"Trends for 2022" (in English).

Always at the end of the year, you can see a number of articles where trends are forecast in all areas of topics for next year. This is how, individually, how professionally one tends to think, who do I believe? Well, it is not a question of "who to believe", but rather of finding out about the greatest number of variables that may happen in the future, in order to be better prepared, to be able to have a greater capacity to adapt, to be more flexible. In all areas of things, in order to "get out of our comfort zone", and thus emerge victorious over the changes that are coming, but always keeping in mind our local / global context.

For this reason, according to my vision and experience, I have made a small summary of the aspects and new trends that we should keep in mind this year 2022:

1. Democracy vs. Autocracy: Half the US legislature and the Chinese Communist Party congress exemplify the contrast between the two rival political systems. Which one is better to offer stability, growth and innovation? This rivalry will play out in everything from business to tech regulation, from vaccines to space stations. As President Joe Biden tries to unite the free world under the banner of democracy, his dysfunctional and divided country is a weak token of his merits.
2. The Pandemic Will Become Endemic: New antiviral pills, improved antibody treatments and more vaccines arrive. For vaccinated people in the developed world, the virus will no longer endanger their lives, but it will still pose a deadly danger in the developing world. Unless vaccination increases around the world, the coronavirus will become one of many endemic diseases that affect the poor but not the rich. In the short term, researchers will continue to experiment with more cost-effective and proven protein-based vaccines, and with less expensive storage needs, so that they can reach the poorest countries. Also, in the future, "research teams hope to develop a "pan-coronavirus vaccine" that not only protects people against all variants of Covid, but also, potentially, against other more aggressive types of coronavirus, such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Similarly, it is expected to reduce the time from when the drug leaves the laboratory until injection, through the identification of the 20 or 50 families of viruses of the animal kingdom with the greatest pandemic potential and building "a library of advanced vaccines "that can be ready with only minor alterations.
3. Inflation Concerns: Disruptions in supply chains and increased demand for energy have driven up prices. Central banks say it is temporary, but not everyone believes it. The United Kingdom runs a particular risk of "stagflation" (stagnation added to inflation), when within an inflationary situation there is a stagnation of the economy and the rate of inflation does not subside. In this case, it is due to the post-Brexit labor shortage and its dependence on expensive natural gas. In the case of Latin America, it looks towards a future of high inflation and low growth, a gloomy prognosis for its post-pandemic outlook (Bejamín Gedan, deputy director of the Latin America Program, Wilson Center Studies). The region will close as the world leader in rising cost of living. If this forecast comes true, the products most affected by the increase in the cost of living, such as food, fuel, electricity and basic necessities, could continue to become more expensive and limit the ability of the most vulnerable households to purchase them.
4. The Future of Work and Manufacturing: There is a broad consensus that "the future will be hybrid" and that more and more people will be spending more time working from home. However, there is much controversy in the details: How many days and which ones? Is it fair? Surveys show that women have less desire to go back to the office, so they may run the risk of not being considered for promotions. Debates are also looming over tax rules and remote worker tracking. There is also talk of "The Factories Will Return Home (and will be smarter)". The pandemic, volatility in demand, a shortage of both workers and cargo space, and adverse weather have created the perfect storm in the global supply chain. And in this age of consumer impatience, we are faced with an unusual experience: "we have to wait days, weeks, months to receive our shoes, cars and toys (Christmas is here!). Experts believe that the crisis will continue. Beyond 2022 and the supply chain will never be the same again: it will undergo a revolution and companies will focus less on cutting costs and more on ensuring they have the capacity and resilience to keep weather disruptions at bay. companies will bring their operations closer to home. In fact, they already are: last year, around 75% of companies declared that they were relocating their production in their home countries or in neighboring countries, according to a survey conducted by Bank of America to 3,000 companies.In addition, to keep costs down, more and more companies will start "Building Smart Factories", with an emphasis on automation, cloud platforms and other technologies. This will allow organizations to reduce costs, improve quality and, above all, boost the demand for skilled labor in their country or region of origin. In this way, the main reaction of the main global manufacturing hubs will be to "do not sit around". China and other similar countries will implement political and economic measures to increase the attractiveness of their economies.
