What if you could talk to a drone? No, seriously. You can already talk to a locomotive, so why not talk to a drone?

For those of you following the technology, you already know that unmanned aircraft systems (a.k.a. drones) are finding their way into Internet of Things (IoT) implementations. IoT applications are typically composed of:

• A sensor “at rest,” e.g., on a highway or a bridge or a thermostat that gathers input (like weather conditions or seismic activity)
• A connection (via the Internet) between the sensor and a back-end data collection infrastructure
• A back-end data collection infrastructure that’s commonly based in the cloud

So why do I claim that drones the future of IoT? For one, drone technology is evolving very rapidly. Drones are already beginning to efficiently replace the connected sensors at rest with one device that is:

1. Deployable to different locations
2. Capable of carrying flexible payloads
3. Reprogrammable in mission
4. Able to measure just about anything, anywhere

To illustrate the trend and these capabilities, I’ll highlight the developments of several companies. But first – so that we are all on the same page – let’s look at what I mean when I talk about drones.

A new kind of drone

All drones are not equal. Some like the Global Hawk are very complex systems that are connected to satellites and are only the purview of the military. Others like the Parrot A.R. Drone are mass-produced hobby aircraft that you can control with your mobile device. But a class of drones in the middle combines the capabilities of both complex and mass-produced systems and is specifically designed for commercial purposes. These drones weight less than 55 lbs. and are classified by regulatory entities as small unmanned aircraft systems or sUAS. We don’t see their ubiquitous use in the U.S. quite yet, but in countries like England, Australia, and France, you will find them operating in energy, mining, mapping, and surveying companies – and quite a few government agencies like those responsible for transportation and infrastructure.

Commercial drones are truly ‘unmanned aircraft systems’. They are not just remote controlled aircraft. They require many things in order to run, like avionics, ground control stations, communication systems, data collection and processing software, and of course GPS for geo-referencing. There’s more, but you get the idea. These are multifaceted complex vehicles whose mission is to fly sensors and collect data.

Commercial drones are also connected devices. So they are ‘things in motion’. Most are accessible or controllable over the Internet, and the data they collect is pushed to various cloud services. Some drones are beginning to carry on-board processors as well and are now part of the growing trend of fog computing devices.

Deploy a fleet

So, if a commercial drone is a connected device, then shouldn’t you be able to ‘talk to a drone’? And shouldn’t you be able to – from your smartphone in California –control a drone in, say, France?

You can. And it’s because companies like DroneDeploy and U|g|CS have figured out how to make addressable drone management platforms that control multiple drones from anywhere on any device. DroneDeploy does it by marrying a simple 4G telemetry device to a drone’s avionics. This enables real-time data transmission, processing, and sharing. With this kind of hardware and software combination, you can plan missions (launch, go to point A, then point B, then to point C, etc.) in a browser, upload them to a drone anywhere, press start, and away it goes. You could do that with a fleet and monitor them all in flight.

Flexible payloads

So one of things commercial users want is the ability to mount different sensors such as thermal imaging, UV or multispectral cameras, sniffers, and microphones to sUAS. PrecisionHawk figured out early on how to offer an array of sensors that are hot swappable and just snap into place. The cool thing about their aircraft is that the body itself is made of circuit boards and processors. They’re hardened of course on the outside, but it’s an example of the innovation happening in the commercial drone industry.

Reprogrammable in mission

So, not only can you deploy these anywhere, but they are reprogrammable while on a mission. Let’s say you wanted to create a 3D map for a construction project and you programmed it to run its mission but in the middle you noticed something odd (because you are looking through the camera in real-time on your laptop or smart-phone).

With SenseFly’s drone software, you simply point to that area on the map, and you can:

• Divert the drone
• Command it to perform another function in that area
• Then resume and complete its first mission
• Then come home and land

Measure just about anything

Every day, you can read about how measurement sensors are getting smaller and lighter. Such is the case with LiDAR, which allows you to capture minute details and measurements. Because these units have been heavy up to now, there have been only three choices if you wanted these sensors to measure something:

• They had to be stationary
• They could be roving (stationary on a truck or SUV)
• They could be carried on a manned aircraft

Stationary is the most accurate but lacks the significance of an aerial perspective. You can get good results from aircraft, but not as good as from a drone. With a drone can get close to the object – and as I mentioned they can be deployable on-demand. LiDAR manufacturers like Riegl and Velodyne get this, and we now see offered in the GIS market new high-performance, remotely piloted aircraft system for unmanned laser scanning, like those from Phoenix Aerial Systems and Sabre Systems. These airborne platforms provide full mechanical and electrical integration of sensor system components into aircraft fuselage.

LiDAR data models are huge, but as more low-cost in-memory computing becomes available, service providers are storing the models in the cloud and then updating them to reveal changes over time. Of course, it’s the analytics on top of that that provides the real insights – insights like structural integrity and predictive failures. Soon, multiple infrastructure sensors – like those found on bridges and highways – will be obsolete.

What’s next?

We are only beginning to find out how drones can be used to replace multiple sensors, and hopefully I’ve successfully convinced you of how drones play into the future of the Internet of Things. Surely this technology will push the bounds of how we can measure and analyze ‘things at rest’ and ‘things in motion’ and how they can interact with both of them.

You can find a companion SlideShare presentation to this post here.

The Internet marketplace Alibaba has begun live trials of a drone-based delivery system in China,
making it the latest e-commerce company to test remote-controlled copter deliveries with actual customers. It follows the Chinese courier company SF Express, which started experimenting with drone delivery more than a year ago.

Meanwhile, Amazon—which hyped the possibility of drone delivery last November—has yet to receive approval for similar U.S. tests involving actual customers. While the company has been testing its proposed Prime Air service on its own U.S. property and in unspecified overseas locations, there’s so far no indication that it’s delivered test packages to urban residents the way Alibaba is doing.

Here’s what Alibaba is doing, per Bloomberg:

Asia’s largest Internet company is partnering with Shanghai YTO Express Logistics Co. to deliver ginger tea packets to 450 Chinese customers who volunteered for the one-time drone tests, according to an e-mailed statement from Alibaba. Remote-controlled helicopters are expected to distribute 50 parcels from Alibaba’s Taobabo Marketplace in Beijing Wednesday, before moving to Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The Alibaba tests are scheduled to run through Friday.

Catching some air

The prospect of drone delivery has captivated several of the largest Internet companies in the world.

Amazon waits, like many others, for the FAA to issue regulations pertaining to unmanned aerial vehicles so it can launch Amazon Prime Air, which in theory will “safely get packages into customers’ hands in 30 minutes or less.”

Even Google likely has an interest in how the Alibaba tests go, as it’s been testing its own drone program in Australia.

Originally, the FAA said it planned to publish a draft of those regulations by the end of 2014. Reuters reported that the FAA had sent a draft of the new rules to the White House in October. An FAA spokesman told me that “[w]e are continuing to work with our administration colleagues to finish the rule. Our goal is to get the proposal right. We are looking to publish it as soon as possible.”

The FAA has granted several exemptions for commercial drone use, though to Amazon’s chagrin, deliveries still aren’t an approved use despite its best efforts. Even once it gets FAA approval, Amazon has other obstacles it needs to solve before its drone delivery system is finalized. A recent crash onto the White House lawn has raised safety concerns regarding all drone pilots.

The Alibaba drone tests will need to comply with Chinese aviation rules. According to Bloomberg, the Chinese military relinquishes only about 20 percent of available airspace to civilian use, and Chinese authorities are still considering how to license drone pilots.

Photo courtesy of Alibaba

This article was written by Richard Procter from ReadWrite and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

For more great information on ways to deliver the customer experience (drone-delivery or not!) your customers want, please read Rick Chavie’s: “The Direct Effect Customer Experience” on The Customer Edge.

The post Alibaba Drone-Delivery Tests Head For Chinese Customers appeared first on The Customer Edge.

Drones, smart glasses, and other wearables: How are new technologies enriching our experience of journalism?

Society’s trend toward digitalization is increasingly influencing media coverage. New technologies create novel communication channels and platforms, offering refreshing new options to both creators and consumers of media and changing the way media are used.

The first transformation was initiated by mobile technologies, so could wearables now be revolutionizing journalism once more?

Mobile technologies are changing journalism

Mobile journalism is a new form of reporting in which journalists use mobile devices to gather, edit, and distribute their content for consumption through mobile devices. The influence of mobile technology, such as tablets and smartphones, has fundamentally changed journalism. Important news is spread and read 24/7 from all around the globe. The behavior of media consumers has also changed: Their desire for information has increased, contributing significantly to the success of mobile news dissemination.

Users can now slip into the role of writers and spread user-generated content in the form of images, articles, news, and comments, primarily through social networks. New forms of online communication allow news to reach a wider audience than ever before. Publishing houses have evolved into transmedial partners, focusing on interactivity. They offer apps, streaming services, and push notifications to satisfy their readers’ growing appetite for information. The one-sided communication between publishing houses and their target audiences has been replaced by a dialog that takes place on social networks.

Wearables expand the range of opportunities

Smart watches, smart glasses, fitness bracelets, and clothes equipped with electronic components are currently the best-known wearables available. In addition to their primary functions, they have great potential for media reporting. Short but important messages and preliminary information can be pushed to small-screen wearables attached to the body, enabling users to stay up-to-date quickly and easily.

Fast access to information is a great plus point for consumers. Smart glasses are also advantageous when it comes to live news broadcasting straight from the scene of the events. Journalists above all can benefit greatly from this. In difficult situations such as protests or tragedies, users can capture live images while retaining full physical mobility.

Despite this, wearables will not replace smartphones – the screen is too small to display adequate amounts of information, and wearables have fundamentally different functions. Nevertheless, wearables could inform about important events in the form of push messages until the user has time to find out more through traditional information channels and devices.

