The end of the year is fast approaching, and with it, estimations on what the future has in store for businesses everywhere. While some trends are already fading out, there are plenty of new trends on the rise.
We foresee shifts in thinking, shifts in creativity, and shifts in public discussions just beyond the horizon.
Businesses that want to stay competitive will have to keep an eye on the evolving landscape and become early adopters of new ideas and technology. A little risk today can lead to big rewards tomorrow.
Videos Will Take Over the Internet
Okay, perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration. However, videos will continue to rise in popularity and usage. People are often hardwired to prefer video content above all else, especially when on the hunt to learn about new services or products.
Just take a look at well-known platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok. Preference is given to video-driven content and businesses continue to get slicker and more sophisticated every time they hit publish. Live videos will continue to grow in popularity as well because people are drawn to their layer of authenticity.
Siri and Alexa Will Rule the World
We kid, we kid. However, voice-activated search and applications will definitely continue to rise. Google Home is huge right now, and some experts estimate as much as 50% of all web searches in 2020 will be voice-activated. It just makes sense in a culture that’s constantly on the go.
It’s much easier to speak into your phone than to look down and type. When businesses release new content, not only will they have to consider keyword optimization, they’ll also have to optimize for voice. Think—optimizing for complete sentences, not just keywords or phrases.
We’ll Be Caught in the Matrix of Augmented Reality
No, we didn’t say virtual reality. We said augmented. We’re talking about creating interactive, immersive experiences by taking computer-generated images and superimposing them onto a person’s perception of reality, using various modalities like visual, olfactory, auditory, and somatosensory. AR is being used in everything from entertainment, to shopping, to safety operations and will be critical for business growth in 2020.
The Rise of the Machines is Real, Y’all
Artificial intelligence is the wave of the future. By combining machine learning and natural language processing to analyze behaviors and patterns of users, AI has the ability to actually solve problems, largely due to how quickly it can process information. It’s not perfect though.
There are massive advances in certain areas, while others (like speech recognition), continue to lag behind. Despite many hurdles, some experts think that AI could very well eliminate a large percentage of jobs in the coming years. Companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are already using AI and offering training materials and machine-learning solutions, and companies like Spotify use it to personalize each user’s playlist experience.
Small businesses that dive in and become early adopters will be better equipped to take advantage of the trend, as AI continues to grow and make waves in a variety of industries.
5G Will Feed the Beast
5G, cell network tech’s fifth generation, is poised to be a game-changer in the way we interact and connect online. Interactions and communications will be nearly instantaneous, boosting productivity all across the board, while hyper upload and download speeds will cater to a video-driven internet. Buh-bye slow networks and connections, hello 5G world domination.
Obviously, the future is impossible to predict and it’s true that trends can be fickle. However, businesses that want to stay at the top of the heap should take these new and emerging technologies seriously. It’s a mad, mad world out there, and only companies that are willing to evolve and be early proponents of new tech and ideas will find lasting success.
See Also:
How to Develop a Winning Business Strategy: Knowing What Not to Do
Guiding Light: Is Your Business Vision 20/20?
Resilient Businesses Survive, Thrive, or Nosedive – Time to Build a Strategy?