5. The New Techlash: It refers to the abbreviation of technology and backlash that is about "reaction against the excessive power accumulated by large technology companies". Regulators in the United States and Europe have been trying to control the tech giants for years, but they have yet to make a dent in their growth or earnings. Now China has taken the lead, attacking its tech companies in a brutal crackdown. President Xi Jinping wants them to focus on "deep technology", which provides a geostrategic advantage, not on frivolities like gaming and shopping. But will this drive Chinese innovation or stifle the dynamism of the industry?
6. Cryptocurrencies Get Bigger (Part One): Like all disruptive technologies, cryptocurrencies are becoming domesticated as regulators tighten the rules. Central banks are also looking to launch their own centralized digital currencies. The result is a "three-way fight for the future of finance", among the multitude of cryptocurrencies - blockchain - DeFi (decentralized finance), more traditional technology companies and central banks, which will intensify in 2022.
7. Climate Crisis: As wildfires, heat waves and floods are becoming more frequent, it is surprising "the lack of urgency among legislators when it comes to tackling climate change". Furthermore, decarbonization requires the West and China to cooperate, just as their geopolitical rivalry is at its peak. Harvard's solar geoengineering research team wants to test the use of a high-altitude balloon to release dust in dim sunlight next year, a technique that at this rate may be needed to buy more time to decarbonize the world.
8. Tourism Still Troubled: Activity is picking up as economies reopen. But countries that have followed "a zero COVID suppression strategy like Australia and New Zealand" face the difficult task of managing the transition to a world where the virus will be endemic. Meanwhile, nearly half of business travel won't return, which is good for the planet, but bad for tourists whose highly competitively priced trips are kept up by high-spending business travelers.
9. The Space Race: The year 2022 will be the first year in which "more private travelers will go to space than public employees", transported by competing space tourism companies. China will finish its new space station. Filmmakers are racing to make movies in zero gravity, and NASA will crash a space probe into an asteroid, in a real mission that sounds like the plot of a Hollywood movie.
10. Sport as a Political Tool: The Winter Olympics in Beijing and the Soccer World Cup in Qatar will recall how sport can unite the world, but also how major sporting events often end up being political tools. Protests against both host countries are expected, although boycotts by national teams seem unlikely.
11. Our Cities Will Go Live with Crypto: Many state and municipal entities have stepped up with new approaches to address some of their toughest challenges, such as efficiency and reliability. Some governments have started adopting cryptocurrencies to fund municipal services, new programs, and to pay people who work for them. Miami, for example, has reached an agreement with the non-profit organization CityCoins, to launch "MiamiCoin", which allows users who mine new tokens to earn part of the cryptocurrency they generate and donate the rest to the city of their choice. In Reno, Nevada, Hillary Schieve has proposed the plan to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to support public art and the use of decentralized autonomous organizations to sell cryptocurrency-based stakes of city properties to investors. In the case of El Salvador, President Nayib Burkele announced that his government wishes to build a Bitcoin City, thinking of attracting foreign investment. The benefit of adopting a blockchain approach for governments lies in putting transactions in public view, promoting transparency. In addition, it makes it easier to automate most processes, and it can reduce red tape as well as the likelihood of errors. The integration of organization formats based on blockchain (...) will allow institutions to manage public goods in a much more efficient and transparent way, reduce coordination costs and can drastically accelerate the decision-making process. " Organizations that will adopt cryptocurrencies, to meet public challenges, will grow exponentially.
