As the clock struck midnight on January 1st, most of us were on our phones - Facetiming, posting to social media, streaming video or calling for an Uber ride home. Many of these devices, apps and capabilities were born in the 2010s. So, as we enter a new decade, our Uncommon Crew (UC) took a moment to pause and discuss the technology we’re most excited about in the 2020s.
Autonomous Vehicles & Smart City Public Transit Can’t Get Here Fast Enough
Driven much lately? If you have, maybe you agree with my assessment that roughly 50% of the population cannot be trusted behind the wheel. In fact, car accidents have increased every year for at least the last five, as far too many distracted drivers add risk to highways and streets. In the decade ahead, the promise of autonomous vehicles along with smart and efficient public transportation will begin to shape some of the world’s most progressive cities, eventually forcing regions currently unmotivated by transportation technology to follow suit. Ultimately, the future of transportation technology in this decade will not only help decrease accident rates, but it will also have tremendous environmental, economic and health benefits for the critical mass.
Finally, Pets Get the Gadgets and Healthcare They’ve Been Panting For
As a dog mom and lover of all things healthcare/health IT, in 2020 I look forward to seeing how the 'pet care' industry continues to grow and change. In 2018, Americans spent $72 billion on their pets, a number that is expected to rapidly increase each year. For example, at least week’s CES in Vegas, Delta Air Lines announced its partnership with CarePod, a high tech pet carrier. From new innovations like improving pet parents’ access to veterinary services to Airbnb for your animals, this sector appears to be a goldmine - and the possibilities are endless.
Passwords Finally Go the Way of the Dodo
It’s 2020 and we still don’t have jet packs or hoverboards. But we still have to manage dozens of passwords for all of the sites and apps we rely on a daily basis. Not only is this a pain point for users but it also represents one of the leading cybersecurity vulnerabilities in general. However, I’m optimistic that within the next five years, new authentication technologies that leverage our mobile devices such as those being developed by HYPR and Auth0 promise to make managing passwords a relic of the past.
Cloud-Powered Everything
Ten years ago, the cloud was thought of primarily as a storage solution. Today, the cloud represents a future-forward strategy for how companies power their businesses, and the technology behind it. The cloud was front and center at CES 2020 and cloud-specific spending is expected to grow at six times the rate of general IT spending in 2020. But juxtapose this growth against increasing IT staffing shortages - and I’m most intrigued to see what trends will emerge as a top priority for the CIO’s desk. Will low-code adoption move fully into mainstream for enterprise implementation? How will “innovation at the edge” merge with the continued growth of cloud-first and hybrid strategies? And how will the realization of 5G impact and accelerate device application shift to the cloud?
Less is More in the World of Social Media Marketing
While the 2010s brought us Instagram, Snapchat and influencer marketing mania, I’m most excited that this year promises to bring us balance, and along with it the downfall of vanity metrics starting with the elimination of “likes.” Even Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter regrets creating habits and tools that put too much focus on vanity metrics. During a recent TED2019 interview, Dorsey revealed a few big changes he’d make if he were starting it today, like not emphasizing the follower count as much or creating the “like” feature. Similarly, at last year’s F8 developer conference, Instagram announced it would start to experiment with publicly hiding like counts. So say goodbye to the “like” and hello to what really matters - engagement and referral traffic via more quality, authentic video content thanks to the newest kid on the social media block, Tiktok, and the continued rise of Instagram Stories’ popularity.
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