Drones also offer potential for journalism

Drones are currently not very widespread in journalism but definitely offer further benefits. In the case of disasters, for example, drones could roam the area and transmit vital images from an aerial perspective, enabling fast assessment of the overall situation. In the case of fire catastrophes, drones could pinpoint the fire’s core through infrared imaging, leading to faster fire extinguishing. Drones can also deliver images from war zones and similar crises, helping journalists conduct hazardous investigations. News network CNN already uses drones for filming: Application scenarios have included the Costa Concordia cruise liner tragedy as well as the Haiyan typhoon that raged over the Philippines.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

Countless sci-fi novels and Hollywood blockbusters feature futuristic worlds where flying objects are the norm.

Guess what? We are starting to see this come to life in the real world. Drones, for instance, are getting a lot of attention – what started off as a niche hobby has now grown into a multi-billion dollar market for both consumer and commercial use.

Recent advances in drone technology combined with the ability to capture, analyze, and act upon large volumes of data make it possible to do a lot more today than ever before. According to a study by the Teal Group Corp, the spending on drones will nearly double by 2024 to about $11.4 billion (compared to about $6.4B in 2014). Large enterprises are moving quickly to evaluate how they can use such technologies.

In my discussions with people across different industries, I was surprised to discover that much of what I thought was theoretical/visionary is actually technology that people have started to test with small pilots (no pun intended). Recently I conducted a workshop with some customers, where we came up with almost 100 different use cases where drones can be used in the enterprise space. These broadly revolved around the areas of quality, inspections, maintenance, manufacturing, delivery of goods, warehouse management, as well as many others.

Drones used for safety

Most people have heard about Amazon’s public experimentation with drones for the delivering of packages and now other mail order businesses want to use drones for the transportation of packets to their customers. Additionally, drones have been used in assisting with public security/ safety – for example to study dangerous areas, or even assist with rescue operations such as during the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Nepal. Rail companies are evaluating how to use drones to help manage and monitor the miles of rail tracks, often in remote areas. Oil and gas companies are looking at similar usage of drones to help inspect the health of their pipeline.

Drones used at work

People are also experimenting with drones for inside work environments, such as assistants for distributing objects in logistics centers, or for helping to better manage warehouse/inventory. In the waste industry, drones present a promising alternative to reach hard to reach areas such as some parts of the ocean. In addition, they can be used in mining operations to provide accurate measurements of mining piles so that companies can assess the financial equivalent of the pile at any given time.

Drones used for agriculture

Another very popular application of drones is in agriculture, to measure the health of crop and provide any necessary remedial actions such as additional water or fertilizer. Of course, as with any new technology, there are constraints that still need further development before we will see full scale deployments. One major constraint is regulatory. Regulations on drone usage can vary widely across different countries. Most countries require drones to be operated below a certain height, and only within visual line of sight (VLOS).

However there are some exceptions such as in Australia, where it is accepted for certain missions after rigorous risk assessment. Some countries require special permits be obtained for commercial usage of drones (you can see a comparison of regulations by country here).

Privacy is another issue that needs to be addressed, since drones can unknowingly collect unauthorized data or unpermitted recordings. Health and safety considerations are also paramount – whether it be the safety of the surrounding population or that of the operators. Despite these limitations, drones look like a promising technology that companies can leverage to reinvent operational processes and devise new ways to make money or reduce costs.

If this reminds you of the “Jetson’s”, don’t hold your breath, this vision may be here sooner than we think – and I, for one, am looking forward to it.

This story also appeared on the SAP Business Trends community.

For more future-focused insight on where business is headed, see The Make-for-Me Future.

At this very moment, somewhere in the world, a drone is taking a picture of an insurgent’s hidden outpost — or a tropical sunrise. Launching a missile over a battlefield — or bringing a beer to someone’s table. Racing through an obstacle course for fun — or slipping into an environment too distant or dangerous for a human. That barely scratches the surface of what drones will become in the not-too-distant future.

The first drones were remote-controlled model planes used by the military in World War I to surveil battlefields. Today, a drone is commonly thought of as any unmanned aerial vehicle that combines a power source, sensors or cameras, intelligent software, and most critically, a communication link. But they are much more. Drones essentially take the Internet — and exponential technologies — anywhere we humans want to send them.  What’s more, they’re getting exponentially simpler, safer, smaller, and more powerful with each turn of the Moore’s Law crank.  We’re hurtling toward a future in which drones are widely available, incredibly capable, and increasingly autonomous. It’s not too soon to start considering the possibilities and challenges.

Already flying high

Today’s drones are an ideal platform for putting the already countless variety of sensors (thermal, pressure, audio, chemical, biological, imaging, and many more) into places where it’s difficult, dangerous, or physically impossible for a human to go. More efficient energy storage and fast-improving solar technologies make batteries lighter, smaller, and longer-lasting, allowing drones to operate for longer periods of time. And while software already lets users set up geofences to control where drones can travel, advances in automation and artificial intelligence software will extend their capabilities even further. In the future, drones will carry 3D printers, robotic arms, and all manner of technologies to enable them not just to sense, but dramatically affect, the world around them.

No wonder drones are being put to use in a wide range of industries, both to augment humans and to perform tasks that were previously impossible. These are just a handful of the ways drones are already at work around the world:

• Agriculture: Assessing crop health, monitoring irrigation systems, and tracking livestock

• Emergency response: Spotting forest fires, conducting search and rescue missions, and delivering food and medical supplies to war zones and remote villages

• Utilities: Inspecting wires, towers, power plants, and pipelines

• Scientific research: Tracking animal migrations, reporting on weather patterns, and identifying archaeology

• Real estate: Inspecting construction and improving security

• News and entertainment: Taking photos and videos from previously unreachable vantage points

A South African music festival has even successfully tested beer delivery by drone at one of its campsites. In the U.S., however, the Federal Aviation Administration currently bans drones for most commercial uses. This has delayed Amazon’s plans to introduce package delivery by drone — and disappointed Wisconsin ice fishers whose drone deliveries of twelve-packs from a nearby brewery got shut down. Nonetheless, despite the conservatism of some regulatory agencies drone technology is advancing so rapidly that broad commercial applications are imminent.

A drone of your own

The first GPS receiver weighed 50 pounds and cost more than $100,000. Today, you can buy a 0.3-gram GPS chip for less than $5. The Apollo space program spent millions of dollars to develop an Inertial Measurement Unit to track an object’s position and movement through three-dimensional space, but today it costs just a dollar to do it on a few chips. Digital cameras are many thousands of times smaller, cheaper, and higher-resolution than when they were introduced in 1976.

Now, imagine applying the same rules of exponential growth to other technologies integral to drones. In the next five to ten years, drones could be one thousand times better, but what does “better” mean?

Incredible capabilities. Even as they shrink — some experts predict drones the size of a housefly, a gnat, or even smaller — they’ll have a bigger impact on their environment. As nanotechnology evolves, tiny injectable drones could even work within the body to diagnose health issues, deliver medication with pinpoint accuracy, and perform microsurgery. As they evolve, drones of all sizes could take on ever more tasks: pollinating flowers, seeding rainclouds, even combining 3D printing and drone delivery to repair and even supplant crumbling infrastructure. In fact, J.M. Ledgard, director of the futurist Red Line emergency robotics initiative at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, predicts that cargo drones could turbocharge economic development in Africa, where only 16 percent of roads are paved, by relieving countries of the need to upgrade their transportation infrastructure in much the same way that cellular technology let them avoid building a wired phone infrastructure.

Astonishing intelligence. Software will support drones in making autonomous decisions about what to seek out, sense, and transmit. They may learn to work seamlessly in swarms, flying together in formation and communicating data that lets them avoid obstacles and choose the most efficient routes. Imagine, for example, a squadron of solar-powered ultralight drones delivering inexpensive wireless Internet and cellular coverage to residents of an area that previously had no good broadband options. Facebook is already exploring this with its Aquila initiative.

Wide availability. Better materials, batteries, and propulsion will bring the cost of individual drones down to the point where they deliver high performance for just a few dollars. Organizations and even individuals will be able to afford a dozen — or an entire flotilla.

All of these things, in turn, will create enormous economic opportunities. Global market research firm MarketsandMarkets estimates the total market for commercial drones was $15.22 million in 2014 and predicts it will grow to $1.27 billion by 2020. That incredible growth rate is an order of magnitude faster than Moore’s Law.

Drone, no?

Like self-driving cars, which will use exponential technologies to take us where we want to go without our involvement, drones will use these technologies to take us places we can’t physically be. A world full of drones promises to transform many industries. At the same time, drones will also have enormous ramifications for personal security and privacy. The same personal drone with a high-resolution camera and facial recognition software that follows your child home from school on busy streets could be a tool for a clothing manufacturer to keep tabs on everyone wearing its products — or for a thief to choose which home to break into. And what happens to society when microdrones are everywhere, forcing us to assume that everything we do and say is recorded, monitored, indexed, and infinitely searchable?

Future drones will be able to capture any kind of information from any location.  They will vastly expand our ability to understand and, importantly, affect environments in ways that we’re barely beginning to imagine.  They’ll even bring you a bottle of your favorite beer while they’re at it.

Download the Executive Brief: Drones: Tomorrow’s “I” in the Sky

To learn more about how exponential technology will affect business and life, see SAP Digital Futures.

Earlier this month, California governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have place restrictions on drone usage. The bill, introduced (partially) as a privacy measure, restricted drone flying private property to above 350 feet, while keeping out of official airspace.

Drone regulation is a contentious issue. Supporting a the bill would “stifle innovation and kill jobs,” says the drone industry. (Which is like the Old Faithful of economic warning statements, but anyway).

But it’s not regulation that often kills investment. Unregulated environments are difficult areas in which to invest—too much gray area and thus elevated risk.

