TOP 5 TRENDS WILL IMPACT OUR LIVES IN 2020
Trend 1: Breakout
moment of artificial intelligence (AI) in manufacturing
AI is now part of everyday life, driven by the emergence of a device
ecosystem including Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant. In 2020,
emotion recognition and computer vision will scale and AI will have a
breakout moment in manufacturing.
U.S. startups Vicarious, Kindred, and Osaro stand
out in using AI technologies for manufacturing. Kindred’s technology
is used to automate part of the distribution for apparel brands such as GAP. Vicarious is
attracting investment from Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk.
Trend 2: Practical
deployment of Internet of Things (IoT)
IoT is hot but there
are not as many mainstream applications today as some predicted. We anticipate
that with 5G, the number of connected devices and mainstream IoT applications
will reach scale.
Trend 3:
Increased demand for edge computing processing power
2020 will see the need for higher performance from edge
computing hardware since better sensors and larger AI models now enable a host
of new applications. There is a growing need to infer more data and then make
decisions without sending data to the cloud.
Chip startups SambaNova (U.S.), Graphcore (U.K.), Cerebral (U.S.), Wave Computing (U.S.), and Syntiant (U.S.) have developed
architectures to handle the increased demand. High-performing AI chips, known as
neuromorphic or brain chips, mimic the structure of the brain and process top
AI algorithms.
Trend 4:
Commercialization of quantum computing usage in mass scale
We expect 2020 to begin the quantum computing era. As data
increases, quantum computing will target the biggest problems in the industry, such
as health care and energy. In 2020, the ability to handle big data will be
required for cancer treatment, nuclear energy control, and DNA analysis.
Corporations IBM, Google, Intel, Microsoft, and Alibaba have moved into quantum
computing.
Startups Rigetti (U.S.), D-Wave Systems (Canada), and QC Ware (U.S.) are disrupting quantum
computing. The technology will grow as it becomes easier to use with platforms
such as Amazon Web Services by mid-2020.
Trend 5:
Evolution of aerospace technologies
Mankind will begin its return to space in 2020, largely driven
by the private sector. Since the Cold War, technological advances have slowed.
Notable companies now making aerospace advancements include SpaceX and Blue Origin.
SpaceX is developing the rocket
Starship, which will reuse the entire vehicle body. Starship may shorten
intercontinental trips to 20-30 minutes via space. In China, the government and
private enterprises (example: LinkSpace)
are making progress in space.
