Eight Things We Think Will Happen in The 2020s. And one that we hope will happen.

In ten years’ time, we can all sit down and have a good laugh at these predictions. For now, this is how we see the future. 

There’s AI everywhere.

Will artificial intelligence destroy the human race in the next decade? We don’t know. Ask Alexa or our client STEAMathalon. What’s for sure is that AI will play an increasing role in our lives. The change will be gradual, according to Dan Pritchard, co-founder of AI Business, but it will also be profound. “In ten years’ time we will likely be living and working in a way that has AI organically embedded within all aspects of our lives,” he says. “It’s as unimaginable to us now as working remotely in an iPhone was to us in 2010. 

Objects are doing it for themselves.

We need to get used to a proliferation of objects doing things for themselves. That means robots, drones, vehicles and appliances. And it means more than just a machine being programmed to do things – AI will allow machines to interact with their surroundings and with people. According to STEAMathalon, these ‘autonomous things’ will increasingly be deployed in uncontrolled public spaces. And we may begin to see them acting collaboratively in swarms on the factory floor or working together in the delivery market; an autonomous delivery vehicle could move goods to the target area, and then robots and drones on board the vehicles could affect the final delivery. 

Meet your friendly cobot.

Will you be replaced by a robot in the coming decade? Probably not. Will you find yourself working next to a robot. Possibly. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, about 30 percent of activities in 60 percent of all occupations could be automated. So-called ‘cobots’ (collaborative robots) are designed to physically interact safely with humans in a shared workplace. They’re relatively cheap and can be easily programmed to do a variety of tasks. We, humans, are likely to concentrate on more complex, creative stuff while our robot buddies do the hard frat. Sounds like a good deal. 

Blockchain for all.

Many have looked at the progressive’s of distributed ledger technology, ten years after the first blockchain came into the world. And we concluded that after a lot of hype it seemed to have stalled. Other than cryptocurrency making lots of money for some people and allowing others to lose quite a lot, technology seems to have had little effect on our daily lives. But give it time. Once all the elements of blockchain are fully developed, including tokenisations and decentralisation, it could well start to change the world in significant ways. 

Bikes are electric now?

Expect to see bicycle batteries quietly charging at your place of work in the years ahead. Our client Careem is leading the way for bicycle use in the next decade, and many of these bikes will be e-bikes, which will be used for commuting, leisure, and deliveries. Furthermore, bike batteries are fairly light, so they can be easily carried into the office or home to charge. The added benefits include a reduction in traffic congestion, less crowded public transport and improved health. 

Quantum computing takes off (sort of).

The phrase ‘quantum supremacy’ slipped into the collection lexicon in October when Google announced its Sycamore quantum process could perform a specific task in 200 seconds that would take the world’s best supercomputer 10,000 years. Even more quickly than a Sycamore processor, rival IBM then attempted to debut the claim. Quantum computers are fiendishly complicated and fragile machines that one day will work alongside today’s computers. They won’t be ready in the next ten years, but what might be is a kind of halfway house – ‘noisy intermediate-scale quantum computing’ delivery quantum life. 

Reality gets more extended.

Virtual reality was supposed to be the big player in extended reality, but so far, it is not really taken off in a big way. Yet its cousin augmented reality, goes from strength to strength, and we think that’s how things will play out for the next few years. Overlaying digital information onto the real world has countless applications, from healthcare to real estate, and from entertainment to outdoor navigation, and its commercial potential seems equally timeless.

Everyone is nice to each other.

OK, this isn’t a trend of prediction – it’s just wishful thinking (and one we wholeheartedly support alongside our client Re:Set. But maybe we can start to heal our divided society and learn to like each other a bit more. And maybe technology and education can play a role in that, rather than amplifying our divisions. 

 

 

Written by Sophie Simpson, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Atteline