Here’s an example: cryptocurrencies, the most famous of which is bitcoin. Unregulated and not insured, they’ve yet to become an accepted currency by most buyers or sellers. A government agency recently classified bitcoin as a commodity, effectively labeling bitcoin as property, not currency.

The FAA’s drone regulations won’t be finished until sometime mid-to-late-2016. Take it from the American Bar Association. The lack of regulation is a problem:

“…the legal and regulatory challenges for businesses that want to utilize drones will likely be endless as well. In the meantime, companies will have to navigate a nebulous array of proposed federal rules and local or state guidance.”

Sounds like fun.

If the fuzzy legal area isn’t enough, insurance might push commercial drone use off the Cliffs of Insanity. According to this piece from Fortune.com, trepidation about potential liabilities and the lack of cohesive regulation is leaving some insurance companies trying to figure out how to write policies that cover drone operations.

What’s happening is that states are aggressively passing their own drone laws, each with their own delightful idiosyncrasies. But some drone supporters, according to the Pew Trust article, think the states are “overstepping their authority and hamstringing an industry ripe for growth.” Think of the equivalent for private and commercial aircraft—it would be practically impossible to take a flight across country.

Oregon, ahead of the curve on this one, passed legislation in 2013 that covers a whole host of drone activities, including making it illegal for drones to fly under 400 feet over private property, while also exempting drone hobbyists and taking into account Oregon’s drone manufacturing industry.

But none of this has stopped venture capitalists from investing. According Bloomberg Business, VCs have invested $210 million in drone technology companies. (For some context, one report put the total of VC deals in 2014 at just under $50 billion.) Intel has invested $60 million in a drone manufacturer, and drone companies are investing in drone companies.

Drone enthusiasts might not like it, but regulations are coming eventually. For now, you’ll have to check at the state level to find out if you’ll be allowed to hunt with a drone (not in Maine), snap photos of fireworks (a no-no in Tennessee), or take an image of private property or individual without consent (s’up, Florida).

Want more on how innovation is changing the business world? See Thinkers: Don’t Kill Your Chances To Make It In The Digital Economy.

Imagine you’re relaxing on a sunny beach when along comes an annoying buzz that rises above the sound of your radio. It could be a banner plane or a jet-ski — or it could be an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), or drone. Drones are increasingly popular with hobbyists and are used for business in many places around the world. But industrial use of UAS’s in the United States has lagged behind, until now.

This fall, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) convened a task force to develop registration recommendations for UAS’s by November 20. The task force includes an impressive array of representatives from the fields of aviation, law enforcement, and commercial venues who are advising on business as well as safety issues. The goal is to have a registration process to put in place by the end of the year for the safe use of UAS’s.

Big commercial players and recreational users are excited about the coming recommendations. Why? Because the use of UAS’s is expected to grow exponentially. Hobbyists want the joy of having their unmanned aircraft soar through the air. And industries look at the many ways to use miniature aircraft whose small size and weight enable them to enter places that humans otherwise could not reach. UAS’s are suited to streamline processes and lower costs for a wide array of applications from the transporting of goods to information gathering. Together with mobile technologies and the Internet of Things, the opportunities for business innovation are endless. Consider these applications:

• Package delivery: Internet giants and retailers are looking to drones to cut the time and cost of package delivery. To make it work, stakeholders need to ensure air and ground safety, and quality of life issues, particularly in densely populated areas. Companies such as Amazon (Amazon Prime Air), Google X (Project Wing), and Wal-Mart are actively exploring the use of UAS’s for this purpose.

• Photography: Glorious aerial shots of landscapes are no longer just for major motion pictures. Today the technology is available for professionals and amateurs alike to fly a UAS designed with a hookup that can be controlled remotely without having to send a human operator into the air. This adds a whole new dimension to documenting an event, promoting real estate and travel destinations, or just having fun.

• Emergency management: The number one priority following a natural disaster like a hurricane, flood, or earthquake is to save lives. The use of drones with cameras and sensors could provide invaluable visibility and information for search and rescue.

• Precision agriculture: Knowing and adjusting the precise growing conditions of soil, weather, irrigation, and nutrient uptake can make the difference between a crop that thrives and one that struggles. A variety of technologies for imaging and data intake will find drones an efficient means of gathering information.

• Medicine: City residents expect the convenience of picking up needed medications at the local branch of a drugstore chain, but in rural areas, branches may be few and far between. Drones have already been approved for use in some circumstances to deliver medicines and supplies to locations that are hard to reach by road vehicle.

These are just a few of the potential applications of UAS’s. Whatever the logistical and regulatory hurdles, the sky’s the limit for manufacturers of drones and associated solutions. And the doors are wide open to the creators of innovative software solutions to acquire and manage information accessed by drone. Who will design the systems necessary drone operation? And how will remote pilots be trained to safely and effectively operate and monitor the flights of small unmanned aircraft?

For more on how regulation could clip the wings of drones, see Will Regulation Kill Drones?

Audrey Merwin is a writer and editor who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

If Santa didn’t deliver a drone for Christmas, dry those tears. Drones in 2016 will be better than their 2015 versions and less expensive to boot. They’re one of several technologies that will be refined in 2016. In fact, the key word for 2016 seems to be improvement – better connections, better charging, better operation. Not all of these will be consumer-ready right away, but they do give a good idea of where the focus and resources are being concentrated. Here’s an idea of what to expect.

Device mesh

Gartner is saying 2016 will be the year the “device mesh” happens. That’s the system by which Internet of Things-enabled devices, wearables, mobile, and the like will be able to communicate with each other.

Automotive

The big CES show in Las Vegas is happening in January, and they’ve got a list of what they expect will be the big stand-outs of the show. Automotive will be big: Faraday Future’s concept car is there, BMW is showing off its AirTouch technology, which allows drivers to control some car features with waves of the hand, and Toyota has its self-driving, highly data-enabled car technology for viewing.

Wireless charging

So much of our current technology hasn’t yet been able to cut the charging cord, but 2016 could be the year of some advances in wireless charging. Several companies are working on different ways of lessening our dependency on cables.

Messaging beyond messages

Facebook and Google will both enable messaging apps to go beyond sending just a message – they’re ramping up to become virtual assistants that can text your friends and take care of a little business at the same time.

Drone improvements

Qualcomm has its newest drone technology at CES, which includes improvements in battery power, camera technology, and obstacle avoidance. The company says it expects the price of drones to decrease significantly this year.

Wearables with more

Samsung’s new processor aimed at the tech wearables market can take more measurements, including body fat and skin temperature, and process the results. An as-yet-unnamed company will reportedly release a new product using the processor in the first quarter of 2016.

5G wireless

Verizon will be testing 5G wireless technology in 2016. 5G promises faster speeds and will hopefully be released in time for the coming avalanche of Internet of Things devices.

Hyperconnectivity is the thread that’s tying all of these technologies – and the way we live today – together. Learn more about the global implications of The Hyperconnected Economy.

Keeping track of all the news in the digital economy is a tough task. So we’ve put together some of the latest and most interesting news bits that you may have missed.

1. Drones and airplanes = No big deal

At least, according to one study from researchers at George Mason University, which examined incidences of collisions between aircraft and birds. They found that most flying animal encounters didn’t result in damage, and those that did were due to large birds. Further, only a small percentage of those crashes ended with someone getting hurt or dying.

2. Internet of Things in Washington

A bipartisan bill was introduced this month that aims to regulate the IoT. The “Developing Innovation and Growing the Internet of Things” Act – or the DIGIT Act, for short – calls for a working group to examine IoT needs and development and also for the FCC to report on whether there will be enough spectrum available to manage the U.S.’s share of the predicted 20.8 billion connected things that will be in use by 2020.

3. Driverless cars… at some point

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that driverless cars are a-OK according to the laws already on the books – but that’s only if they have steering wheels and brakes. Also, if you’re saving up for your first autonomous vehicle, it looks like you’ll have plenty of time to throw dimes in the old piggy bank. During at talk at this year’s SXSW, a Google project manager said that the company’s cars are likely to be introduced in stages, and environments with sunny skies and clear roads will probably be the first on the list.

4. Smart(er) cities with Alphabet

Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs wants to become traffic cops. The company’s Flow analytics platform will take all the messy data that comes from your morning commute in order to turn your rush-hour traffic jam into an efficiently flowing, data-driven stream.

5. Smart health with blockchain

One of the tech-smartest countries in the world, Estonia, will be using a company called Guardtime, which uses a type of blockchain technology, to secure the health records of all the country’s citizens. Hopefully, this will help them avoid attacks like these hospital hacks.

6. E-commerce and VR

Chinese mega-e-commerce company Alibaba just announced that it’s got a virtual reality research lab. It’s called GnomeMagic Lab. The primary goal: figuring out how to combine VR and online shopping.

7. Name that film

You know that film, right? The one with that actor… what’s his name… and he’s in a submarine… A tech company aims to help cure Forgotten Film Syndrome with whatismymovie.com. The site is a “descriptive movie search engine” that uses deep content to analyze all the elements in a film that, until now, couldn’t be used as search components. For now, the site only has English-language films.

8. Privacy I

The FTC sent letters to a bunch of Android app developers who were using SilverPush ad software. Turns out SilverPush can pick up audio in a surrounding environment, but doesn’t notify phone owners, a violation of FTC rules.

9. Privacy II

With the discussion between the FBI and Apple about encryption and access continuing, some tech companies, including Google, Snapchat, and Facebook, are reportedly looking to increase encryption. Apple also seems to be looking to further increase encryption and make it more difficult for investigators like the FBI to access information.

The half-life of knowledge is shrinking. To make sure you and your employees don’t get left behind, learn How to Create a Culture of Continuous Learning.

The future will be what we make it. Unlike the past or the present, it’s the only arena where we have any control. But the future, as the saying goes, isn’t what it used to be. As digital technology rockets through the exponential growth curve, there’s only one way to ensure long-term competitive advantage: Be better at seeing the future than everyone else.

