“It’s been fifty years since the first message was sent across what became the internet,” Val Sribar, senior research vice president at analyst firm Gartner, said recently. “The next five years may bring as much change as those last fifty.”

Gartner’s top ten strategic 2020 technology trends* show what he means:

Edge computing will enable over 50% of enterprise data to be created and processed outside the data center or cloud by 2023 (up from under 10% in 2019).

Distributed cloud, wherein a public-cloud service architecture is replicated on customer premises, is going mainstream — and fast. By 2024, the majority of cloud service platforms will provide services that execute at the point of need.

Hyperautomation varieties, which integrate machine learning, packaged software, and automation tools, need to be understood in terms of how they relate to each other and how they can be coordinated and combined.

AI security will become critical as AI spawns a massive increase in potential points of cyberattack. Through 2022, 30% of all cyberattacks will leverage training-data poisoning, AI model theft, or adversarial examples.

Transparency and traceability, in response to regulatory requirements, will by 2023 lead over 75% of large organizations to reduce brand/reputation risk by hiring AI specialists in behavior forensics, privacy, and customer trust.

Democratization of expertise is accelerating, with notable focus around data and analytics, development, design, and knowledge.

Blockchains will overcome scalability and interoperability issues to support annual movement and tracking of $2 trillion of goods and services by 2023.

Multi-experience development platforms supporting mobile, web, conversational, and augmented reality development will be adopted in at least one-third of enterprises by 2021.

Human augmentation capabilities will attract 40% of enterprises by 2025.

Autonomous things — AI-based devices that automate human functions are here. Robots, drones, autonomous vehicles/ships, and appliances will not only proliferate, they will learn to collaborate intelligently — and swarm.

* https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2020/

DILBERT: © Scott Adams. Used by permission of ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION. All rights reserved.