12. The Next Chapter of the Pandemic Will Focus on Mental Health: In 2022 the world will have to cope with the trauma that the pandemic has left in its wake. Life may be slowly returning to "normal," but many people continue to deal with pain, depression, and anxiety. "There will be a lot of work to do because we are going to see a lot of devastation in 2022," said Rhonda Medows, president of population health for the Providence network of hospitals in Renton, Washington. "We will witness a lost generation if we don't," referring to the challenges that children and adolescents have faced - and continue to face. In Latin America alone, UNICEF estimates that there are 16 million adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 living with a mental disorder. However, the demand for mental health services is outpacing the supply. And with the world mired in an extreme shortage of doctors - many of them victims of their own exhaustion - digital platforms will take center stage, even beyond the current applications that connect patients and therapists. Researchers are already trying to find biomarkers, including through genetic testing, to assign drugs such as antidepressants to patients, which will work differently for each individual. The next frontier will also include applications and wearables (wearable / wearable technology) to help people manage their treatments (Courtney Billington, president of Janssen Neuroscience). Thus, these tools will allow you to update symptoms in real time or track vital signs that may be related to mental health, such as heart rate. Eventually, this data could be shared with or monitored by doctors.
13. Big Tech Will Try, But Fail to Seize the Metaverse: For once, big tech won't win the jackpot. The next version of the web is coming down, and it will push the limits of our screens: the metaverse is a term that describes the 3D immersive and collaborative experiences that are already making their way into our lives. Many when hearing the word "metaverse" will think of headphones -Oculus, for example, or the HTC Vive- that transport us to a pixelated world in which we interact with digital avatars. But the metaverse is much more varied, ranging from existing augmented experiences (remember Pokemon Go?) To high-level game worlds. Thus, as we embark on the next great technological shift, the tension between closed and open platforms will continue. Big technology companies will try to gain as much control as possible over this new paradigm. Proof of this is the rebrand of Meta, formerly known as Facebook. A few days later, Microsoft (parent company of LinkedIn) also announced its own plans for the metaverse. But unlike previous technological milestones, the metaverse will be much more difficult to wall off and control thanks to two major forces. The first is the blockchain, which will allow those who participate in the metaverse to build and use decentralized technology: they will no longer depend solely on the giants tech . The second is that the artists and technologists who are laying the foundations of the metaverse are no longer in debt to the big techs as before: thanks to the blockchain they have a decentralized means to earn money. This new version of the web is born with the potential to be open and to offer a context where individual creators are rewarded for their contributions.
14. Power Grids Around the World Will Be Connected: Global energy demand could increase by up to 58% in the next three decades. To meet it and avert a climate catastrophe, businesses and governments are pushing to electrify as many parts of our lives as possible. There is only one problem: "Unlike coal, oil or natural gas, electricity is difficult to store, and renewables are mainly consumed close to where they are produced. To solve this challenge, the world's electricity grids will have to be linked together. with the help of submarine cables. "Since networks are the forgotten giant of global energy investment, building new energy sources is important, but not enough, since energy has to reach the consumption centers". For example , works have begun in Europe, with a 720-kilometer cable linking Norway to the United Kingdom and which became operational in October. More is expected, with 72,000 kilometers of cable connected to the network by 2030 (The Economis) . "Today more than ever, it is necessary to have an even more interconnected electricity system at an international level" (Stefano Donnarumma, general director of Tema -operator of the international network-). bles, it will be possible to contain and gradually reduce energy costs, to the benefit of the environment, citizens and businesses.
15. Four-Day Week Will Be a Competitive Advantage: The "big quit" phenomenon has caused millions of people not only to leave their jobs, but to reconsider the role of work in their lives. However, globally, there are a growing number of professionals who are motivated and keen to do great work in much less time. For decades, leadership had been associated with long work hours. Now more people recognize that they can excel in their profession and care about their workplace without making it the dominant priority in their world. Microsoft, in Japan; Semco in Brazil and the Governments of Iceland and New Zealand are betting on working days of four days a week, with what this scheme is becoming, more and more, a common practice. For example, before the arrival of Covid, the four-day week was perceived as something new, but, by 2022, it was projected as a competitive advantage for companies. We are talking about the companies that implement it, will offer an additional 50 days off per year. For people who have decided that there is more to life than work, such a proposal is very exciting. Each work center has a center of gravity. Leaders who are serious about a four-day journey will have a high chance of drawing stars in their orbit.