Walking 30 normal steps takes you about 30 meters. But 30 exponential steps – where each is double the one before – will take you on a round trip to the moon. Astonishingly, the last two steps are 75% of the total distance, with the final step reaching from the moon back to earth!  This reveals why advances in digital technology are coming at us so rapidly. We’re about 30 exponential steps into the march of Moore’s Law.

Digital Futures examines the powerful digital forces reshaping the world over the next 5–10 years. These stories will help you prepare for the amazing opportunities they hold and anticipate the risks you’ll want to avoid.

Here’s a sample:

• Are self-driving cars a joyride or a wrong turn? Either way, there are sharp curves ahead. Cars that drive themselves will be a profound shift that touches almost every industry, geography, and aspect of life: our hometowns, car design, liability, safety and even the car industry itself.

• Drones generate a lot of buzz. We are hurtling toward a future in which drones are widely available, increasingly autonomous, and capable of tasks we have not begun to imagine. They will augment human capabilities in a range of commercial industries including agriculture, utilities, scientific research, and emergency response.

• Virtual reality, and its digital sibling augmented reality, is emerging from science fiction into the real world and will soon change everything from shopping and entertainment to healthcare. Future uses may even transform our very definition of reality.

• Bitcoin’s blockchain could disrupt our financial system. Its model of trust, through massively distributed digital consensus, is challenging our assumptions about what makes transactions secure. As a result, this computer science breakthrough might reshape commerce across the entire digital economy.

• The future of robotics will be more like Ironman  than Terminator. While robots excel at lifting heavy objects, working in dangerous places, moving with precision, and performing repetitive tasks, human advantages suggest we should blend the best of people and machines.

“It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future” is a quote with hazy provenance. What’s clear, though, is that exponential technologies like self-driving cars, drones, and virtual reality are not just hot, trending topics in your social feed. They will – individually and in combination – disrupt industries, create new winners and losers, and radically change many aspects of society.

The purpose of Digital Futures is to give you the foresight to help ensure the very best outcomes – to make business and the world run better.

The market for drone business services is worth more than $126 billion, according to a recent PwC report. Another report, which separates drones by type and use, predicts the market will reach $5.59 billion by 2020, a 32.22 percent increase in five years.

But will it be lapped by anti-drone market?

Dedrone, an anti-drone technology company based in San Francisco, raised $10 million in investment funding in mid-May, led by VC Menlo Ventures. Dedrone’s product, DroneTracker, is a sensor system that notifies users of the presence of drones and can integrate anti-drone tactics like jammers.

Dedrone isn’t the only tech company active in the anti-drone segment. According to a recent report, the anti-drone market will grow by 23.9 percent by 2022, reaching a global value of $1.14 billion. North America will account for the majority of the market, but the fastest-growing will be Asia.

The problem creates a perfect storm of new technology vs. uncertainty about legality and regulation. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration just released drone guidelines—with emphasis on the word “guidelines,” which they’re calling “voluntary best practices” to safeguard privacy.

But there are no legal teeth behind this document. The suggestions cover collection and use of data, and there’s an appendix called “Guidelines for Neighborly Drone Use” which includes such admonitions as “[d]on’t harass people with your drone.”

With laws and guidelines still being worked out and the continuing debate over what is acceptable drone use, there are more anti-drone businesses popping up that cater to military, commercial, and personal applications.

Then there are the incidents of drone collisions, which not surprisingly are increasing as there are more drones flying. According to the FAA, 764 drones were flown illegally close to aircraft last year, prompting the agency to launch a “drone detection system” pilot at New York’s JFK airport. In the UK, there have been 15 close calls between drones and aircraft in the first 4 months of this year, according to research done by The Telegraph.

In Europe, NATO countries are partnering to research anti-drone technology. During this summer’s European Championship in France, there will no-drone fly zones over the fields and stadiums where matches will be played, enforced by French police and the country’s Air Force. The Euro 2016 head of security has called this a preemptive measure and not a response to any specific threat of terrorism or attack.

Other militaries and aviation authorities are also investigating anti-drone programs.

Washington, D.C.-based DroneShield also just raised more investment from VCs, but the company’s start came from crowdfunding site IndieGoGo, where it raised more than twice the campaign’s ask. It also uses a sensor-based detection system, coupled with online monitoring.

It’s not just startups that are launching new products into the market. Established aviation companies including Boeing, Airbus, and Lockheed Martin are also developing tools, although not for general consumer use. Boeing uses lasers to shoot down drones; Airbus uses a jammer. Britain’s OpenWorks has developed a shoulder-supported system (like a bazooka) that shoots a net to capture drones; it is similar to the DroneDefender from Battelle, except that “shoots” a drone-jamming signal. Reportedly, the Pentagon just put in an order for 100 of these.

Not surprisingly, there are also more forceful military solutions, like the U.S. EAPS project, which shoots drones down with a cannon and a course-correcting projectile.

And finally, there’s the old-tech way: Using raptors trained to disable drones, as tested by police in The Netherlands.

Is drone technology over-hyped? Read What’s All The Buzz About Drones?

By 2050, the UN predicts the world’s population will reach nearly 10 billion people. In order to feed this population, annual meat production will need to rise by over 200 million tons to reach 470 million tons. By 2030, global water demand will increase by more than 50%, reports Farming First. At the same time, the amount of arable land available to feed the world’s population is shrinking. In 2005, 2,300 square meters of farmland were available per person. By 2030, however, there will only be 1,800 square meters, reports FAO.

Even if we could substantially increase land cultivation and crop intensity, doing so would still not produce enough food to feed the world. The vast majority of additional food must come from increases in yield and reductions in food waste. Tomorrow’s world demands that we make changes today – and digitization in agribusiness is delivering.

Three key factors driving the shift towards digitization

Traditional industry boundaries and segments are blurring thanks to a new push towards digitization. In addition to increased pressures from world population growth, three key factors are driving this change:

1. The need for increased farming efficiency. At the start of the value chain, there is tremendous pressure to increase the efficiency of farming to produce more high-quality food in a low-margin business and to reduce consumed resources. Growing consumer demand in developing markets is fueled by developing countries’ increasing population, which has a big appetite for meat and other high-calorie food. At the same time, the scarcity of resources, such as water and fossil fuels, and the decreased availability of arable land further drive the need for increased farming efficiency.

2. The need for transparent and sustainable food supply chains. From farm-to-table movements towards the push for local and sustainably sourced food, consumers in mature markets strongly value food safety, food traceability, and sustainability. These demands place further pressure on agribusiness to develop transparent, connected, and efficient supply chains.

3. The need to manage supply and price volatility. Today’s agribusinesses face highly volatile commodity prices and crop supplies. Agribusinesses must be prepared to pivot rapidly in response to supply and demand shortages, as well as market price fluctuations.

Drones, connected machines, and field sensors: How digitization in agribusiness can increase yield

Digitization in the agribusiness sector can significantly increase our ability to feed the rapidly growing world population in a sustainable way. Drones, for example, can help farmers identify crop health problems in pictures. Aaron Sheller, the owner of Precision Drone in Iowa, says he takes the images from his drones and then drops pins on a Google Earth viewer. He can then precisely apply fertilizer or pesticides to the spot that requires treatment. Sheller calls this a “prescriptive approach” that improves productivity and allows farmers to “put those nutrients exactly where they need to be so the crop can uptake it and we can achieve maximum success.”

Taking the prescriptive approach one step further is GEOSYS, which was recently acquired by Land O’Lakes. GEOSYS developed satellite-based remote sensing to provide farmers with current, actionable data. GEOSYS draws on historical records throughout the growing season and then combines this data with real-time observations from remote sensing technology. Rather than the “one and done” evaluation of a field that drones provide, GEOSYS empowers farmers with continuous monitoring, helping them identify problems before more visible symptoms are even present.

Cargill has developed its own solution to “prescriptive farming” that uses proprietary software to evaluate myriad conditions, including soil and weather, and make highly specific recommendations to maximize output. For example, consider concerns around peak planting time. Cargill’s software, known as NextField DataR, will crunch a number of different data pieces such as soil content, seed type, and temperature fluctuations to help farmers determine the optimal time for crop planting.

Early adopters are winning: Digital transformation now an imperative for agricultural production

The converging needs for increased farming efficiency, transparent and sustainable food supply chains, and management of supply and price volatility are driving the conversion to digitization. Agribusiness leaders need to decide where they stand while business transformation drivers and new technologies disrupt their industry. Research shows that early adopters are seeing significant value returns on their investments. Digital agriculture production yields a nine percent increase in revenue creation, a 26% impact to profitability, and a 12% increase in market valuation, reports CapGemini Consulting. The early results are clear: if we are going to feed the world’s population and meet consumer demand for sustainability and transparency, digitization in agribusiness is a must.

Bonus: Learn more about digital transformation of agribusiness.

Bloomberg News published a mouth-watering story recently about a drone experiment called Project Wing involving the delivery of… braised pork burritos?

Yep, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a few dozen students (by invite only) took a number from a red ticket dispenser to pay an extra $5.99 delivery fee to “experience the dawn of unmanned Tex-Mex food delivery.”

According to the Bloomberg story, Project Wing (the brainchild of Google parent company Alphabet) selected food as a test product because it is fragile and must be delivered quickly, important facets to consider when it comes to building a business case for widespread adoption of drones.

This latest experiment from Project Wing was a success, as burritos were delivered safe, fresh, and hot. Thankfully, Alphabet’s investment in drone technology doesn’t end with fast food delivery. Here’s more from the Bloomberg story:

The company has invested significantly in drones and predicts that eventually they will serve many important purposes – possibly delivering medicine and batteries to cut-off areas after a natural disaster or helping firefighters improve communication and visibility near a wildfire.

Alphabet is not alone. According to a study by the Teal Group, spending on drones will nearly double by 2024 to about $11.4 billion (compared to about $6.4 billion in 2014).

