4 tech triumphs on the way for business in 2018

With the way technology progresses and reinvents the world as we know it, at breakneck speed, it’s both exciting and intimidating to imagine what even the near future will hold for us.

Will we be paying for everything with Bitcoin (and let’s have a moment’s silence for the guy who bought pizza with Bitcoin in 2010… at today’s value, that was an over $120 million USD dinner)?

Will the traditional office even exist by 2025?

We can’t quite predict the amazing future ahead of us, but we can tell you some really cool things that are on the way in 2018. They might help you achieve stratospheric new heights in your business:

4. Machine learning

Here’s the thing about machine learning - many claim they’re working on it, yet so few actually are. Short of labs filled with supercomputers, “machine learning” has become a misused term for sophisticated analytics. But is real machine learning actual attainable for an everyday business? And what could be done with it?

Several big companies like Google (duh) are already using machine learning to improve our everyday lives. Basic information search has been kicking around for decades, but you might have noticed Google’s search has become eerily helpful and predictive in the last few years, and the best is yet to come with their deep learning project, Google Brain.

Everyday businesses can use machine learning algorithms in a somewhat basic form, even today - support ticketing systems are becoming more automated and intelligent, and social listening tools are even preventing PR disasters before product release for some. One thing is for sure, it’s only gonna get bigger, more accessible and smarter.  

3. Big data getting even bigger

‘Big data’ has been a business buzz word for a couple of years now, with tons of companies using all that juicy data they have access to in generating clearer pictures of their customers and what they want. Or, at least that’s the theory. The truth is, a lot of businesses simply don’t know what to do with it.

The other (far more pertinent) query looming over the head of the big data revolution is customer sentiment - in short, people don’t trust businesses to do right by them when it comes to using their data, since data misuse is rife.

2018 will see ‘big data’ enter somewhat of a transformation - data will be more precise, tell us way more relevant information (that is, less intrusive on the private world of citizens)… and be far more anonymous.

Harry West, CEO of business tech innovators Frog, is spearheading a change in the way data is collected - one that will hopefully result in more favorable market sentiment.  “With location and heat-mapping sensors, we’ll be able to draw conclusions about people’s behavior, but not who’s behaving. Sensors that capture low-fidelity images enable us to know someone’s there, but not who it is.” West says.

Now all you’ve got to do is work on how you use it, so you can make the world more awesome with your business offering. Easy.

2. Little robots will do big things

If you caught Disney’s 2014 masterpiece Big Hero 6, you’ll have seen possibly the biggest nod to nanotechnology and nanobots hitting the mainstream spotlight. And you’d certainly be forgiven for thinking they’re really, really far away from being part of our immediate reality.

Well, what if we told you that DNA nanobots are already being injected into human bloodstreams, with the mission of seeking and destroying cancer cells in recent medical trials?

This technology is only going to improve and expand in the coming years, and serial (correct) tech predictor and director of engineering at Google, Ray Kurzweil, muses that we will see nanobots inhabiting our bodies as the norm by 2030.

If they’re making such strides in the medical industry, the mind boggles at how they might aid savvy businesses elsewhere.

1. People analytics

We talk a lot about people analytics and the future of work, not just because that’s part of our offering to the world, but because it’s truly where we are all heading at a rapid rate.

There’s certainly a sentiment out there that robots are coming for our jobs. While it’s true that some jobs as we know them today will become more automated (read: taken by a robot), with such technological advancement comes the demand for new jobs - some we cannot even yet imagine.

And as far as the immediate future goes, artificial intelligence is still a little dumb. Emotional intelligence and other ‘soft skills’ will become increasingly important in the future of work. Robots cannot learn or impart empathy convincingly (and it may be quite a long time before they can), or match humans in creativity and complex communication.

Fingerprint for Success is a people analytics platform that can assess your own key soft talents, bring them to light and prepare you to take advantage of your incredible assets in future roles, as well as discover those assets in candidates you’re looking to employ. Creating and operating in smart, cohesive teams is a must for high-growth entrepreneurial success, so let’s get to it.