On the basis of the three key effects of continuous digital innovation (improvement of experience and commitment, increased business innovation, and the other side effects of increasing digital capabilities), Gartner points out that in the immediate future, digital changes will accelerate further than in 2015 and 2016, and will continue to “redefine markets and entire industries,” and will have side effects that will have “a wide impact on people and technology.”
Based on this and under the title “Top Strategic Predictions for 2017 and Beyond: Surviving the Storm-Winds of Digital Disruption,” Gartner’s team of analysts has established the following 10 strategic predictions for organizations and users of information technologies in 2017 and later years:
- The augmented reality will gain importance among consumers thanks to applications such as Pokémon GO, which will encourage resellers to incorporate it into their purchasing processes and thus improve the customer experience. By 2020, one hundred million consumers will actually buy in augmented reality.
- By 2020, 30% of web browsing will be done through voice interactions without the need for a screen. Devices like Google Home or Amazon Echo are just the beginning.
- By 2019, two out of ten brands will have abandoned their mobile applications, opting to explore new approaches with similar results, but lower costs.
- Contextualization algorithms will continue to evolve and by 2020 will have a positive impact on the behavior of more than one billion employees, allowing them to “remember” and know information that will make them more effective in their tasks.
- By 2022, Blockchain-based transactions will amount to 10 billion dollars, reducing transaction costs and speeding up business processes.
- All the activities that individuals perform are increasingly connected and this implies that by 2021, 20% of these activities will involve at least one of the “seven digital giants”: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.
- Until 2019, Gartner predicts that for every dollar invested in innovation, companies will spend 7 dollars on developing the solution.
- The Internet of Things (IoT) will continue to grow, however, the demand for storage in data centers will only increase by 2.3% by 2020.
- IoT will mean a savings of 1 billion dollars per year for businesses and consumers by 2022, although security will continue to be a major challenge, especially so that it does not absorb cost savings.
- Wearable health and physical activity monitoring devices will be integrated into employee wellness programs, making it possible for up to 40% of workers to reduce their medical expenses by 2020.