Not surprisingly, large enterprises are moving quickly to evaluate how they can use such technologies. In a recent Forbes story, “How Drones Deliver the Goods Across the Enterprise,” areas where drones impact the enterprise “broadly revolved around the areas of quality, inspections, maintenance, manufacturing, delivery of goods, and warehouse management.”

In the video below, it’s easy to see how drones, combined with smart glasses, can be used for inside work environments, such as assistants for distributing objects in logistics centers or for helping to better manage warehouse inventory.

Is drone technology over-hyped? Read What’s All The Buzz About Drones?

Will this be the year that Big Data and machine learning combine to enable us to actually make sense of our neighbor’s behavior? Will a bigger mobile phone help or hurt your bank account? Instead of flying around filming surfer videos, will drones finally get a real job? And, why do millennials despise the suburbs?

All of this will become clearer in 2017, according to the experts who appeared recently on Coffee Break with Game-Changers‘ 2017 Predictions Special – Part 2 presented by SAP. Host Bonnie D. Graham asked 16 leading experts, academics, and business influencers what they see in their crystal ball for 2017. Each person was given just two minutes to share their predictions for what the next year holds for their industry, business, the world, and technology.

Here’s what they had to say:

1. 2017 is the year that Isaac Asimov’s Psychohistory starts becoming real. Big Data and machine learning will combine to enhance mathematical sociology – enabling us to make sense of what happens to groups of people in society.

– Timo Elliott, VP, Global Innovation Evangelist, SAP

2. Technology will force us to talk to each other more. Big Data will make our conversations more efficient. That’s going to lead to a streamlining in communications, which will give us the freedom to be more mindful and authentic. You’re going to see more people step into leadership, as well as more participation and an enhanced sense of community.

– Nance L. Schick, Esq., Attorney and Conflict Resolution Professional

3. We’re going to see a continued evolution in the downfall of generic employee training, especially in IT. Why? Because companies no longer have the tolerance for standardized, one-size-fits-all training, which has been proven to be expensive, ineffective, and event-based. Instead, they will focus on making all learning for all staff on-demand.

– Mal Poulin, Senior Director of Strategy and Market Relations for ANCILE

4. We have amazing algorithms with machine learning and fantastic ways to crunch data, but there are two problems: 1. The algorithms are written by people; therefore, biases are built into them, intentionally or not. 2. The data is bad. I am concerned the inequality gap will continue to grow as we take the combination of bad data and really powerful, but biased, black-box algorithms and use them to make all kinds of decisions.

– Bryan Hicks, Director of IoT Solution Management, SAP

5. In 2017, I see the beginnings of “cognitive” at the personal level – beyond Alexa, Cortana, and Google – by being able to access all data in the cloud in an intelligent way. For example, at the store you might see a new television and ask your phone to advise you, “Can I afford this?” An intelligent agent will go to your bank account and bring back that information.

– Jerry Silva, Research Director, IDC Financial Insights Global Banking

6. We’ve been seeing a lot of the disruptive impact of technology. 2017 will be the year we really start feeling the social impact of the technology. I see it playing out in our connected world – the connected car, connected home, connected cities, and connected medical devices. We’re going to start seeing more aspects of our lives being connected together.

– Sanjay Kumar, Leader of Global Telecom practice, Hortonworks

7. Expect the unexpected. My prediction is that the economy overall will remain very strong. Nevertheless, there will be instability in unexpected places. My advice, whether you own a business or a stock, is to diversify your investments globally.

– Nicole Sahin, CEO, Globalization Partners

8. The macro-trend I am predicting that starts in 2017 is the death of the suburbs. Why? Millennials hate suburbs; they love cities. Baby boomers are coming to retirement age; they no longer need the four-bedroom house in the suburbs with the acre of lawn to be mowed every week.

– Jim Fields, VP, Customer Experience Marketing, SAP

9. Technology will finally deliver on its promises for the office of the CFO, particularly for the accounting team. The accounting team still spends hours after work four or five days each month closing out the books to give the company a rear-view look at the world. In-memory technology is finally going to change that.

– Jeff Hattendorf, COO, Macrospect

10. Everything is moving to mobile. Phones are getting bigger. They’re becoming mini-computers. That’s a tool that will really help small business owners in 2017.

– Sandi Webster, Principal, Consultants 2 Go, LLC

11. We’re going to see a lot of drones. We’ll see drones-as-a-service in many businesses where drones are going to be put to work for us.

– Sudha Jamthe, CEO, IoT Disruptions

12. In 2017, mobile commerce will grow more than 50% over 2016. Mobile technology is becoming more ubiquitous. The phones are getting bigger. The bigger the phone, the more people can make purchases on them and the more comfortable they feel. Size seems to be a big hurdle for most people to get by when it comes to mobile e-commerce.

– Richard McCammon, CEO, Delego Software

13. Augmented reality and virtual reality for business use will be an active investment area in the coming year. Companies see this as a clear opportunity. The questions are primarily about cost and usability.

– Heather Ashton, Research Manager, IDC Manufacturing Insights

14. In compliance, 2017 will be a great year to do the right thing, to bring the best people to the table, to have the right discussions, and to have the courage to stand up for what’s right.

– Fabiana Lacera-Allen, President, Ethiprax

15. Many people have predicted a doom by artificial intelligence (AI), but I predict it’s going to be humans with AI – not humans or AI. Humans and processes plus automation are going to be replacing the redundancy and complacency currently in the workforce.

– John Sullivan, Director of Innovation, NA Analytics Center of Excellence, SAP

16. The industrial IoT ecosystem will start to formalize. Industrial IoT requires an ecosystem of partners to provide advisory, technology, and services that effectively create solutions for customers. In 2017 we’ll see some of these relationships start to formalize.

– Pieter van Schalkwyk, Founder and CEO, XMPro

You can hear the full show at SAP Game-Changers 2017 Predictions – Part 2.

SAP Game-Changers Radio 2017 Predictions Special: Upcoming Shows

For dozens of other insightful predictions that can impact you and your business in 2017 and beyond, listen to all five episodes of SAP’s Game-Changers Radio 2017 Predictions Special. Part 3 will air live on Wednesday, January 4, at 11 a.m. EST/8 a.m. PST at http://spr.ly/SAPRadio. Parts 4 and 5 air January 11 and 18, 2017, at the same link. You can listen to the shows live here.

Editor’s note: The predictions published here have been edited and paraphrased based on the thought leaders’ on-air statements.

Image: Christian Schnettelker via Flickr.

“Scarce.” It’s a great word. It’s probably a term that first appeared to me on some middle school vocabulary test. Little did I know then that the word would become such an integral part of my everyday lexicon as I embarked on a career in supply chain.

Oddly enough, the word “scarce” has always invoked a feeling of fear in me. Part of that is likely because it’s a mere one letter off from the word “scare.” More likely, I think it’s the fact that running out of something, particularly some precious resource, is a truly frightening prospect.

In today’s increasingly complex supply chain industry, resource scarcity is certainly something to fear – but it’s an issue that organizations can unquestionably overcome as long as they have the right strategies in place.

Will this be the year that artificial intelligence (AI) becomes so seamlessly connected in our lives as to trigger action at the speed of thought? Will you and everyone you know have a “digital twin”? And if so, which twin would you prefer to talk to? Will a new breed of cyberattack catch us off guard? Experts warn that one blurry-eyed morning, your coffee maker might even turn on you.

Those were some of the extraordinary and unexpected predictions shared by the experts who participated in the five-part Coffee Break with Game-Changers series 2017 Predictions Special. Host Bonnie D. Graham asked 80 leading experts, academics, and business influencers what they see in their crystal ball for 2017. Each person was given just two minutes to share their predictions for what the next year holds for their industry, business, the world, and technology.

Here’s a sample of what they had to say:

1. Dematerialization is going to continue. We’ll see hardware that is thinner and lighter. New materials are coming on the market, like stretchable electronics. Imagine what that could do for wearable technologies. Everything is going to be computing in the future, whether it’s your shoes, clothes, or the temporary tattoo that you wear to monitor your health. – Gray Scott, Futurist, Founder and CEO at SeriousWonder.com, and techno philosopher

2. In 2017, we’re going to finally see that artificial intelligence components combined with highly sophisticated in-memory platforms are going to meld together. 2017 is going to be the year that brings end-to-end seamless communications and connections of consumers, public, clients, and citizens with business leaders and public officials. This will trigger leaders to take action at the speed of thought. – Guillermo B. Vazquez, Specialist Leader/Senior Manager, Deloitte LLP

3. We’re going to see the blending of the digital and physical worlds come together. Virtual reality and augmented reality are going to balloon in 2017. We’re going to see a lot more in digital twins: digital documentation of a physical thing so we can understand it better. – Rick Varner, Senior Executive Partner, Gartner Inc.

