2021 Predictions – Impact Lab

2021 Predictions, Science & Technology News

2 Trends You Can’t Afford To Miss In 2021

February 1, 2021

The 2020 prediction year is one like no other. This year has been a financial and emotional disaster for many and 2020 has tested us in ways we hope no year ever will.

Even as a recent Deloitte survey showed that 77% of CEOs reported that the COVID-19 crisis accelerated their digital transformation plans, attempting to predict anything at the moment seems almost unconscionable.

The 2020 prediction year is one like no other. This year has been a financial and emotional disaster for many and 2020 has tested us in ways we hope no year ever will.

Even as a recent Deloitte survey showed that 77% of CEOs reported that the COVID-19 crisis accelerated their digital transformation plans, attempting to predict anything at the moment seems almost unconscionable.

There are still too many questions: “how will we all recover from 2020?”, “how quickly will we return to normal?” and “what will “normal” even look like?”

This is why in this post, I try to look at 2 trends that I think are worth stepping back for and taking a long range approach to: “Augmented Intelligence” & “Composable and Intelligent Applications.”

2021 Predictions, Science & Technology News

Ten Trends That Will Impact Private Wealth And Family Offices In 2021

January 23, 2021

By Francois Botha

Private wealth and family office trend forecasting is a complex and fascinating discipline that provokes interesting and often intense discussion. To identify trends, forecasters must differentiate between change catalysts and reactionary events, analyze the impact these will have on various industries, sectors and society at large, and interpret how to prepare.

In the age of acceleration and this increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) era, strategic foresight and futurism provide a rigorous, structured methodology that affords private wealth owners and family offices a better understanding of the possible, plausible and probable futures. This strengthens their capacity to be resilient, minimize risk and leverage opportunity.

The third annual Simple Family Office & Private Wealth trend review, led by foresight experts Nicolas Arroyo and Rune Toldam, explores the ten most influential trends on the private wealth space – from the increasing distrust of ‘big tech’ to the rise of political geographies. These are the key outtakes for 2021:

2021 Predictions, Science & Technology News

The 10 Biggest Business Trends For 2021 Everyone Must Be Ready For

December 19, 2020

Bernard Marr

While there are many who can’t wait to bid adieu to 2020, there’s no doubt the coronavirus pandemic and the ways businesses had to adjust to ensure their survival changed the trajectory of what 2021 will look like and what businesses should do to get ready for the upcoming year. As a futurist, I help companies understand the latest trends and technologies and offer guidance on how to prepare their businesses for them. Here are the top 10 trends that will drive every business in 2021. I believe every business around the world needs to be ready for these trends.

2021 Predictions, Automobiles, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

Honda launching world’s first production car with ‘eyes-off’ self-driving tech by mid 2021

November 25, 2020

Japanese officials approved Honda’s Automated Drive feature to be deployed on the upcoming Honda Legend.

Honda has received regulatory approval from the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT) to begin selling vehicles equipped with Level 3 autonomous driving, the automaker announced on Wednesday.

In a press release, Honda highlighted that it would begin the sale of the Honda Legend equipped with its all-new “Traffic Jam Pilot” feature by the end of the company’s fiscal year (March 31, 2021). The feature is reportedly similar to GM’s Super Cruise and Ford’s Active Drive Assist in the sense that all road conditions must be perfect before Traffic Jam Pilot can be activated.

However, unlike the current domestic offerings where the driver is still technically in control of the vehicle, SAE J3016 defines Level 3 as a vehicle-operated functionality while engaged.

Continue reading… “Honda launching world’s first production car with ‘eyes-off’ self-driving tech by mid 2021”

2021 Predictions, Coronavirus, Employment, Science & Technology News

We read all the ‘Future of Work’ articles so you don’t have to – Here’s what you need to know to prepare for the post-pandemic future

November 21, 2020

A post-pandemic world won’t make work less

Around May, we noticed a trend: the rise of the “future of work” articles. Published by consulting firms, professional associations, and business influencers, these articles and reports asked, “What will work be like when Covid-19 is over?”

It’s a good question, one we’re all asking.

The articles and reports kept coming over the summer and into the fall. In total, we read over 40 of them published by leading organizations including McKinsey, the World Economic Forum, and the Society for Human Resource Management. Some were brief. Some were full reports with survey data. Congizant’s, which took a future-looking-back perspective, was the most creative.

We found a significant amount of overlap in most of the content, and a few ideas that are original and deserve more consideration. Below, we summarize the findings. Together, these ideas can help your team prepare for an uncertain future, pushing us closer to an answer of what work will look like in the future.

Continue reading… “We read all the ‘Future of Work’ articles so you don’t have to – Here’s what you need to know to prepare for the post-pandemic future”

2021 Predictions, Computer Security, quantum computing, Science & Technology News

Quantum computing may make current encryption obsolete, a quantum internet could be the solution

November 14, 2020

Sometime between now and 2030, the mathematical system that protects all of digital communications may fall victim to a superior quantum system. Preparing for that time may require us to reinvent the network itself.

“The quantum threat is basically going to destroy the security of networks as we know them today,” declared Bruno Huttner, who directs strategic quantum initiatives for Geneva, Switzerland-based ID Quantique. No other commercial organization since the turn of the century has been more directly involved in the development of science and working theories for the future quantum computer network.

