The momentum that the adoption of new technologies has experienced during the last year and a half is the prelude to the main technological trends that we will see throughout the next 2022. A greater rise in Artificial Intelligence, hyper-automation and the growing commitment to platforms native to the cloud are just a few of them.
There is no doubt that technology has taken on a special role – even greater than it had, if possible – since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their role in ensuring business continuity, favoring remote work, as well as responding to customer needs through electronic commerce, are some examples that confirm its growing relevance.
This has allowed managers of thousands of organizations around the world to open their eyes and become aware of the important pillar that is the technology for your business.
There is no longer any doubt that the path back to sustainable profits and expansion begins with investments in technology, and that CIOs are expected to design and maintain a robust and scalable IT organization that can support the company’s growth strategy while responding quickly if business conditions change.
If the premise for 2020 was survival, the 2021 directive is to return to the growth path by recovering stagnant businesses during the pandemic. A strong digital strategy will enable companies to compete, protect their IT assets and maximize profits, for which CIOs will need to shape and improve the IT backbone.
Everything seems to indicate that, in 2022, the pandemic will continue to affect our lives in many different ways. This means that we will continue to see an accelerating rate of digitization and virtualization of companies and society. However, as we move into the new year, sustainability, ever-increasing data volumes, and network and computing speeds will begin to regain their status as the most important drivers of digital transformation.
The most important trends for the coming year are likely to focus on the convergence of technology trends, as tools emerge to combine them. Businesses are digitizing and they need to do it quickly, because this is how they are going to recoup the revenue they lost during the most critical months of the pandemic.
In 2022, companies must connect their IT implementation with economic growth
Against this background, analysts point out that, in 2022, companies will have to connect their technology implementation with economic growth and market opportunities. And this will lead us to witness the promotion of a series of technological trends that we review below.
Artificial and generative intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly ubiquitous, not only in smartphones and voice assistants, but also as a driver of much of the automation of robotic processes that has allowed to lighten the workloads in the administration, logistics, accounting and Human Resources departments. Across all industries we see AI-powered solutions, something that will grow even more next year.
In addition, in 2022 we will see how what Gartner points out as generative AI and which he describes as machine learning methods that learn about content or objects from their data and use it to generate completely new and original realistic artifacts. Tasks like creating software code, facilitating drug development, and targeted marketing can proliferate thanks to generative AI.
However, the consultancy also warns that AI can be used to carry out scams, fraud, forgeries, and promote disinformation. Still, it is expected to account for 10% of all data produced in 2025, compared to less than 1% today.
Cloud platforms
Urgent new needs in the past two years have accelerated cloud adoption around the world. Native cloud platforms they will also play an important role throughout 2022 in delivering capabilities anywhere.
Gartner predictions suggest that cloud-native platforms will serve as the foundation for more than 95% of new digital initiatives in 2025, compared to less than 40% by the end of 2021.
Autonomous systems
Autonomous systems will also be the protagonists of next year’s technological trends and will be common in products such as robots, drones, or manufacturing machines. Unlike automated systems, freelancers can dynamically modify their own algorithms without an external software update, allowing them to quickly adapt to new conditions.
Gartner notes that autonomous systems they stand out as a longer-term trend and he expects their maturity to develop over the next five years.
Automation and Hyper-automation
In 2022, automation will continue to be in the spotlight. Technologies such as robotic process automation, natural language processing, and intelligent document processing will continue to reduce reliance on human labor.
Hyper-automation will offer great benefits when automating processes
But automation will continue to move towards hyper-automation, which will provide significant benefits to business leaders in quickly identifying, examining, and automating as many processes as possible.
Everything as a service and the codeless revolution
Another of the great technological trends that will mark 2022 will be the democratization of data and technology. In recent years an entire industry has emerged that aims to put the skills and tools necessary for innovation in the hands of as much of society as possible, regardless of their experience or knowledge.
