Gartner: The most important strategic tech trends for 2019

A new year is a chance to conquer new horizons, tackle new business ideas and implement them, and advance innovations. To fulfill these intentions, it’s imperative to know the latest advances and master the technologies behind them.

For this reason, we ‘ve already published a series of articles on Handelskraft. Here we give you a complete overview of the most important trends for 2019: AI, marketing, commerce, SEO and social media, and digital platforms.

Technology determines all areas of a digital economy and society, including trends. That’s why we’re highlighting Gartner’s strategic tech trends for 2019. The companies that succeed in bringing these into their business processes will be at the top and stand out from the competition.

»Intelligent Digital Mesh«

Gartner describes the connection of people, devices, content and services as an »intelligent digital network«. This includes digital models, business platforms, and a rich, intelligent service offering that ultimately enables a successful digital business.

Like last year, Gartner identified ten strategic tech trends:

The AI-Factor

The influence, spread, and development of artificial intelligence continue to increase. Not only will AI become the mainstay of any technology in 2019, but it’ll also become more intelligent and independent of people.

Autonomous things

According to Gartner, autonomous devices like drones, robots, or self-driving cars will not only use their AI to perform more activities, but also to improve their interactions with their environment and humans.

The next limit is cooperative intelligent (and in many cases self-contained) things that are much more than automated and iterative.  For a mail order company, it could look like this: Robots and drones aboard an autonomous vehicle ensure delivery of the package.

Augmented analytics

The smart use of data (aka business intelligence) is becoming increasingly important. Augmented analytics that uses machine learning is used for data preparation, data management, business process management, process mining, and data science platforms. In addition, it’s embedded in various departments to optimise decisions and actions of all employees.

Data processing and data analysis are no longer just in the hands of data scientists. 

AI-Driven development

The AI factor also enables programmers to implement AI-enabled functionality using predefined as-a-service models. AI is also being used for app development and testing. By 2022, at least 40 per cent of app development projects will be AI co-developers.

In this area too, AI will support non-specialists in creating innovative solutions.

Connecting Online and Offline Worlds

As digital and physical worlds merge, the demand for a seamless and immersive user and shopping experiences increases. Well-known technologies such as VR, AR, digital twin, and edge computing play a major role here. Over the next few years, their range of use (and thus the Internet of Things) will expand.

Digital twin

Digital twin means much more than the mere virtual representation of a physical product. By 2020, Gartner estimates there will be more than 20 billion networked sensors and endpoints and that digital twins will exist for billions of things.

IoT wants to implement digital twins of their organizations (DTOs)

– Vice President of Gartner, David Cearley

According to Gartner, DTOs help increase the efficiency of business processes. They provide more flexible, dynamic and responsive processes that can automatically respond to changing conditions.

Empowered edge

Latency is critical when connecting to different networked devices. We live in a world where INSTANT rules. The faster the data is transferred, the more accurate the response and the better the resulting service. 5G is a very relevant topic here as it not only offers lower latency but also higher bandwidth and a huge increase in the number of nodes.

Edge computing describes a computation process where information processing and content collection and delivery will take place closer to these endpoints. Traffic and processing remain local. The goal is to reduce latency.

Immersive experience

VR, AR, and mixed reality are on Gartner’s radar again this year. The focus is on conversational platforms that are changing the way people interact with the digital world.

Messaging apps are becoming increasingly popular for customer service and people are already getting used to virtual assistants and chatbots through their smartphones. As user behaviour continues to evolve, more advanced approaches are needed. This new insight is called a multimodal experience.

The multimodal experience will connect people with the digital world across hundreds of edge devices that surround them […] and will use all human senses as well as advanced computer senses (such as heat, humidity and radar) across these multimodal devices. In effect, the environment is the computer.

In the future, a conversational platform will be able to recognise emotions based on facial expressions, engage in dialogue, and offer deals. The human-machine interaction, therefore, becomes more conversational.

The power lies in the connection

Blockchain

Will 2019 be the year for the establishment of the Blockchain? Although its use extends beyond banking to government, healthcare, manufacturing and delivery processes, Gartner’s answer is »not yet.«

Pure blockchain models are immature and can be difficult to scale. However, businesses should begin evaluating the technology, as blockchain will create $3.1T in business value by 2030

Smart spaces

A smart space is a physical or digital environment in which humans and technology-based systems interact in increasingly open, connected, coordinated, and intelligent ecosystems (aka digital platforms). 

What comes to mind first? Smart cities and smart goverment. But there’s even more. So, getting a technology to work better and more efficiently at any time, anywhere should be high on a business’s agenda. Key phrase: New work.

You have to take responsibility

Privacy and ethics

Users are better informed and more engaged in their privacy rights and how their data is being used. They value sustainable initiatives and transparency about the use of their personal data. 

Retailers, manufacturers and brands that do not take this issue seriously can lose consumer confidence. Gartner’s recipe for success also consists of trust and ethics.

“Companies must gain and maintain trust with the customer to succeed, and they must also follow internal values to ensure customers view them as trustworthy”.

A new buzzword?

Quantum computing

Gartner has mentioned a new term that will become one of the killer technologies: Quantum Computing (QC).

QC is a kind of non-classical computing based on the quantum state of subatomic particles that presents information as elements — quantum bits or »qubits«.

Quantum computers promise an enormous increase in performance compared to normal computers. Companies from a wide range of sectors such as automotive, finance, insurance, and pharmaceuticals are already working on their first applications. It’s all about data – the more, the better – and the prediction of events. IBM and Microsoft are paving the way for innovation with this technology.

But the quantum computing pipeline will last a few more years. The learning phase and the search for the first use cases were extended until 2022. The implementation phase will begin starting in 2023.

There are so many topics that will play an important role (from Gartner’s perspective) in 2019.

Drive innovation from trends

In our newest trend book, Handelskraft 2019 »Digital DNA« we show how digital customer relations, artificial intelligence (AI), and new work are shaping the future of digital transformations.

In addition to trends and industry insights, our trend book, exclusively for dealers, manufacturers, and publishers, provides up-to-date facts and figures for brands in the digital age.

Pre-order the trend book now!