4. We see a lot of implications for security in the Internet of Things (IoT) – devices, medical devices, smart TVs, and (even) coffee machines. Those devices are getting more and more connected to the Internet to become smarter. But we are already seeing these devices are being used to launch attacks and to be targets. In 2017, we will see more attacks and more measures against those attacks. – Alon Kantor, Vice President of Business Development, Check Point

5. 2017 is the year that Isaac Asimov’s Psychohistory starts becoming real. Big Data and machine learning will combine to enhance mathematical sociology – enabling us to make sense of what happens to groups of people in society. – Timo Elliott, VP, Global Innovation Evangelist, SAP

6. In 2017, I see the beginnings of “cognitive” at the personal level – beyond Alexa, Cortana, and Google – by being able to access all data in the cloud in an intelligent way. For example, at the store you might see a new television and ask your phone to advise you, “Can I afford this?” An intelligent agent will go to your bank account and bring back that information. – Jerry Silva, Research Director, IDC Financial Insights Global Banking

7. We’re going to see a lot of drones. We’ll see drones-as-a-service in many businesses where drones are going to be put to work for us. – Sudha Jamthe, CEO, IoT Disruptions

8. 2017 is the year for blockchain. I predict an awakening will take place on a global scale about what this technology is capable of and how it’s going to impact everyday citizens, governments, and businesses. One particular blockchain to watch is the Ethereum blockchain. – Hilary Carter, Founder, InTune Communications

9. Business-by-voice will be a new name in 2017. Screen-based technology will go away in 2017 and will be replaced by voice. New startups will emerge to deliver voice-enabled cognitive applications that can think, learn, and talk to the users. – Surendra Reddy, Founder & CEO, Quantiply Corporation

10. As we grow bigger and stronger on mobile, Internet of Things, and sensors, we have to manage that information and react to it much quicker than we currently do sending it up to the cloud and then bringing it back. When we talk about connected cities, grids, and vehicles, decisions have to be happen in a millisecond. There has to be a way to access that information more quickly and manage it closer to the devices. Therefore, there’s going to be a huge investment in fog computing. – Laz Uriza, Senior Solution Principal, Extended Supply Chain CoE, SAP

11. Human experts are going to be assisted, not replaced, through technology advances. The correct interpretation of data, when it comes to specific businesses and people, is going to require human intelligence and expertise for years to come. Computer systems that are used to automate these processes can make recommendations; they’re a lot stronger in processing standard cases than they are in addressing exceptions. Sometimes those exceptions require a more intimate understanding of context and empathy. – Dror Orbach, Chief Operating Officer, Illumiti

12. There are four big game-changers in 2017: artificial intelligence (AI) will help us think of cognitive as the new “smart”; augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will go mainstream; 5G technologies will be on the road in autonomous self-driving vehicles; blockchain technology will gain broader adoption. – Bridget Karlin, Managing Director, IoT Strategy and Technology Office, Intel Corporation

13. AI is going to go mainstream in 2017, both in ways you can see and in ways you can’t. We know that over half of corporate executives are investing heavily in artificial intelligence. It’s showing up in visual search; enterprise operations with cognitive computing and semantic matching; retail assortment planning and offer management; and semantic recognition. – Jeff Goldberg, Managing Director for Retail in North America, Accenture

14. There’s no doubt that healthcare reform is going to be a topic this year. Medical identity theft is an $84 billion dollar a year problem. Payment fraud is another problem. Also, electronic medical records have 10% duplicate records. A combination of these issues is creating a disturbance in the quality of data that physicians have at the point of care. Solving these problems is going to have to be the focus this year if we’re really going to get serious about value-based care. – Thomas Foley, Global Health Solutions Strategy Manager, LenovoHealth

15. Blockchain distributed ledger technology will mature. There will be a lot of little breakthroughs this year, and recognition of its broader applicability is going to grow. Today people associate it with Bitcoin and payment technology, but there are so many ways to put the technology to use. Walmart uses blockchain to establish authentication and traceability in its food chain; a French financial services company started a blockchain project to establish compliance with customer rules; and there’s an anti-counterfeiting blockchain service that can be used for authenticating diamonds and luxury goods. – Robert Kugel, CFA, Senior Vice President and Research Director, Ventana Research

16. Artificial intelligence (AI) will become a key factor as we move toward autonomous vehicles. Cars will learn how to drive. Vehicles will be conscious. The vehicle will become your partner. And your car will get emotionally attached to you. That means breaking up will be hard to do. – Larry Stolle, Senior Global Director of Automotive Marketing, SAP

17. We will start to see the emergence of abilities to protect information assets using AI. But hackers will also use AI to improve their attack capabilities. AI-sponsored attacks and defense could emerge. Also, AI-enabled toolkits will disrupt the traditional cybersecurity products, services, and architectures. I’m seeing more startups and ventures that sponsor AI-enabled products for security. – Carlos Russell, Risk Management Director, Ternium

18. We’ll see incredible applications where human behavior and human meaning will intersect with AI in completely new ways. We’re starting to now see AI become better than humans at interpreting what humans mean. In the case of lip reading, or non-verbal voice recognition, AI is now almost four times better than the leading world experts. That means not only performing recognition of somebody’s lips, but also understanding the context and the meaning of what people say. – Rich Seltz, Vice President, Digital Transformation, SAP

19. Computers will “disappear” due to their ubiquity. For computers to disappear, first their boundaries have to blur. There are some ways we’ve seen this happening on the infrastructure side – with physical computers that a company might have owned becoming eventually dedicated, colocated boxes, becoming eventually lease servers, and now virtualized systems. Another example is Amazon’s Lambda, where you can write your software as a set of individualized functions that are each much simpler than a monolithic program running on a computer. When you have your apps using Lambda, it’s like having your software’s consciousness spread out and decomposed across dozens of different physical brains. – Ken Redler, Chief Technology Officer and Partner, cSubs

20. Machine learning is passé. In 2017 everybody will be talking about deep learning for solving big problems. Also, IoT will finally find a scalable problem to solve: we will finally find something in transportation due to all the autonomous vehicles that will be coming online. – Padman Ramankutty, Chief Executive Officer, Intrigo

(Editor’s note: The predictions published here have been edited and paraphrased based on the thought leaders’ on-air statements.)

The five-part series Game-Changers 2017 Predictions, presented by SAP, aired live on VoiceAmerica Internet radio. You can hear recordings of each show in its entirety at Coffee Break with Game-Changers (look for Game-Changers 2017 Predictions under the Episode Listing for December 2016 and January 2017).

If you shop at REI and the particular store you’re at does not have the size or color of the item you want, an employee can quickly and accurately see where the closest item is located.

Thanks to the effective digitalization of the company’s supply chain processes, REI is a leader in inventory visibility across its stores and distribution centers. The right applications enable it to provide outstanding service, achieve extraordinary customer satisfaction scores, and increase revenue.

Walking the knife’s edge

But how do you find a roadmap for digital transformation that fits your organization’s specific strategy?

Like many leaders across industries, supply chain executives often feel like they’re walking a technological knife’s edge. On one hand, they want to avoid over-investing in every shiny new solution. At the same time, they don’t want to fall behind and dismiss a critical trend.

SCM World has collected data since 2014 on strategic disruption created by new technologies, and one trend is clear: The relevance of the digital shift is huge and still rising, and the pace of change is too fast to wait and see what happens.

When asked in a survey which technologies are “disruptive and important” to supply chain strategy, responses have changed dramatically in just a couple short years:

• 3D printing has doubled, from 20% to 40%
• Drones and self-guided vehicles have tripled, from 11% to 35%
• Big Data analytics leads the pack, from 64% in 2014 to 81% in 2016

Innovating the way business has been done for decades

Not surprisingly, years of new technological advances have created faster and more standardized business processes. The emerging digital supply chain is lighter and more agile, and these three business model disruptions show the impact of digital operations on strategy:

1. Omnichannel leadership: Omnichannel leadership is about recognizing that consumer demand is only partially represented in retail point-of-sale data. True demand includes usage behavior, replenishment patterns, and lifestyle impact. REI thrives in this model because its stores are only a small part of the total demand sense and supply response system the company uses to serve customers.

2. Personalization of products and services: According to an SCM World survey, 90% of supply chain professionals agree that customers value personalized products. Data also shows a steady rise in the number of companies whose operations are supporting “much larger SKU assortments” in response to digital demand, up 60% overall in just three years.

3. Lean, green, and precise manufacturing: The other major business model disruption arising from digital is a shift toward resource-efficient and increasingly localized manufacturing. IoT-enabled equipment can optimize energy, water, and material use, and combined with smaller, cheaper collaborative robots, this equipment makes local-for-local manufacturing a real possibility.

Creating real value for your company

Even as business models shift, new technology is meaningless if it doesn’t create real value for your company. Across all industries, enterprises need to use innovative thinking to reimagine how digital supply chains can improve business strategy and transform business models.

How do companies focus their efforts, and which ones are already leading the way?

• Focus on service to the end customer: Digital supply chains can use the power of the Internet of Things (IoT) to get products delivered to consumers faster, cheaper, and in a more personalized way than before.

• Urban Outfitters: The retailer’s pick-from-shelf omnichannel capabilities added $9 million additional revenue in a single quarter.

• Hilti: A maker of high-performance hand tools for construction work, Hilti has developed a comprehensive omnichannel system whose asset tracking uses smart supply chain to keep real-time information on where every tool is, allowing the company to sell more and respond to different levels of time sensitivity.

• Focus on warehouse automation and delivery: Digitalization in delivery is also creating value in warehouse management.

• Amazon: The retail giant uses sophisticated analytics in its fulfillment centers to optimize space utilization, minimize time to find and pick items, and shorten order-to-delivery cycle times.

• Kiva Robots: This system, which runs the fulfilment operations for Zappos, moves items to packing stations rather than making people move around the warehouse, saving time and money and increasing item density per square foot of building space.

• Focus on efficiency and agility: Digitalization in production improves process monitoring, control, and execution to make smaller batches of production economically.

• Harley Davidson: The company transformed its Pennsylvania motorcycle plant from an old-school assembly line to a single-flow digital line that makes unique models one at a time. This agile manufacturing approach cut costs by 7%, increased productivity by 2.4%, and increased net margins by 19%.

• BMW: Known for its effective manufacturing process, BMW uses smart robotics, planning, and 3D simulation software to sell custom configured automobiles at prices competitive with mass production.

• Focus on resource optimization: Digital transformation helps reduce the cost of maintaining long-lived assets. Sensors on equipment monitor temperature, friction, and pressure to allow operators to maintain peak performance with much less work and spare parts inventory. Same time the performance of the asset system can be linked to business outcomes, influencing revenue and margin.