Quantum computers offer great promise for cryptography and optimization problems. ZDNet explores what quantum computers will and won’t be able to do, and the challenges we still face.

One class of theory involves cryptographic security. The moment a quantum computer (QC) breaks through the dam currently held in place by public-key cryptography (PKC), every encrypted message in the world will become vulnerable. That’s Huttner’s “quantum threat”.

Continue reading… “Quantum computing may make current encryption obsolete, a quantum internet could be the solution”

2021 Predictions, Analysis, Education, Employment, Science & Technology News

These are the top 10 job skills of tomorrow – and how long it takes to learn them

October 31, 2020

Founder and Executive Chairman of World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab speaks during a session at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland January 23, 2020.

Professor Klaus Schwab says technological innovation can be leveraged to unleash human potential.

50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025, as adoption of technology increases, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report.

Critical thinking and problem-solving top the list of skills employers believe will grow in prominence in the next five years.
Newly emerging this year are skills in self-management such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility.
Respondents to the Future of Jobs Survey estimate that around 40% of workers will require reskilling of six months or less.
Half of us will need to reskill in the next five years, as the “double-disruption” of the economic impacts of the pandemic and increasing automation transforming jobs takes hold.

That’s according to the third edition of the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, which maps the jobs and skills of the future, tracking the pace of change and direction of travel.

Continue reading… “These are the top 10 job skills of tomorrow – and how long it takes to learn them”

2021 Predictions, Engineering, mobile technology, New Inventions, Science & Technology News, Shopping

Amazon wants you to yell at your TV to buy things

October 30, 2020

Alphabet is wrangling mosquitoes, Apple’s bendy phone and other patents from Big Tech.

Another week in lockdown has passed, and while the present might still feel quite uncertain, the future looks as zany as ever, at least as far as patents go. Alphabet is trying to trap mosquitoes, Amazon wants you to buy stuff off of your TV screen, Apple is getting in on the flexible phone trend, and Microsoft is trying to figure out your heart health from your camera.

And remember: The big tech companies file all kinds of crazy patents for things, and though most never amount to anything, some end up defining the future.

Continue reading… “Amazon wants you to yell at your TV to buy things”

2021 Predictions, Electric Vehicles, Energy, Home Technology, Science & Technology News

The next generation of power plants will be virtual

October 29, 2020

Your next home or electric vehicle could be part of a virtual power plant

Increasing numbers of homes outfitted with solar panels and batteries have the potential to help power entire regions with renewable energy. Working together, homes with solar setups are turning neighborhoods into virtual power plants that can feed power back to the grid and prevent blackouts.

These interconnected solar power systems are popping up across the globe — from apartment complexes in California and Utah, to public housing in South Australia. In the future, virtual power plants might even be made up of fleets of electric vehicles. It’s the next generation of solar power technology.

Continue reading… “The next generation of power plants will be virtual”

2021 Predictions, AI, Business, Coronavirus, Science & Technology News, Trending

Top tech trends for 2021: Gartner predicts hyperautomation, AI and more will dominate business technology

October 29, 2020

Top strategic technology trends for the enterprise

Operational resiliency is key as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to change how companies will do business next year.

There are nine top strategic technology trends that businesses should plan for in 2021 as the pandemic continues, according to Gartner’s analysts. Their findings were presented on Monday at the virtual Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo Americas conference, which runs through Thursday.

Organizational plasticity is key to these trends. “When we talk about the strategic technology trends, we actually have them grouped into three different themes, which is people centricity, location independence, and resilient delivery,” said Brian Burke, research vice president at Gartner. “What we’re talking about with the trends is how do you leverage technology to gain the organizational plasticity that you need to form and reform into whatever’s going to be required as we emerge from this pandemic?”

Continue reading… “Top tech trends for 2021: Gartner predicts hyperautomation, AI and more will dominate business technology”

2021 Predictions, AI, Future, quantum computing, Science & Technology News, security

Top 10 digital transformation trends for 2021

October 1, 2020

No one could have predicted where 2020 would take us: The last six months alone have produced more digital transformation than the last decade, with every transformation effort already underway finding itself accelerated, and at scale. While many of my digital transformation predictions from a year ago benefited from this shift, others were displaced by more urgent needs, like 24/7 secure and reliable connectivity. What does this mean for 2021? Will core technologies like AI and data analytics still dominate headlines, or will we see newer, previously emerging technologies take the lead? Only time will tell, but here are my top ten digital transformation predictions for 2021.

Continue reading… “Top 10 digital transformation trends for 2021”

2021 Predictions, AI, Big Data, Science & Technology News, Trending

The top 4 artificial intelligence trends for 2021

September 30, 2020

Before the global pandemic struck in 2020 and the world was turned on its head, artificial intelligence (AI), and specifically the branch of AI known as machine learning (ML), were already causing widespread disruption in almost every industry.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted many aspects of how we do business, but it hasn’t diminished the impact AI is having on our lives. In fact, it’s become apparent that self-teaching algorithms and smart machines will play a big part in the ongoing fight against this outbreak as well as others we may face in the future.

AI undoubtedly remains a key trend when it comes to picking the technologies that will change how we live, work, and play in the near future. So, here’s an overview of what we can expect during what will be a year of rebuilding our lives as well as rethinking business strategies and priorities.

Continue reading… “The top 4 artificial intelligence trends for 2021”