16. The Revolution of the "Blue Foods": In 2050, the global population will reach 10 billion people and climate change adds uncertainty about whether the food production system will be sustainable, or if a food crisis is looming. In this context, the so-called "Blue Foods" (fish, seafood, algae, ...) are seen as a solution. The food called "Blue Foods" offers nutritional benefits, but also benefits to the environment. That provides insight into potential food sources for the future. Seaweed, for example, "is a higher source of protein" than conventional food, such as meat or dairy products, and does not require fresh water or farmland. On the other hand, seagrass captures carbon emissions 35 times faster than rainforests and, at the same time, works as an alternative to rice. Otherwise, "aquaculture production has continued to grow in recent decades, yet the potential of the seas to provide healthy food remains largely unused" (Sander van der Brug, researcher at Wageningen University) . The expert believes that 2022 will imply a change where gradually more blue foods will be available in supermarkets. Harvesting environmental benefits from "blue foods" implies that the industry modifies its practices and adopts circular techniques in food production, for example, using algae instead of fish as food and finding new uses for the waste.
17. Survival and Transformation of Shopping Centers: To what extent are Shopping Centers relevant today in a world where e-commerce grows ten times more than sales in physical stores? Shopping Centers have never experienced a simultaneous closure period around the world, according to retail specialist Jorge Lizan. This translated into the need for a re-configuration for the segment in the different countries. In addition, the retail industry faces challenges "delays in the supply and production chain", which results in serious disorganization and problems in times and deliveries. "There are also fewer containers, fewer ships and there is a gigantic need to export products. So, something that took three weeks to get from the Chinese factory to a market anywhere in the world, at the moment it is taking two months and average, three months" (América Retail). Shopping Centers must be more efficient in their planning of needs, merchandising and production, as well as in their collections, since orders will take much longer to fill.
18. On the other hand, the trends in the technology sector for 2022 will be:

• Increased Use of Artificial Intelligence by Hackers: Threat actors have become aware of the use of Artificial Intelligence to attack companies; It is no longer used only by defenders. Due to Artificial Intelligence's ability to generate unique photorealistic faces, massively customize phishing campaigns, and more, we expect to see attackers using it more and more.
• Hybrid Multicloud Strategies: One of the main concerns of companies as they seek to work with public clouds will have to do with "cloud blocking". This will drive the adoption of "Hybrid Multicloud Strategies" that allow them to make better use of the advantages of each type of cloud, having more freedom of choice to operate with their applications and data.
• Data Integration in Silos: Seamlessly accessing the multiple data silos of a global company will only get more difficult in 2022, as data volumes and sources continue to grow dramatically. Businesses will be looking for modern platforms and approaches like data structures, which tie together the composable stack and distributed data. Finding ways to integrate siled data for actionable insights will be a top priority for companies in 2022.
• Improved Search Optimization: Many companies are employing search optimization techniques similar to those they used in 2010, despite knowing that search is essential to their customer experience. From streaming to shopping, the biggest tech trend to anticipate in 2022 is the explosion of search and discovery strategies that inspire and satisfy a customer need.
• Digital Twin Technology: Digital Twins are changing every industry. They enable real-time virtual representations of physical objects, processes, and even operations. They serve as a catalyst for any simulation, helping you eliminate the time and cost of developing complex products, predicting and adapting to change in real time, automating routine tasks, and more. A digital thread closes the loop, creating universal access to data.
• Healthcare Technology Focused on Connection: One trend we see in healthcare is the use of technology to create closer human connections. High-tech can also be high-touch. Examples include personalized patient outreach based on where someone is on their healthcare journey or continuous monitoring via remote devices. The Virtual Health Sessions will bring providers closer to their patients in a more intimate setting for the provision of care: The Patient's Home.
