Kevin Gardner, Negosentro | Technology and innovation always change the face of business. And in today’s world, the cycles are moving faster. You need to know what kind of technology trends are happening in order to compete in your industry. That way you can get ahead of the curve and leverage them to get an edge on the competition. Here are four trends to look out for:
- AI
Artificial intelligence is gaining ground in every industry around the world. The ability to program machines to do human tasks is something that is going to change the business world forever. Right now, the changes we are seeing are only the beginning. There are even new businesses looking into fusing artificial intelligence with human intelligence through brain implants. Smaller ventures like the Neurohacker Collective aim to achieve enhanced cognitive ability through supplements rather than implants.
AI is being used to send nanobots to attack viruses and bacteria to help those in need of medical attention. It is being used for smart machine learning in which the software programs are becoming smarter after every iteration. Using complicated math and a lot of processing power is what prevented AI from becoming more mainstream before now. However, its reaching the hands of the masses and businesses everywhere are using it to automate their processes and gain efficiency in their operations. In the future, entire businesses could be built off robotics in industries that need them, such as service, repair, and dangerous duties like firefighting.
- Big Data
The reality about data is that it is only valuable if you use it. You should already be collecting it, that is a given. But what big data has done is give a people a way to analyze large amounts of data to pull out key insights.
Before, this was cumbersome. But with modern dashboards and other UI functions, any manager in your company can see reports of data that allow them to make decisions without being a computer scientist.
Furthermore, the technology that runs calculations has come a long way. Most modern computers can run data sets without issue. This is especially true with the advent of programming languages like the open source R, which lets you run statistical analysis and predict the likelihood of an event happening.
Right now, pharmaceutical companies are using this to decide which drugs to push into the market. And every company can use it to predict which product will be a big hit. So don’t overlook big data, no matter how much or little information you have collected so far from your market.
- Marketing Automation
If you are wasting your time manually entering in social media posts and sending out emails, it’s time to stop. The same goes for if you have someone that you hired to do it. With marketing automation, you can create the content once and schedule it once. It will automatically send out at the right time and track all of the clicks, likes, and conversions you get.
- Blockchain
Bitcoin made blockchain famous. But even if Bitcoin fails as a concept, the blockchain idea it leaves behind will transform finance and even transactions for every business. The transparent nature means that each time someone sends or receives money, they are leaving a footprint in a public ledger that cannot be altered. This can reduce fraud for companies, meaning you don’t get hit with major chargebacks.
Business and technology go hand in hand today. That is even more true now with the advent of digital technology that is taking over every aspect of our lives, especially the internet. So to prevent your company from falling to the wayside, make sure you are jumping on the trends above. It will help you get more done, faster, with less expenses than ever before. Then you can have peace of mind as your stress levels go down and your profits continue to increase.
