Gartner believes the “robo” trend, combining AI and automation, will usher in a digital future where people and machines must define harmonious relationships.
This trend, along with the evolution of the Nexus of Forces, create 10 disparate predictions for the major tech trends of 2016 and beyond, the company said.
First, the company predicts that 20% of business content will be authored by machines by 2018. Business content, such as shareholder reports, legal documents, market reports, press releases, articles and white papers, are all candidates for automated writing tools.
Second, six billion connected things will be requesting support by 2018. Responding to service requests from things will spawn entire service industries, and innovative solutions will emerge to improve the efficiency of many types of enterprise.
Third, autonomous software agents outside of human control will participate in 5% of all economic transactions by 2020. We will see algorithms capable of banking, insurance, markets, exchanges, crowdfunding as well as virtually all other types of financial instruments.
Fourth, more than 3 million workers globally will be supervised by a “robo-boss” by 2018. Measurements of performance that are directly tied to output and customer evaluation can be consumed more effectively and swiftly by smart machine managers tuned to learn based on staffing decisions and management incentives.
Fifth, 20% of smart buildings will have suffered from digital vandalism by the end of 2018. Products must be built to offer acceptable levels of protection and hooks for integration into security monitoring and management systems.
Sixth, 45% of the fastest-growing companies will have fewer employees than instances of smart machines by 2018. Existing companies, with large amounts of legacy technologies and processes, will not necessarily be the first movers, but the savvier companies among them will be fast followers.
Seventh, customer digital assistant will recognize individuals by face and voice across channels and partners by year-end 2018. Customers are willing to adopt these technologies and techniques to help them sift through increasing large amounts of information, choice and purchasing decisions.
Eighth, two million employees will be required to wear health and fitness tracking devices as a condition of employment by 2018. Emergency responders, such as police officers, firefighters and paramedics, will likely comprise the largest group of employees required to monitor their health or fitness with wearables.