Whether you’re an old-school business owner or a cutting-edge entrepreneur, technology will play an important role in your business’s future. In fact, modern business won’t even exist without it! That’s why it’s so important to keep up with new trends in the technology world and make sure your company is ready to take advantage of them when they become available.
Businesses are now realizing the importance of using technology to stay competitive, but it can be difficult to know where to start. The future of technology in business looks very different from what it was 10 years ago, and it’s important that businesses keep up with these changes so they can keep innovating and driving growth. Here are the top four technology trends that will shape business in the next decade.
Blockchain
It may not be a trend yet, but blockchain is here to stay. The distributed ledger system (which supports bitcoin) will revolutionize everything from financial transactions to record keeping and management of company documents. It’s secure and transparent, so both companies and their employees can rest easy knowing no data has been tampered with. Thanks to blockchain, there’s potential for improved efficiency and accuracy throughout your business processes.
Artificial Intelligence
AI will permeate through all aspects of business, changing how we work and think. AI will create a growing demand for qualified data scientists, software engineers, and mathematicians to feed artificial-intelligence systems. As machines begin taking over menial tasks from humans (and vice versa), both manual and cognitive skillsets will become even more valued. Think of your own job: What can be automated? How can you use technology to do your job better?
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
With augmented reality and virtual reality coming on strong, businesses of all sizes have begun to consider their possible impacts. Although these two types of technologies are often confused with one another, they’re not synonymous; augmented reality is a way to layer additional information or media onto our existing physical world, while virtual reality creates an entirely new environment for people to interact with digitally.
5G
This next-generation wireless network, which has already been rolled out in several test cities across America, has ten times greater capacity than current networks and supports data speeds that are 100 times faster than 4G LTE. 5G will connect everything from smart streetlights to self-driving cars, allowing local businesses to respond with lightning speed to customers’ needs.
With the rapid pace of technological innovation, it can be difficult to predict where the business will go in the next decade. But many analysts have studied various trends to try and get a glimpse into the future of business technology and how that will impact society as we know it today. While it’s impossible to pinpoint exactly what will happen, we can look at emerging technologies and make informed predictions on what could happen in the future—and that’s exactly what these experts have done.
