“All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else.” – Isaac Asimov, Foundation’s Edge   If 2018 was a year of innovation, we still have miles to go, because 2019 will sweep you over with its magnificent offerings. We saw wireless companies looking forward to 5G; Google almost stole the show with its Duplex AI.

We saw a year of turbulence for Bitcoin value, yet Blockchain technology continued to evolve, and in the meanwhile, Amazon showed us Alexa is here to stay. Here, we take a look at five emerging technology trends for 2019.  

Artificial Intelligence: By now even a fifth-grader knows that AI is about machines with human attributes, which means they are capable of speaking, reading, seeing and even recognizing human emotion and acting accordingly. Thus, machines can complete a lot of tasks, especially mundane everyday jobs by “learning” from repeated interactions.

Also, algorithms are developed that can adapt to location, speech or user history and thus, machines can perform even difficult or risky tasks, more accurately or much faster than humans. The year 2019, according to most analysts will witness more widespread use of AI. With AI you have the opportunity of customizing products and services as per changing needs and also gain a competitive advantage over competitors.  

Augmented Reality: Augmented reality will be another head turner for 2019. It consists of systems that combine real-time 3D vision, sound, haptics (the sense of touch), location data and smell to enable people to re-imagine their existence in some other place.

This also means responding to their surroundings and altering their virtual environment in real-time. In 2019 more and more enterprises will apply augmented reality for commerce, education and even the military for training, communication, and innovation.  

IoT: If there’s one thing that will beat all other trends on this page, it is the Internet of Things. The year 2018 was an eye-opener. 2019 and beyond the world will actually discover the benefits of connected living.

Needless to say, IoT will lay the foundation for new business models, platforms and possibilities that will transform our living. IoT, I must say, will open up a sea of opportunities for professionals willing to apply their technical knowledge to connect platforms as well as those with the data analytics skills to utilize the rich stream of information generated by IoT applications.  

Blockchain: Blockchain, a form of Distributed Ledger Technology, underlies Bitcoin, a digital asset and payment system, which was introduced as Open Source software for peer-to-peer transaction management systems without the need for a mediator. All transactions made by this means are verified by a network of nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called Blockchain.

Companies are already using Blockchain technology to transform the more time-consuming, centralized, less reliable, and less secure legacy systems into something that is more secure and faster at work.

To quote an example, the Digital democracy platform MyVote uses Blockchain to store users’ personal data and voting history to give citizens a more direct voice in the political process. Expect more surprises in 2019.  

Automation: Perhaps Isaac Asimov was right. We started with automation as early as the 1960s. But it is only recently that we have discovered its actual usefulness. We must take a hard look at ourselves and think of what automation can do for us.

Apart from performing all manual jobs (that we have done so many times and yet make the same mistakes), automation will transform our lives in more ways than you can think of. From convenient devices at home to industrial applications on a massive scale, automation will be a key focus of technological change in 2019, with potentially far-reaching economic and social consequences.

Already, automation has replaced humans in the legal and finance industry, and will soon take over other segments. Other trends that did not make it to the top five but will create ripples are 3D printing, implanted wearables for healthcare, and natural language processing for enabling human-like conversations among organic and digital agents.  

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