2021 was a significant year for numerous sectors in terms of evolving and rising above the circumstances that the pandemic put the world in. Technology was one of those sectors, and it perhaps has been affected the most due to the pandemic both directly and indirectly.
Like some experts rightly said, the COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a catalyst for technology. We’ve been fast-forwarded to innovations and developments, which would still be a few years away if not for the pandemic.
I think that was a fascinating statement, and when I came across it, I decided to look back at some of the most significant technological trends the world has seen in 2021. So, here’s the list and let’s dive right into it.
1. Digital Transformation
Before the pandemic, companies were already moving towards digital transformation to make all their processes and workflows digital. However, post-2020, companies saw it as an immediate necessity, and almost in a few months, it became their topmost priority.
Companies rushed to make everything digital to enable remote working while ensuring that all their other processes also become efficient and secure. However, numerous companies also failed at it because they did not understand its significance.
The end goal should always be how the business and the company become better, more than implementing it for the sake of joining the bandwagon. This was perhaps a great learning organization derived out of these developments.
2. Web 3.0
The concept of Web 3.0 remains to be perfectly defined since it’s in its nascent stages. Web 3.0 is a pulp or mixed bag with numerous concepts and ideas that come together to give rise to the next phase of the internet.
A few of these ideas are as follows:
- Web 3.0 might give rise to virtual worlds, which are designed to look like real-worlds, and people would be able to perform their day-to-day tasks such as buying groceries, interacting with other people, etc., in these virtual worlds.
- There will be a larger number of IoT devices than what we have now, and simply put, people will be able to access the internet from anywhere and everywhere, with any kind of device.
- Decentralization and censorship resistance is another idea where instead of web content being stored on a centralized server and monitored by a single authority, there would be a decentralized internet with websites stored in different computers across the globe. Furthermore, there won’t be a single authority like Facebook and Google to monitor the content, which means the internet will become more censorship resistant.
While these are merely a few ideas that together form Web 3.0, we’re far from it all becoming a reality. However, it is essential to note that concepts such as decentralization are already being implemented when it comes to technologies such as blockchain. Thus, we’ve already started moving towards Web 3.0.
3. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
In the past decade, AI and ML have been the buzzwords termed the next “big” thing. This year seemed like it is not the “next” thing anymore. In fact, these technologies have already penetrated numerous industries such as automobile, healthcare, sports, marketing, supply chain, weapons, and more.
People are leveraging machine learning mainly for data analysis to understand their customers better, predict their behavior, and base future business decisions on these analyses. Currently, the industry globally is spending about $50 billion on AI and cognitive systems, and by 2025, it is predicted to be a $190 billion industry.
In today’s scenario, companies are looking for people who can take up the roles of AI Engineer, AI Research Scientist, etc., and this demand is just going to increase in the next few years.
4. Cyber Security
While this field isn’t exactly a trend of 2021, it has grown multifold this year, with cyber-attacks becoming more lethal and cybercriminals finding more evolved ways to damage organizations and businesses.
Furthermore, with the emergence of digital transformation, cyber security has become a crucial part of development. It is now being considered a business decision instead of simply a technological solution for an issue.
People understand that security doesn’t work on a formulaic basis. It means that even if you follow all the industrial standards and regulations given by agencies, it’s still only the bare minimum you’re doing for your organization’s security.
Jobs in the cyber security field have increased, and companies are constantly looking for people who can fill the role of a cyber security analyst, cyber security researcher, and more.
5. Edge Computing
We’re now living in a world where cloud computing is not an emerging field. In fact, with the rapid speed with which the amount of data to be processed is increasing, organizations realize that cloud computing has its own set of challenges and might even become obsolete in a few years.
Companies are moving towards edge computing, where data centers and storage facilities are much closer to the physical office spaces. This helps save the time to retrieve, process, and analyze data and even saves the bandwidth.
Furthermore, it helps the system securities since cybercriminals will have fewer channels and opportunities to intercept or hack the system.
Conclusion
While these were some of the most popular technology trends of 2021, others don’t fall far behind. These include AR/VR, Quantum Computing, Robotic Process Automation, and more.
In the next few years, all these niches within the technology industry are expected to boom and help the world transition towards the next era of all things tech.