• Trenitalia: The primary train operator in Italy created a smart asset management strategy that takes 5,000 signals per second from hundreds of sensors embedded in the train’s hardware and feeds them in real time into a reporting and analytics database to allow precision maintenance. The company expects to reduce maintenance spending by 8% to 10% per year, cut invested capital by 6.5%, and eliminate 10–20 million euros of penalty payments for service failures.

Across industries, the digitalization of processes and operations is changing what’s possible for supply chain practitioners. Download the full report, Smart Operations and the Internet of Things: Digital Impacts on Business Strategy, to learn more about how to offer customers a more personalized experience, where and how they want it, with less money and fewer resources spent along the way.

Drones have captured the popular imagination, making a splash on social media, in the popular press, and even on hit television shows. But drones can do a lot more than entertain. They are actually a core driver of transformation in the digital economy. Here are a few examples.

Precision farming

Using swarm intelligence, specialized drones home in on weed-infested areas to prevent invasive plants from encroaching on valuable crops. These drones can deliver pesticides only and precisely where they are needed, reducing the environmental impact and increasing crop yields. Drones can also measure soil conditions as well as health status of plants to deliver water, fertilizers, or other components to ensure optimum growth. The result is increased crop yields at lower cost and with reduced use of potentially dangerous pesticides, a concept known as digital farming.

Remote location inspection and maintenance

Pipelines, mining operations, offshore oil rigs, and railroad tracks are often located far from centers of commerce, yet it is imperative that they operate flawlessly. Drones can easily monitor even the most remote stretches and when signal repairs are needed or dangerous conditions are occurring.

Spare parts delivery

When machinery and equipment goes down, time is of the essence. Drones can quickly and efficiently deliver needed spare parts from manufacturers or 3D printers directly to the equipment’s location, saving time, preventing unnecessary downtime, and reducing investments in MRO inventory.

Military observation

Drones can keep track of weapon and troop deployments in military situations without endangering humans. They can also provide a complete view of any skirmish, creating a tactical advantage by eliminating the element of surprise.

Search and rescue

Search-and-rescue missions are expensive and time-consuming. Physical limitations such as fatigue, hunger, personal safety, and the need for light and visibility can delay or slow searches conducted by human rescuers. Drones can search wide areas under challenging conditions and instantly send data back to a central location. Once the search target is identified, rescue teams can set off with the right equipment, knowing exactly where to focus their search. This makes search-and-rescue operations faster, less costly, and more effective. Watch this video for more insight.

Scientific research

Drones can track animal migrations, report on weather patterns, and help discover rare and previously unknown plant and animal species.

Life sciences

Combining nanotechnology and drones enables technology first envisioned by science fiction in the 1960s. Tiny drones can now be injected into the body to perform potentially lifesaving tasks such as micro-surgery, clear blockages, inspect aneurisms, and deliver targeted chemotherapy drugs to cancer sites.

Drones are clearly powerful agents of change as we transform to a digital economy. In addition to the examples highlighted here, drones also play an important role in such industries as insurance risk and damage assessments, wholesale distribution and last-mile deliveries, and delivery and maintenance of essential infrastructure services such as Wi-Fi, Internet, and telephone for remote locations in emerging areas. As drone technology gets more sophisticated, industries of all types will find increasingly innovative ways to use them to increase business efficiency and bolster the digital economy.

For more on how advanced technology will impact our future, see 20 Technology Predictions To Keep Your Eye On In 2017.

Drones have long been viewed as little more than cool toys for adults (or at their worst, weapons of war). But people are now beginning to understand that drones can also be useful business tools.

How? They collect data, and data collection is big business. Collected efficiently and analyzed properly, the right data helps companies make good decisions faster than ever before.

Drones fill a perfect niche, easily accessing the airspace above the ground and below the clouds—that middle place that’s above surface of the earth but below airplanes and satellites. This perspective enables drones to scan, map, and record surfaces and objects in three dimensions with a level of clarity and detail never before possible.

Dronelife predicts that in 2017, companies will transition from exploring drones’ potential to implementing their use. Companies have already been purchasing drones to learn about their capabilities in the field. Now business owners are approaching developers with ideas about what drones can do for their companies.

Automated work processes

Automation is a primary area drones can be utilized. For example, instead of driving for hours to inspect crops, farmers can send a drone to take a look and record how things are progressing. Ranchers can check on their cows without riding the plains in search of them. Construction companies can keep an eye on construction sites and expensive equipment. Property inspectors and insurance agents can survey properties for damage or code violations.

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, drones can be cost-effective as well. A job that may have previously taken up to six hours can now be done in one, freeing employees to work more efficiently. Such productivity gains will quickly offset the $2000-$3000 investment in the cost of a roof drone.

Employers and insurance companies are always looking for safer ways to perform difficult and dangerous tasks. A roof drone can safely inspect and record information on a damaged roof, for example, enabling the insurance inspector to analyze and report on recorded data from the safety of the office.

Disaster cleanup companies find drones very useful for estimating damage from flooding, rock slides, and other emergencies, guiding cleanup workers and helping them conduct rescues and repairs with minimal risk.

Better delivery and service

According to Business Insider, the drone industry will quickly change the way many companies do business. As an example, the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show was filled with quad-copters promising faster package delivery.

Emergency medical researchers have successfully tested an AED (automated external defibrillator), which can be quickly and efficiently dispatched via drone by 9-1-1 personnel to assist heart attack victims. The drone, which resembles a large spider, carries the AED in its body compartment. When the drone lands, the 9-1-1 caller (or others on the scene) simply follow voice commands issued by the unit to implement potential life-saving measures before the ambulance arrives.

Advertising tools

Drones are also changing the marketing industry. Since 2014, drones have been routinely used to display advertising banners. Since then, some restaurants have experimented with using them to serve food and for stunts such as hovering mistletoe over tables at Christmastime and displaying ads outside office building windows at lunchtime. Florists have dropped roses over city streets on Valentine’s Day. Many businesses agree that drones offer unique, innovative, and effective ways to advertise their products and services.

If a company needs an aerial photograph or a video of a major event, a manufactured prototype, or a new location site, a drone will do the job nicely without scaffolding or helicopters. Drones create stunning promotional photos and videos, while also showing the company as modern and innovative.

Regulatory concerns

Amidst the excitement, many companies are also taking a serious look at the insurance and liability aspects of drone flying. This quickly evolving issue has already resulted in insurance companies adding clauses to their contracts. Regulatory and safety concerns regarding drone use will undoubtedly cause many company owners to move cautiously.

Although few doubt that the commercial drone industry is poised for takeoff, many bugs still need to be worked out with the Federal Aviation Administration. The question of who has the right to use the air space above the earth has been a push-and-pull issue for decades.

To illustrate the importance of drone regulation, consider the recent Oroville Dam crisis, where government drones were used to monitor the erosion of the broken spillway ramp. Facing a seven- to ten-day window to clean the debris at the bottom of the ramp, government workers prohibited private drone owners, including media companies, from flying drones over the area. Any glitch in the cleanup timetable could have delayed the reactivation of the electric power plant downstream and caused the evacuation warning to remain in effect.

The quickly evolving nature of drone technology creates many questions about their commercial use and safety concerns. Recent crashes between drones and power lines and a highly publicized landing on the White House lawn put pressure on the FAA to develop a new set of regulations that will need to be updated frequently.

As entrepreneurs invent new ways for drones to impact the business world and society in general, companies will respond, using drones to reduce costs and increase safety and efficiency. As a bonus, the publicity that comes with innovative drone use could offer them a publicity boost.

For more on the role of drones in digital transformation, see Drones: Poised For Takeoff In The Digital Economy.

Image: Flickr

Part 2 of the six-part blog series “Facts on the Future of Business“

Innovation in the business world is accelerating exponentially, with new, disruptive technologies and trends emerging that are fundamentally changing how businesses and the global economy operate. To adapt, thrive, and innovate, we all need to be aware of these evolutionary technologies and trends and understand the opportunities or threats they might present to our organizations, our careers, and society on a whole.

With this in mind, I recently had the opportunity to compile 99 Facts on the Future of Business in the Digital Economy. This presentation includes facts, predictions, and research findings on some of the most impactful technologies and trends that are driving the future of business in the digital economy.

To make it easier to find facts for specific topics, I have grouped the facts into six subsets; in this post I’ll share the second subset.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning

By 2020, the average person will have more conversations with bots than with their spouse.

Source: “Top Strategic Predictions for 2017 and Beyond: Surviving the Storm Winds of Digital Disruption,” Gartner.

In initial tests, a machine-learning algorithm created at Carnegie Mellon was able to predict heart attacks four hours in advance with 80% accuracy.

Source: “Of Prediction and Policy,” The Economist.

Artificial intelligence can predict where epidemics will happen. AIME developed a platform with 87% accuracy in predicting dengue fever outbreaks three months in advance. Now they hope to similarly target other diseases such as Ebola and Zika.

Source: “Artificial Intelligence Innovation Report,” Deloitte.

After watching 5,000 hours of TV, Google’s DeepMind AI was able to lip read 34% more accurately than a professional lip reader.

Source: “Google’s DeepMind AI Can Lip-Read TV Shows Better than a Pro,” New Scientist.

After watching just 600 hours of TV, an MIT deep-learning AI algorithm was able to predict future human interactions after two people met 60.5% as accurately as human subjects.

Source: “Teaching Machines to Predict the Future,” MIT News.

By 2019, 75% of workers who use enterprise applications will have access to intelligent personal assistants to augment their skills and expertise.

Source: “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Big Data, Business Analytics, and Cognitive Software 2017 Predictions,” IDC Research Inc.

By 2030, the largest company on the Internet is going to be an education-based company, with smart-bot instructors able to personalize lessons for each individual student.

Source: “A Top Futurist Predicts the Largest Internet Company of 2030 Will Be an Online School,” South China Morning Post.

Problem: In the last two decades, 9.6% of the earth’s total wilderness areas has been lost, equaling an estimated 3.3 million square kilometers.