Innovation has been constrained in some areas by the skills crisis, which may be perceived as a problem, but it has been the engine behind the explosion of self-service solutions and ‘low-code’. In 2022, we will continue to see companies implementing AI and IoT infrastructure without having a single server or proprietary cognitive code.
No-code interfaces will become more popular as a lack of programming knowledge or an understanding of statistics and data structures stop becoming a barrier to realizing a world-changing idea.
Distributed company
Major technology changes will respond to ongoing adjustments to operating models, as most companies continue to adjust their hybrid work models.
According to Gartner, in 2023, three-quarters of organizations that exploit the benefits of a distributed business model, which allows companies to operate while workers are geographically dispersed, will see revenue growth 25% faster than their peers.
Data silos
As the number of data and application silos continues to grow, there will be a need for frameworks that enable flexible and resilient data integration between platforms and business users.
The distributed enterprise will replace traditional organizations
With millions of people around the world who follow working remotely, Gartner notes that the distributed enterprise will likely replace the traditional office-centric organizations of recent years.
Predictive analytics
Together, data analytics, data lake consolidation, and predictive analytics will be big trends across the IT industry. Even IoT and cybersecurity are heavily driven by advanced predictive analytics techniques.
The tools of predictive analytics The rules of the game will continue to change next year in almost every industry and in every business domain.
Sensors and connected machines
Sensors and connected machines are at the peak of an ongoing revolution, leading us towards a world where everything is measured. The combination of powerful analytics and sensor data on the Edge and the cloud will act as a springboard for innovation and predicting the future.
Composable apps
Companies that take a composable approach can outperform their competitors by 80% in terms of implementing new features. In turn, this is an extension of the composable organization concept that, according to Gartner, can help companies respond to the change in which they are immersed.
Cloud on the edge
The needs of sovereignty and Edge Computing are the new challenges for those responsible for technology in organizations. The adoption of the cloud has transformed IT organizations, operating models and governance.
It is necessary to bring computing capabilities closer to users and resources for real-time processing. Edge computing and clouds will counteract the extreme centralization of the cloud.
Cybersecurity mesh
There should be a distributed approach to network security with individual perimeters around each access point rather than a traditional top-down, all-encompassing approach.
This is a recommendation from BearingPoint, which advocates that next year the commitment of the cybersecurity mesh, which shifts the focus from protecting a traditional IT perimeter to a more modular approach that centralizes policy orchestration but distributes cybersecurity enforcement.
Gartner predictions suggest that by 2024, companies that adopt this cybersecurity mesh will be able to reduce the economic impact of security incidents by 90%.
Total experience (TX)
Total experience remains among the big tech trends for next year as the value of the experiences Combined customers, employees and users will show the potential to improve business results.
However, companies must break down each of these silos and understand the benefits of improving the experience of all stakeholders.
Digitization, dataification and virtualization
In 2022, we will become increasingly familiar with the concept of ‘metaverse’, persistent digital worlds that exist in parallel with the physical world in which we live. As the rate of digitization increases, these metaverses will model and simulate the real world with increasing precision, allowing us to have more immersive, compelling, and ultimately valuable experiences within the digital realm.
New devices will arrive that will improve the experience of tactile feedback and even smells
While many of us have experienced somewhat immersive virtual realities through headphones, a range of new devices hitting the market soon will greatly enhance the experience by offering tactile feedback and even smells.
Sustainable technology trends
During the most critical months of the pandemic, non-renewable energy use declined around the world as industries closed and people stayed home, leading to an overall reduction in CO2 emissions of 8%. This has led to the expectation that more and more will be invested in generating energy from renewable resources in the next years.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that 40% more renewable energy was generated and used during 2020 compared to the previous year and forecasts that this growth will continue through 2022.
Replacement of legacy systems
The move towards greater digitization will continue to lead many organizations to replace their outdated legacy systems, which also increase the risk of attack or breach.
Security vulnerabilities are an inadvertent and natural result when you implement a patchwork of obsolete solutions and inefficient. Evaluating and modernizing the technology and systems stack will be the goal of more and more organizations to remain competitive and secure.
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