Top 8 technology trends in 2020

We have seen an upsurge of technological tools used in the past decade. Smart Phones have taken over the world and with that, the use of the internet has become an integral part of people’s lives. What we have come across in the past decade was shaped by the efforts of tech companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. They were the key players in shaping the face of the IT industry. It will be interesting to see how technology trends in 2020 will shape the future of the upcoming decade. We already have got hints regarding some of the coolest technology that will be trending in 2020 in the last few years.

Top 8 Technology Trends in 2020

Here is the list of top 8 latest technology trends in 2020 that will be buzzing all around the world in the years to come.

1. Artificial Intelligence
2. Robots
3. Computer Vision and Face Recognition
4. Self Driving Cars
5. Blockchain
6. Quantum Computing
7. Robotic Process Automation
8. Edge Computing

1. Artificial Intelligence

Lots of research gave been going on in the field of Artificial Intelligence and efforts have been made to attribute machines with human intelligence. Computer Scientists are in the process of building smart machines that are capable of performing tasks that generally requires human intervention.

Some of the tools that are AI-enabled, and you have been using it for quite a time are –

• Personal Assistants – Microsoft’s Cortana, Apple’s Siri, Google Search, Amazon’s Alexa
• IBM’s Watson
• YouTube’s Recommendation is surely not a coincidence, that is a small example of Artificial Intelligence in action

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The examples we mentioned above fall under the category of Narrow AI as each of them performs a single task very well. The next big technology trend in 2020 and the years to come would be something more powerful such as AI machines that can do whatever the humans can, but that is still far from reach.

2. Robots

We have come a long way with robots from toys to humanoid robots like Sophia. Countries like Japan and China have robots that can serve coffee and food to customers. Toyota has been heavily investing and researching in humanoid robots and has been quite successful in it. Robots will continue to be among the top technology trend in 2020 and we may see more advanced robots that will be able to perform more general tasks. Artificial Intelligence has played a major role in shaping the robots of today and will continue to do so.

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3. Computer Vision and Face Recognition

Computer Vision is a field of Artificial Intelligence that enables computers to perceive the surrounding similar to the vision of humans. Face Recognition is one application that became quite popular for unlocking smartphones. Even though face detection applications are really cool, they do not match the vision of humans. For example, if you are wearing a mask that covers the mouth and the nose, chances are very high that your friend will recognize you, but the face detection application will not unlock the phone. There is still a long way to go for this field and therefore will be among the technology trends in 2020. We may also get improved applications this year in smartphones.

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4. Self Driving Cars

Artificial Intelligence is rocking the tech industry. We have self-driving cars hitting the streets these days. Tesla has been quite active in making self-driving cars popular. However, some incidents do suggest that self-driving cars are still not ready to be used by the masses as there are some flaws in it. Self Driving Cars use computer vision to perceive the surroundings and the technology itself is quite expensive because powerful cameras would be needed to teach the car to accurately distinguish things. Nevertheless, self-driving cars are the future and it will also be among the top technology trends in 2020. We may see some improvements in the years to come in terms of how they deal with harsh weather, heavy rainfall, interference with sensors, blurred vision.  Also, if that company is using Google maps, it is not necessary that the application itself is free of bugs, that also must be taken care of. A lot of challenges but it surely is the future.

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5. Blockchain

Blockchain was originally designed for the digital currencies but now is being thought of as a way to securely share information such as medical data. It is based on the cryptographic principles and is a time-stamped series of immutable records of data managed by a cluster of computers. It is designed in such a way that it makes it impossible for anyone to hack. Blockchain technology has just started being used and is going to be among the popular technology trends in 2020. In the future, we may see its applications in electoral machines, personal identity security, cross border payments, etc. 

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6. Quantum Computing

In simple terms, computers that perform quantum computation are known as quantum computers. Now, in order to understand what it exactly is you need to know the basics of quantum mechanics. That said, there is a famous quote by Richard Feynman, “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics”. In 2019, IBM released a course on quantum computing. Along with Artificial Intelligence, this technology is also going to make a revolution in the tech industry. Since the course was released just recently, we can expect quantum computing to be a technology trend in 2020 and be more popular in the years to come.

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7. Robotic Process Automation

A lot of businesses are adopting this technology and it is not going anywhere, it has been trending for quite a long and it will be a technology trend in 2020 as well. Robotic Process Automation is used to automate repetitive business processes by freeing up human intervention. This technology is going to impact every industry.

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8. Edge Computing

When we just started to make sense of cloud computing, the industry threw another term at us “edge computing”. Edge computing can be thought of as a more efficient form of cloud computing. It is mainly targeted towards IoT devices. The key difference between cloud computing and edge computing is that the former has a central server for performing computations while the latter has a more distributed system that processes data at different locations that are near to the client. Edge computing allows real-time monitoring and analysis of data.

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Back in the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution was driven by new manufacturing processes. Electricity, Steam Engine, Airplanes have brought us to where we are in the 21st century. Now, the next big revolution is going to be brought up by the applications of Artificial Intelligence. It will be interesting to see how these technology trends in 2020 and see new innovative ideas pop up in the industry. With Quantum computing, Edge Computing, Cryptocurrency, we will see a world we not imagined before. Technology is evolving rapidly and with more sophisticated systems we will be able to experience the next big revolution soon. Artificial Intelligence will not leave any stone unturned and it will be everywhere, in edge computing, automation, quantum computing, blockchain technologies, it is all up to the designers how they approach this cool tech.

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