Source: “Catastrophic Declines in Wilderness Areas Undermine Global Environment Targets,” Current Biology.

Solution: Many Latin American governments are turning to artificial intelligence to aid in their forest conservation efforts.

Source: “10 Innovations That Are Changing Conservation,” Cool Green Science.

The Internet of Things

IoT car safety technology already reduces crashes significantly and will save insurance companies $45 billion over the next five years in the United States alone.

Source: “IoT Insurance: Trends in Home, Life, and Auto Insurance Industries,” Business Insider.

Self-driving vehicles have the potential to save millions of lives, given that 1.25 million people die and 50 million are injured each year in auto accidents, nearly 95% of which are caused by human error.

Source: “Will Self-Driving Vehicles Save Lives?” Together for Safer Roads.

Self-driving trucks are hauling iron ore in Australia, convoying across Europe, and appearing on roadways across the globe. And because they offer business savings, self-driving trucks are expected to be more rapidly adopted than self-driving cars.

Source: “Self-Driving Trucks: What’s the Future for America’s 3.5 Million Truckers?” The Guardian.

Barcelona uses the IoT to optimize urban systems and enhance citizen services. To date, it has saved $95 million annually from reduced water and electricity consumption, increased parking revenues by $50 million a year, and generated 47,000 new jobs.

Source: “How Smart City Barcelona Brought the Internet of Things to Life,” Data-Smart City Solutions, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School.

By 2019, 40% of local and regional governments will use the IoT to turn infrastructure such as roads, streetlights, and traffic signals into assets instead of liabilities.

Source: “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Internet of Things (IoT) 2017 Predictions,” IDC Research Inc.

Usage-based auto insurance enabled by the Internet of Things will grow nearly 1,200% by 2023. This insurance uses real-time information about a driver’s actual driving to assess actuarial risk.

Source: “Usage-Based Insurance Expected to Grow to 142 Million Subscribers Globally by 2023, IHS Says,” IHS Markit.

The Internet of Everything could be worth $19 trillion over the next decade thanks to cost savings and profits for businesses and increased revenues for the public sector.

Source: “The Internet of Everything Is Closer than You Think,” EY.

Problem: With the coming and going of ice ages over the last 400,000+ years, CO₂ in the Earth’s atmosphere fluctuated between 180 ppm and 300 ppm. However, CO₂ levels have skyrocketed and now exceed 400 ppm for the first time in recorded history.

Source: “The Relentless Rise of Carbon Dioxide,” NASA Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.

Solution: New digital technologies can enable a 20% reduction in global carbon emissions by 2030. This is equivalent to eliminating 100% of China’s CO₂ emissions, plus another 1.5 billion tons.

Source: “SMARTer2030: Australian Opportunity for ICT Enabled Emission Reductions,” Telstra Corporation.

Augmented reality and virtual reality

By 2020, 100 million consumers will shop in augmented reality.

Source: “Top Strategic Predictions for 2017 and Beyond: Surviving the Storm Winds of Digital Disruption,” Gartner.

And by 2021, over 1 billion people worldwide will regularly use an AR/VR platform (augmented reality/virtual reality) to access apps, content, and data.

Source: “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2017 Predictions,” IDC Research Inc.

Within just two months, the augmented reality video game Pokémon Go was downloaded 500 million times globally, and after 90 days, the app had generated $600 million in revenue.

Source: “75 Incredible Pokemon Go Statistics,” DMR.

Renault uses virtual reality and immersive simulation technologies to allow its design team, partners, and suppliers to experience, interact with, and test drive new car designs without any physical prototypes.

Source: “Designing the Workplace of the Future: Virtual Reality and 3D Panoramas,” CNN.

Mobile

Two billion individuals and 200 million small businesses in emerging economies lack access to basic financial services and credit. Broad adoption of mobile banking in developing nations could create 95 million new jobs and increase GDP by $3.7 trillion by 2025.

Source: “How Digital Finance Could Boost Growth in Emerging Economies,” McKinsey Global Institute.

Once fully available, 5G data speeds will be 1,000-times faster than today. This revolutionary leap will enable ubiquitous connections across the Internet of Things, engagement across virtual environments with only millisecond latency, and whole new Big Data applications and services.

Source: “2017 Predictions: Behind the Scenes with 5G – 2017 Lays Groundwork for Telecom Revolution,” Canadian Wireless Trade Show.

By 2020, approximately 70% of online purchases in China will be made via a mobile phone. This is significantly higher adoption than estimates for other countries: United States, 46%; United Kingdom, 40%; Japan, 40%; and India, 30%.

Source: “The New Connected Consumer Code: Unlocking Digital Commerce Opportunities,” Euromonitor International.

Robots and drones

Amazon uses 30,000 Kiva robots in its global warehouses, which reduce operating expenses by approximately 20%. Bringing robots to its distribution centers that have not yet implemented them would save Amazon a further $2.5 billion.

Source: “How Amazon Triggered a Robot Arms Race,” Bloomberg Technology.

The European Union is proposing new laws that require robots to be equipped with emergency “kill switches” and to be programmed in accordance to Isaac Asimov’s “laws of robotics” stipulating that robots must never harm a human.

Source: “Europe Calls for Mandatory ‘Kill Switches’ on Robots,” CNN.

Only 13% of U.S. and Canadian manufacturing jobs recently lost were due to international trade. Fully 85% of the job losses stemmed from productivity growth – another way of saying machines replaced human workers.

Source: “Industrial Robots Will Replace Manufacturing Jobs – and That’s a Good Thing,” TechCrunch.

Fully 88% of U.S. consumers say free shipping makes them more likely to shop online, and 79% would select drones as a delivery option if it meant they could receive packages within an hour.

Source: “Reinventing Retail: What Businesses Need to Know for 2016,” Walker Sands Communications.

Taxi drones will start flying passengers in Dubai in July 2017. Passengers will select destinations on a touch screen and will be able to travel up to 30 minutes at a top speed of around 100 kph.

Source: “Taxi Drones Set for July Launch of Passenger Service Over Dubai,” RT News.

Platforms and blockchains

Car sharing could reduce the number of cars needed by 90% by 2035, resulting in only 17% as many cars as there are today.

Source: “Self-Driving Cars Are a Disaster for the Car Industry, But Great for the Rest of Us,” Seeking Alpha.

Millennials are more than twice as willing to car share as Generation X, and five times more likely than baby boomers.

Source: “Cars 2025,” Goldman Sachs.

A large majority – 82% – of executives believe platforms will be the glue that brings organizations together in the digital economy. The top 15 public platforms already have a market capitalization of $2.6 trillion.

Source: “Accenture Technology Vision 2016,” Accenture.

By 2020, over 80% of the G500 will be digital services suppliers through Industry Collaborative Cloud (ICC) platforms.

Source: “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2017 Predictions,” IDC Research Inc.

The world’s biggest banks have taken the first steps to move onto blockchain, the technology introduced to the world by the virtual currency Bitcoin.

Source: “Wall Street Clearinghouse to Adopt Bitcoin Technology,” The New York Times.

By 2027, blockchains could store as much as 10% of global GDP.

Source: “Making The Next Moves With Blockchain,” D!gitalist Magazine.

Africa is leapfrogging the developed world’s traditional banking systems through fast adoption of mobile and Internet-based technology and is poised to take advantage of the disruptive opportunity that blockchains offer.

Source: “The Blockchain Opportunity, How Cryptocurrencies and Tokens Could Scale Disruptive Solutions Across Africa,” BitHub.Africa.

Problem: To combat corruption and tax evasion in its cash economy (only 2.6% of its citizens pay taxes), the Indian government devalued 80% of its currency in three hours.

Source: “Demonetization: This Is a New Indian Sunrise,” DNA India.

Solution: India could eliminate the need for credit cards, debit cards, and ATMs in three years by switching to biometric payments, as nearly 1.1 billion citizens have already registered their biometric data.

Source: “First Cash, Now India Could Ditch Card Payments by 2020,” CNN.

Other Big Data and analytics

In-memory computing speeds are 1,000 to 1 million times faster than the previous most advanced computing techniques, enabling Big Data analytics processing to be reduced from hours or days to real time.

Source: “Global In-Memory Computing Market – Growth, Trends & Forecasts (2016 – 2021),” Research and Markets.

Among executives, 80.7% characterize their Big Data investments as successful, while only 1.6% deemed them failures. In spite of the successes, executives see lingering cultural barriers hindering full adoption and value realization.

Source: “Big Data Executive Survey 2017,” New Vantage Partners.

Problem: An estimated 45.8 million people are trapped in some form of slavery in 167 countries.

Source: “Global Findings,” Walk Free Foundation: The Global Slavery Index.

Solution: Advanced analytics and Big Data are enabling coordinated efforts to combat human trafficking networks and engage rapid responses when victims are located.

Source: “Tracing a Web of Destruction: Can Big Data Fight Human Trafficking?” HBS Digital Initiative.

Cloud

By 2018, 90% of the population will have unlimited and free data storage in the cloud that will ultimately be supported by ads.

Source: “21 Technology Tipping Points We Will Reach by 2030,” Business Insider.

By 2018, 60% of enterprise IT will be off-premises and in the cloud, driven in large part by the shift to public cloud services.

Source: “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2017 Predictions,” IDC Research Inc.

In 2020, the top five cloud IaaS/PaaS providers will control 75% of the market, up from 50% in 2016.

Source: “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2017 Predictions,” IDC Research Inc.

To view all of the 99 Facts on the Future of Business in the Digital Economy, check out the Slideshare below.

To see the rest of the series, check out our page “Facts on the Future of Business,” every Thursday, in which we will cover the six topics:

• The value imperative to embrace the digital economy
• Technologies driving the digital economy
• Customer experience and marketing in digital economy
• The future of work in the digital economy
• Purpose and sustainability in the digital economy
• Supply networks in the digital economy