• Greater Workplace Automation: The Internet of Things (IoT) and automation will help companies fill gaps created by labor shortages while optimizing workforce. In retail and hospitality, this will take the form of self-service kiosks, autonomous order fulfillment, and drive-thru enabled by AI (Artificial Intelligence), all of which will free people up for more roles. qualified. Adoption will continue to accelerate as the positive business impact of improving efficiency and staff morale is recognized.
• Ongoing Tech Talent Shortage: Competition for technical talent will be fierce. We are seeing the "Great Resignation" that is happening right now. Companies have been slow to hire in 2021 due to the persistent pandemic, but soon, all companies will want to give all their technology projects the green light. There aren't enough tech-savvy people for everyone. Companies willing to find people alternatively will win.
• Marketing Through Television (Marketing Connected TV): Connected television will play a huge role in 2022, both for companies and consumers, and not only because of its growing popularity. Between data-driven targeting and advanced metrics, CTV has become a powerful means of engaging with relevant consumers. Research by the Interactive Advertising Bureau found that 60% of marketers said they were switching ad dollars from broadcast TV to CTV in 2021. It just amazes me that the number is not higher.
• Technologies Based on Consumer-Centered Experiences: Advances in technologies are giving companies new ways to connect with customers and improve the user experience. Experience-based technologies, such as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, in particular, are already transforming the way consumers gather information, make decisions, and make purchases. This trend is expected to continue as more companies invest in Creating Immersive Shopping Experiences for their Customers.
• Focus on the Benefits of Digital Transformation: Digital Transformation is here to stay. For example, the documents you work with today probably originated as digital files and only existed in digital form. Digital native assets contain important metadata, form relationships with other digital assets, and are also more actionable. In other words, digitization adds powerful layers of knowledge and newly verifiable authenticity.
• Blockchain Technology: The widespread use of blockchain technology in business and consumer applications will positively affect the world. This will include new utilities ranging from Smart Contracts to optimize supply chains to eliminate ad fraud. Blockchain will usher in an era of true transparency in business transactions.
• Omnichannel Customer Service: It is believed that we will see more companies opt for omnichannel customer service. It is no longer enough to have a chat option on your website. Many shoppers now turn to brand social media pages when they have questions or concerns. It is expected to see an increase in social media sales next year due to this trend.
• Sustainable Technology Design: We are expected to see more and more technologies that embed sustainability at their core. While there are numerous development verticals for technology and the potential is not fully exploited, it is expected that it will be critical for companies to create products and services that serve environmental and sustainability goals.
• "Low Code and No Code" Software: Application automation is becoming more important to everyone from large to small organizations and even professionals and hobbyists. However, extensive knowledge of multiple programming languages has always been a barrier. The proliferation of "Low Code" and "No Code", a software development technique that is based on visual elements to create software, especially by people without technical knowledge, is leading to the search for code alternatives to reduce time necessary to develop an application or software. This will make the technology more accessible to anyone who has an idea, allowing applications to be designed, not just by teams of developers, but by a broader range of professionals who can contribute a lot.
• Artificial Intelligence Everywhere: As more people expect websites and devices to meet all their new needs, more Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being incorporated, leading to an explosion of devices, applications, websites and tools. with this technology in 2022. Additionally, future content recommendations on social media and streaming sites are likely to come from Artificial Intelligence rather than traditional data analytics. This will evolve in such a way that, in 2026, 75% of the largest global companies will use Artificial Intelligence for risk-based operational decision-making, according to a study by IDC and Liferay.
• Virtual Reality for All: With more affordable technology, smarter Artificial Intelligence and faster Internet with 5G, Virtual Reality (VR) will be more present than ever and can be seen in areas beyond entertainment. For example, researchers, students and medical professionals will use it to learn more about complex topics and remote workers to participate in virtual meetings and participate in Work Culture. They are just examples of how much is to come in this field.
