Seven emerging tech trends in 2018
Accenture has released its eleventh annual Fjord Trends report, which examines seven tech trends expected to impact business, technology and design in the year ahead.
According to the report, emerging technologies are uprooting the digital and physical experiences of everyday life, creating an unprecedented wave of change that causes both concern and optimism.
“Each of our 2018 trends is born out of a fundamental tension – be it a shift, a collision or a parting of ways,” said Mark Curtis, co-founder and chief client officer at Fjord.
“Digital versus physical, human versus machine, centralised versus decentralised, speed versus craft, automation versus control, traceability versus anonymity. Winners in 2018 will be those who best navigate these tensions and seize the opportunity to collectively design the world we’ll be living in.”
- Physical fights back
Digital has had the limelight long enough – there are two brand experience headliners now. The time has come to blend the digital with the physical.
- Computers have eyes
As well as comprehending our words, computers now understand images without any help from us. Imagine the exciting possibilities for next-generation digital services.
- Slaves to the algorithm
How do you design a marketing strategy to win over the algorithms – immune to conventional branding efforts – that sit between brands and their customers?
- A machine’s search for meaning
Artificial intelligence might change our jobs, but need not eliminate them. We can – and should – design our collaboration with the machines that will help us develop.
- In transparency we trust
Blockchain has the potential to create transparency that will clear the fog of Internet ambiguity, regain lost trust, and repair relationships with the public.
- The ethics economy
Organisations are feeling the heat to take stands on political and societal hot button issues, whether they want to or not. And consumers are speaking with their dollars, choosing brands that align with their core beliefs.
- Design outside the lines
Design’s rapid ascedency and newfound respect within organisations is a win for all. But, in a world in which everyone thinks they’re a designer, today’s practitioners need to evolve – how they work, learn and differentiate themselves – if they are to continue having impact.
“Many of the thorny questions ahead of us revolve around human-machine interactions, the consequences of which will be profound for individuals, society and organisations of all kinds,” said Baiju Shah, global co-lead at Fjord and managing director at Accenture Interactive.
“As digital fades from being stand-alone to being embedded in our physical world, our relationships with everything around us will be redefined.”
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