The five biggest technology trends in 2022 in 2022 we will continue to see an  accelerated rate of digitization and virtualization of business and society. COVID 19 will continue to be a driver of change. However, the need for sustainability,  ever increasing data volumes and increasing computer network speeds will  regain their status as the most important drivers of digital transformation, an  important lesson of the last two years or so has been that truly transformative  change can be achieved, especially if it's driven by necessity. As a society, we  will undoubtedly continue to harness this newfound openness to flexibility, agility and innovative thinking, especially as the focus shifts from merely attempting to  survive in a changed world to thriving in it. So let's look at the tech trends that  will define 2022 artificial intelligence everywhere. Smart really used to mean  connected smartphones, smart TVs and the plethora of other smart devices  were really just the same old toys, but connected to the internet today, smart  increasingly means power, powered by AI, generally machine learning  algorithms that are capable of helping us in increasingly innovative ways. Smart  cars use facial facial recognition algorithms to detect whether we are paying  attention on the road and alert us to when we are getting tired. Smartphones  use AI algorithms to do everything from maintain call quality to help us take  better pictures, and of course, they are packed with apps that use AI to help us  do just about anything. AI has permeated the tools we use to carry out everyday  tasks, from the ubiquitous voice assistance to language translations and tools  that allow us to extract structures data from pictures, whiteboard scribblings and  handwritten notes. It also powers much of the robotic process automation and  has enabled workloads to be lightened in admin, logistics, accounting and HR  departments, whatever your industry or job function, you are likely to find that  there are AI powered solutions designed to make your life easier. This broad  trend encompasses AI the Internet of Things, or IoT, newly emerging fast  networks like 5g all of which are coming together to augment us with capabilities we didn't have just a few years ago. And this highlights the fact that on a longer  time scale, the most impactful trend of all will be the convergence growing data  volumes, faster networks and processing speed and the democratization of  data, which I'll touch on later, are coming together and will affect society in a  way that is much more than the sum of their parts. Everything as a service, and  the no code revolution, another increasingly powerful driver will be the ongoing  democratization of data and technology. In recent years, an entire industry has  emerged that puts innovative tech tools in the hands of ordinary people,  regardless of their expertise or experience. Innovation has been curtailed in  some areas by the skills crisis, which sounds like a problem, but has been a  driver behind the explosion of self service and do it yourself solutions, not every  company needs to hire an army of computer geniuses to build their own digital  brain. Today, they can simply lease one for the work they need done. Ready,  built. AI solutions exist for everything from marketing to HR project management

and planning and design of production processes. During 2022 we will continue  to see companies deploying AI and IoT infrastructure without owning a single  server or any proprietary piece of cognitive code. No code interfaces will  become more popular as the lack of programming knowledge or detailed  understanding. Of statistics and data structures will cease to become a barrier to bringing a world changing idea into reality. Open AI, a research group founded  by Elon Musk and funded by, among others, Microsoft, recently unveiled Codex,  a programming model that can generate code from natural spoken human  language, as technology like this matures in 2022 and converges with  possibilities offered by cloud infrastructure, our innovation and imagination will  less frequently be held back by a lack of either resources or technical skills.  Digitization, Datafication and virtualization during 2020, and 2021, many of us  experienced the virtualization of our offices and workplaces as remote working  arrangements were swiftly put in place. This was just a crisis driven surge of a  much longer term trend in 2022 we will become increasingly familiar with the  concept of a Metaverse, a persistent digital world that exists in parallel with the  physical world that we live in inside these metaverses, such as the one  proposed Recently by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, we will carry out  many of the functions we're used to doing in the real world, including working,  playing and socializing as the rate of digitization increases. These metaverses  will model and simulate the real world with growing accuracy, allowing us to  have more immersive, convincing and ultimately valuable experiences within the digital world. While many of us have experienced somewhat immersive virtual  reality through headsets, a range of new devices coming to the market will soon  greatly improve the experience offering tactile feedback and even smells.  Ericsson, which provided HR headsets to employees working from home during  the pandemic, and is developing what it calls the intent of senses, has predicted  that by 2030, virtual experiences will be available that will be indistinguishable  from reality. 2022 along with a new Matrix movie, will undoubtedly take us a step closer to entering The Matrix for ourselves, transparency, governance and  accountability for technology to work, us humans need to be able to trust it. We  already and rightly so see strong pushbacks against many ways that technology is currently being used that are seen as obstructive or dangerous or  irresponsible. AI in particular, is sometimes portrayed as a black box, meaning  we can't see inside it to understand how it works. This is often due to its  complexity, rather than for any malicious scheme to limit our understanding.  However, the effect is the same. This means that incidences where AI is shown  to be damaging. For example, when Facebook recently appeared to label  images of black people as primates, are extremely alarming. This is particularly  true in a society that is starting to look towards AI for decision making that affect  life, such as hiring staff or making health diagnosis, the idea of transparent and  Explainable AI has been growing in popularity over recent years, as it has 

become clear that there are segments of society that distrust it clearly with good  reason. Governments too clearly understand that there's a need for a regulatory  framework, as evidenced by the proposed artificial intelligence act in the EU the  proposed Act prohibits authorities from using AI to create social scoring  

systems, for example, and also prohibits facial facial recognition tools to be used in public. There's also a list of potentially dangerous effects, including exploiting  vulnerabilities and causing physical or psychological harm that AI solution  providers will have to demonstrate their systems will not cause before they are  offered for sale. Some however, claim that it doesn't go far enough, because it  doesn't contain any stipulation that people should be informed when they  become subject to AI driven decision making processes. For example, on the  other side, Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Has said that while he recognizes  regulation of AI is a necessity, there has to be a balance to be had here to  ensure innovation isn't stifled. This balancing act is likely to become an  increasingly prominent subject for discussion in 2022 as more people become  aware of the potential positive and negative effects on society that AI and other  technology trends will have. Sustainable Energy Solutions during the pandemic,  renewable energy was the only form of energy that saw usage increase in the  US. Renewable Energy use increased by 40% during the first 10 weeks of  lockdown, worldwide, all non renewable energy usage decreased as industry  shut down and people stayed at home, leading to an overall reduction in  emissions of about 8% This has led to the expectation that increasing  investments will be put into generating energy from renewable sources in the  coming years. The International Energy Agency estimates that 40% more  renewable energy was generated and used during 2020 compared to the  previous year, and forecasts that this growth will continue throughout 2022  overall, the cost of generating renewable energy from various sources, including onshore and offshore wind, solar and tidal, fell by between seven and 16% this  would be a huge help for countries And businesses trying to hit emission targets  such as becoming carbon neutral or even carbon negative. Additionally, existing  new emerging energy sources such as biofuel, liquid nitrogen and even nuclear  fusion are becoming more viable. However, breakthroughs in all of these areas  are likely to make headlines in 2022 Helion energy, a pioneer in the field of  fusion energy, which replicates the process used to create energy in the sun,  expects their latest prototype fusion generator to come online during 2022  practical applications are also expected to emerge in the field of green hydrogen energy. Unlike the established process of creating energy from hydrogen, which  involves using large amounts of dirty fossil fuel energy to create electrolysis,  separating hydrogen from oxygen, green hydrogen involves using renewable  energy reducing the overall environmental impact massively. To learn more  about these and other future trends, subscribe to my YouTube channel. Check  out my website and have a look at my books, business trends in practice and 

tech trends in practice, which are packed with real world examples, and cut  through the hype to present the key trends that will shape the businesses of the  future. 



Last modified: Monday, February 3, 2025, 9:06 AM