pay a lot of attention to avoid mistrust in customers and consumers. Davide Cearley concludes: “Trust is the acceptance of the truth of a statement without proof or investigations. Ultimately, the position of an organization on privacy must be guided by its broader position on ethics and trust. The transition from Privacy to Ethics move the conversation towards “We are doing things right”.

10. Quantum Computing: Companies in automotive, financial, insurance, pharma and military and research sectors can earn a lot thanks to progresses in this subject. Quantum Computers are devices that have a computing power that is enormously superior to the one of traditional computers and therefore are avant-garde systems. The road to making quantum computers is starting.