• Augmented Reality in Online Shopping: Since the arrival of Covid-19, online commerce has experienced a notable boom, advancing in the most optimistic forecasts. However, much remains to be done when it comes to managing consumer expectations. According to a report by IDC and LIferay, by 2022 20% of purchasing or contracting processes will be transformed into engaging customer experiences through the use of personalized multimedia elements. With Augmented Reality (AR), vendors can now create realistic 3D models of products, allowing potential buyers to view the item as if they were holding it before purchasing. Not only will this provide a more accurate sample of the product you are looking to buy, it will also encourage people to buy things they weren't so sure about.
• IoT and Edge Computing, Drivers of Big Changes: According to Forrester Prediction 2022, the evolution of these two trends will go hand in hand in the future and, together, they will drive major IT changes in 2022. The demand for sustainability-related services will drive these technologies. For example, for the measurement of CO2 levels, pollution and air quality will be increasingly intensive, together with IoT systems that allow companies to manage their resources in a more efficient way. In addition, the report also highlights the consequences of the current global semiconductor shortage, and does not estimate that it will end until mid-2023. This means that IT products for businesses and users will suffer problems of price instability and availability during the next months. This problem will also affect the IoT market very directly, because most of the silicon supply will go to CPU and GPU production. Therefore, the microcontrollers and sensors that the devices require will have even more problems in the supply chain.
• Security Automation: The Hyperdigital Transformation that companies experience will not stop, but will accelerate and will require more agile and complete solutions to protect employees who work remotely, their applications and their data. In this sense, this will make it necessary to apply a holistic approach to managing security risks, gaining a deeper understanding of how malware and phishing will affect companies and working with a "war games" model to understand, locate and neutralize possible threats that may affect the industry or the specific business model of each client.
• Passwordless Authentication: Passwords will become a thing of the past. As Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning get smarter, we are likely to witness a gradual shift towards passwordless authentication, using mobile devices, tokens, and even biometric data almost everywhere. This will not only eliminate the problem of having to regularly maintain and change multiple passwords managed by a user, but it will also be much more secure and less prone to attacks such as phishing.
• DDoS Attack: Forrester estimates that a large-scale denial of service (DDoS) attack, driven by an IoT botnet, could lead to the elimination of a significant communications infrastructure. This could create a huge financial setback as you block critical communications for a significant period of time. Therefore, from each to the next few months, organizations must monitor their preparedness against this type of attack if they want to be well prepared.
• Technological Sustainability: New devices have proven to be a permanent part of our daily lives, which has sparked interest in making them more sustainable, both from an environmental and economic point of view. In 2022 we will see a greater commitment to "repair and reuse old devices" instead of replacing them with new ones. In addition, newer devices will be made of better materials to increase their longevity and reduce negative impact on the environment. From the use of biodegradable and low-carbon materials, to energy efficiency and batteries with higher capacities.

Other trends, such as Business for 2022:

• More Globalized Competition: Everything has become more global and the digitization of companies has increased competition regardless of their location. This implies a paradigm shift for everyone with the exception of those businesses that necessarily involve a physical presence, for example a workshop.
• Digital Transformation: On the other hand, the benefits of the cloud have been evident in 2021. From the first moment that the pandemic arose and we began to telework, those companies that were already using the cloud were able to react quickly to the situation and were able to move forward in the face of the situation of uncertainty that was lived. Therefore, during 2022 the use of a cloud will be essential and will be one of the most important trends. Flexibility and agility are one of the reasons why using a cloud is recommended.
• Digital Assistants with Voice: Throughout this year, many people have had the need to feel accompanied. For this reason, during 2022, the feeling of wanting to be accompanied will be seen as something essential. The Digital Assistants will come to us. We can see them everywhere. Manufacturers will most likely be able to develop voice user interfaces with advanced emotion recognition and transfer capabilities. In addition to accompanying people, companies will be able to use them to increase customer satisfaction. At the same time, the neural systems of speech and text reproduction will not allow us to doubt who is talking about a person or a program.
