As VP and Gartner Fellow David Cearley reports, the world is becoming an intelligent, digital mesh of things and services. Technology is increasingly embedded in the physical world, which enables us (through the power of digital) to blur the lines of traditional human experience. We are moving towards an environment where virtual and physical reality are inextricably intertwined, and that combination will re-define how we operate in our surroundings. Consider, for instance, the explosion of conversational platforms like IBM Watson or IPsoft’s Amelia.

The traditional paradigm required people to be “technology literate” in order to stay current. The advancement of conversational platforms promises to overthrow that paradigm to a large extent by shifting the burden of translation to the machine. It will be less necessary for a human to speak robot than for the robot to speak human. And we don’t have to wait too long for this future to become reality. Gartner predicts that by 2019, 20% of all interactions with smartphones will be through VPAs like Apple’s Siri. Another Gartner prediction supports the idea that in 2019, most kitchens will be equipped with two virtual assistants. As the technology in this realm develops, the applications will explode beyond what is currently possible (simple requests a la “what is the weather?”) to providing help with more complex problems (such as collecting oral testimony from a crime scene witness to reconstruct the image of the suspect).

But the conversational platform isn't the only trend that will transform the digital landscape over the next five years. Here is Gartner's top ten list:
 

• AI Foundation – Feeding massive amounts of data into ever-more advanced algorithms to enhance decision making, reinvent business models and ecosystems, and remake the customer experience
• Intelligent Apps & Analytics– Transforming the nature of work and the structure of the workplace by using AI to deliver advanced analytics, intelligent processes and new user experiences
• Intelligent Things -- Naturally interacting physical things that will deliver interconnected capabilities among IoT connected systems
• Digital Twins – The virtual representation of a real-world entity or system created to improve enterprise decision making
• Cloud to the Edge - Information processing and content collection and delivery are placed closer to the sources to fix high WAN costs and unacceptable latency
• Conversational platforms– Systems that can take and respond to human commands in natural language, shifting the burden of translation from humans to machines
• Immersive experience – The confluence of artificial, virtual, and mixed reality that changes the way that people perceive their world
• Blockchain – Distributed ledger technology that injects trust into untrusted environments, resulting in the disruption of the need for a central regulatory authority (usually government)
• Event-Driven Model – The exploitation of new digital business moments by both technology and people in order to create an architecture optimized for agility, resiliency, extensibility, lower cost of change, open-ended design and scale
• Continuous Adaptive Risk & Trust – A dynamic approach to risk and security that will enable real-time, risk- and trust-based decision making with adaptive responses
• While Gartner's top ten trends are always something to look out for, most organizations are facing bigger problem with legacy preventing innovation and expansion into new avenues. Gartner says that through 2019, every $1 that enterprises invest on innovation will require an additional $7 in core execution. How will you ensure your innovation budget is used effectively? How will you determine which projects will have the greatest impact on the execution of corporate strategy? How will you keep your people engaged, involved and informed? If you are looking to innovate, you need to know about how Mavim can help you create impact by enabling the design, visualization and execution of your business strategy.