Top Technology Trends of 2020

At the Last Futurist after writing 8,000 words on technology trends for 2020, we found AI to be the over-arching theme of how the world will change in the 2020s.

Yet technological innovation is still in its infancy, with many sectors failing to live up to the promise and the hype in the 2010-2020 period. We take future trends seriously and have found a lot of the writing on the topic misses the mark.

 We enjoy looking at AI Trends and digital transformation trends. In between those two are more broad technology trends.

In fact these topics make up the mission statement of this new news site.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Digital Transformation
• 4th Industrial Revolution
• Technology trends / Futurism

However the last decade had a lot of technology and gadgets that didn’t fare so well in the real world. Ring a bell?

• Virtual Reality VR 
• Chat Bots
• Augmented Reality
• Blockchain 
• IoT
• Quantum Computing

The decade was mobile all the way, with mass adoption taking place the way we might expect the brain-computer interface (BCI) to achieve mass adoption in a future decade years from now. In the decade ahead the move to automated stores and electric vehicles are real trends, but it’s important to differentiate the hype from the reality. 

Autonomous vehicles, quantum computing going mainstream, better self-learning AI, hang on a second! Even mass adoption of digital currencies is coming faster. 

From computers to the internet and smart phones, a few generations shows a lot of progress. But technology never stands still. Advertising has scaled a world of surveillance capitalism normalization and an AI-arms race is now taking place. 

Most technology trends and AI listicles only touch the surface of how humans are embedding technology increasingly into their lives. However looking at it from the perspectives of many industries and across technology and innovation stacks gives a more complete picture. 

The real world and customer experience are the real tests for new technological innovations and pivots. It will take decades for 3D printing, quantum computing and an AGI to even become mature, but an age of biotechnology and AI in healthcare, education and finance is inevitable.

Read the Top Technology Trends on the Last Futurist

1. Chinese Tech Firms Grow in Global Scale

From Huawei, to ByteDance (TikTok), to Didi, China will wage major battles for global market share in 5G, consumer apps, E-commerce, mobile payments and ride sharing, among others. Chinese led tech companies -- with the support of the Chinese Government and venture funds such as Softbank Vision Fund -- can mean that in the 2020s China's ecosystem fully replaces Silicon Valley as the leader of innovation. In 2019, some believe this has already occurred.

2. Competition in the Cloud Heats Up in 2020

Many talk about the race to AI or streaming wars as notable markets to watch, but at the Last Futurist, smart speakers and the Cloud seem more pragmatic races and markets to watch. In 2020, Google Cloud and Alibaba Cloud have breakout years while Microsoft Azure continues to make headway on Amazon's AWS even though, technically speaking, in terms of production maturity and features, AWS is years ahead of the pack.

3. Autonomous Driving Pilots Continue Slow Progress

The early 2020s will see notable self-driving car pilots by Waymo One and a variety of other players as the entire automobile industry consolidates towards EVs and the future autonomous vehicle market of the 2030s.

4. Demand for Cybersecurity Professionals Becomes Critical

One of the most hyped job-skill shortages is in cybersecurity, and that should increase in 2020 since cybersecurity will be a major issue for 5G, IoT and consumers having more connected and smart devices in the home.

Demand for expertise will rise as companies realize that their current IS strategy is not sufficient. Additionally, data breaches, data manipulation, cyber fraud and identity theft are on the rise.

To continue on to read the Top 50 tech trends of 2020 go here. This article is a work in progress, but is up to 8,000 words thus far.

The 2020s may be the most impactful transformative decade of the 21st century in terms of a major difference in how our lives are impacted by technology, and it is an exciting and scary time to be alive.

The 2020s will separate the dreamers and pretenders from the real innovators and we'll be covering every second of it.

Lastly, what tech trends do you find most impactful to society, cities and the digital transformation revolution?

Related Further Reading: 7 Digital Transformation Trends of 2020

• Artificial Intelligence Trends of 2020
• Amazon will Crush it in the 2020s, Here’s Why