• Internet of Things but with 5G: Another business trend for 2022 is the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G. Although in recent years we have already witnessed how, through interconnected applications, more efficient and intelligent information and knowledge networks are created. Throughout 2022 this technology will begin to reach its full potential in the embrace of 5G. With the long-awaited arrival of 5G, a world of opportunities opens up for a hyper-connected world. The data that we are going to manage will be enormous and will allow us to develop innovative solutions and improve management to a level never dreamed of. Connections will triple to 670 million in 2021 and will reach a wider market in the next 12 months. In fact, next year the United States could have full 5G coverage throughout its territory, something that we will see in more countries in the coming years.
• Robotic Process Automation: RPA (Robotic Process Automation) solutions have been the great unknown of business automation. His approach proposes a different approach to the automation of processes since he does not intend to change them but to automate them. It does not claim to address all processes, just one. It is an approach that, throughout 2022, will allow results of value to be obtained and not just monetary.
• Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality: We had already mentioned it above, but now we consider its Augmented Reality complement as a previous entry to the Metaverse or Metauniverse. Other business innovation trends to watch out for in 2022 are "virtual reality and augmented reality". Virtual Reality immerses the individual in an environment, while Augmented Reality enlarges the environment of the users. During 2022, companies are expected to use this trend more in their marketing strategies to make stronger and longer-lasting connections. As the world adjusts to the limitations of the new normal, Augmented Reality can play quite a role in our daily interactions. Studies say that half of consumers are willing to pay more for a product if it offers the augmented reality experience.
• Chatbots: Due to the growth of machine learning, chatbots have become extremely popular in both small and large businesses. Chatbots are typically used in customer service. They are a set of immediate responses in chats or web pages that help answer questions. They are simulations of conversations having more receptive, intelligent and more human conversational agents. Today's chatbots are more advanced thanks to Artificial Intelligence and are becoming more and more human-like. They are now better suited to chat with customers as company representatives, offering more speed and efficiency.
• Purposeful and Sustainable Businesses: Sustainable development goals are increasingly taking root in businesses and consumers who are becoming aware of the need to care for the planet we live on.
• Create Better Customer Experiences: 80% of users say that agents have a great impact on the "customer experience" and organizations must be prepared to offer an intelligent combination that integrates AI and human factor. That will be the challenge for organizations for this year 2022, "to provide a brand experience that impacts the consumer in such a way that they want to share it with the whole world". Artificial Intelligence will play a key role in the "personalization" of these experiences, since, through the stored data, human agents will receive details of past conversations in other channels, facilitating quicker and more intelligent responses. That is why in 2022 it will be essential to find the perfect balance between a service built through Artificial Intelligence and another that includes the human factor for those queries that require more complexity. In addition, it will also be essential for companies to adopt a modular mindset that makes it easier for them to incorporate new technological innovation tools as they are needed. This will highlight the role of Communication Platforms as a Service (CPaaS) that provide the ability to extend other UCaaS and CCaaS solutions to develop and deliver new customer, employee and user experiences.

It is known that 2022 will become a year in which trust will acquire a new sense that is much more committed and will be essential in each step that is approached in innovation projects. Consequently, transparency will be a critical aspect in the coming months, forcing organizations to be responsible. Digitization and Innovation must go hand in hand with sound, ethical policies that ensure that progress is responsible.

At the end of this type of report, it is always said that "it is expected that this year many new technologies will be seen in the market". I prefer to say: "We will see how user-centered will be the new technologies that will reach the market, as well as how accurate will be the new services and technological products that companies implement / launch onto the market to satisfy needs and solve problems. of users and customers globally ". We can only observe and glimpse in this coming year, how customers receive and adopt these new technologies as their own and at what speed this growth of new markets and new consumption and use habits will develop on a global level by customers. and users.

Sources: "Predictions 2022", Forrester; "The Trends To Watch In The Coming Year" (The Economist)"; "15 Industry Experts Predict The Dominant Tech Trends of 2022" (Forbes); "Previsiones de Tom Standage: El Mundo ante 2022" (Hosteltur); "Big Ideas 2022: Tendencias que Marcarán la Pauta en Latinoamérica" (LinkedIn); "15 Tendencias Tecnológicas que Protagonizarán 2022", MyCanal.