By Xavier Kong
TELENOR Research has identified 20 tech trends that will define 2020, as consumers and users grow more tech-savvy and environmentally-conscious.
Companies are also expected to examine how and where technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), and new network innovations work best and most securely connect them with the people and things that matter most.
“Many of the trends we spotlight for this year show innovation charging ahead faster than ever, enabled by more access and more demand, as well as by revolutionary new tech platforms and sociopolitical forces,” says head of Telenor Research Bjørn Taale Sandberg at a briefing on Jan 17.
Sandberg further shared that the trends suggest users are having a “common technological epiphany, a kind of digital realisation.”
IoT and 5G came into the spotlight again, as mentions were given to a growing “internet” of connected health, medical, and communications implants. Sandberg pointed to Elon Musk’s Neuralink — which is exploring data input by thought alone — as well as automatic insulin pumps which react to a blood sugar sensor implanted in the patient’s body.
2020 also marks the year where widespread launches for 5G in industrial activities will be seen in most developed economies.
“Mobile providers will put 5G’s speed and capacity at centre stage, but the real innovations, and with them, sweeping societal changes, will come from behind the scenes where industries are getting together and mixing things up,” said Sandberg, listing network-slicing, which can allow business-critical or emergency services unencumbered access over mobile internet, as an example.
Other key trends included the issue of trust, as users grow more savvy and wary about sharing their personal information, as well as the need to identify “dirty data”, defined as data sets that are “inaccurate, biased, or compromised” which in turn could cause decisions or solutions offered via machine learning or AI platforms to be flawed.
Sandberg touched on the issue of scandals that have leveraged personal information, and that there is a growing minority of people who understand that free services come at a cost – personal data and other such information that would be offered for those services.
“In 2020, we believe customers will increasingly reserve trust to companies which have a line of revenue independent from how much they know about us personally,” noted Sandberg.
In terms of dirty data, he pointed to the example of Amazon’s hiring tool, which it shut down quickly once it caught on that the AI was biased against female candidates. This was due to the biased data set that was used to teach the AI behind the tool, which had a male-majority, leading to the tool “learning” to select male candidates over females.
Another trend is how consumers have become more environmentally-conscious, and are holding the companies they interact with to higher standards.
“In 2020, no one will be satisfied with empty words, greenwashing or drop-in-the-bucket efforts anymore. In 2020, we will see green innovations go beyond the hype, using combinations of IoT, big data and AI tech to measure consumption, reduce demand and significantly reduce carbon footprints while cutting costs and building new revenue streams,” noted Sandberg, naming ExxonMobil’s fracking as well as Volkswagen’s cheating on its emissions as examples. – Jan 17, 2020
