Live Streaming It has been a great year for live streaming technology with Periscope, Twitch & most importantly Facebook live upping the ante & live streaming getting accessible & its tech becoming more reliable & fewer issues.
AR/ VR AR/VR have been on the cusp of breaking out for over a few years now but 2016 has been the breakout year with numerous devices launched by almost all the major electronic brands(oculus rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear), AR games being amongst the most popular games of the year — Pokemon GO. Also, the company Magic Leap finally demoed its mind bending AR technology. Valued at $4.5 Billion without even a product release shows the kind of bets being placed on this technology.
Big Data Big Data has been the buzz word in the industry for a few years now, but 2016 has been its most impactful year yet. Enterprises have been reforming their systems to collect greater quantities of data. This data is useful only if interpreted properly with the right analysts. But this year has seen a huge leap in data visualisation, analytics companies helping address that query by providing advanced platforms helping enterprises collect, analyse & decipher data to form accurate conclusions & reports.
Everything OnDemand Ubers has revolutionised the consumer industry with the on demand model & 2016 has seen a craze rush of startups becoming an ‘Uber for xyz…”. Consumers are getting used to getting everything from their laundry, rides to grocery shopping done on demand through nifty little mobile apps.
IoT/ Wearables Wearables have had a great year (except smart watches which is on the decline) with more adoption among the masses as the technology has gone down to an affordable price point. Almost every home appliance today comes with a smart technology option or have 3rd party gadgets creating a smart environment for users.
2017
Machine Learning/AI/Automation From self driving cars , self updating search engine algorithms (Google Rankbrain) to digital assistants & self aware robots, this will be the year where AI will be all upon us. (Skynet is coming!). Though AI has been on the cusp of emerging for a few years now, 2016 has seen strides in this direction & 2017 is only going to take huge strides in that direction. From semi autonomous chat bots, auto replying emails and digital assistants(Siri, Alexa, Cortana) whose capabilities are only getting smarter, better & more accurate this could be the year where we see a lot of advancement in this field.
Unified Digital Experiences With user interaction moving past specific device boundaries, the need for a unified & standardised user experience transcending devices, time & environments is more than ever. While a lot of companies/ products have already started making the move in that direction, 2017 is where the user experience will take centerstage.
Security Architecture With digital footprints becoming wider & more complex with unlimited touch points, cyber security needs to be able to adapt to all these new complexities, threats & come up with ideas to address them. 2017 should see this happening
Home Tech Automation From light bulbs, to tvs, fridges & even door locks, consumers today can create a comprehensive single network smart tech automated home without blowing up a lot of money. It is only going to get smarter & cheaper.
Blockchain Probably the most transformative technology for the Financial Industry, blockchain technology is ripe to go mainstream. With use case validations from banks around the world, 2017 could be the year where this could begin to become the norm instead of the outlier. Crypto-tech space seems to be ready to burst into the mainstream & blockchain is at its helm. This year could also see blockchain technology move beyond payments & into healthcare, crowdfunding etc.
