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5 Tech Trends To Watch Out For in 2018

by Allan MacGregorDecember 19th, 2017

Too Long; Didn't Read

With 2018 around the corner is prudent to take some time and see what new and existing trends will dominate 2018.

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With 2018 around the corner is prudent to take some time and see what new and existing trends will dominate 2018.

Blockchain

In 2017 we saw many of the Silicon Valley giants experiment or even introducing their own blockchain implementations, IBM been the most significant one by collaborating with food distributors, government regulation agencies and banks for leveraging blockchain.

Why it matters

With applications ranging from cryptocurrency, to smart properties, to identity like passports; we have only started scratching the surface of what Blockchain technology can offer and in 2018 it won’t be a surprise if we see a rise in the creation and adoption of blockchain based application.

In fact, in 2017 Amazon, Oracle, Microsoft and IBM all started experimenting and working on their own blockchain platforms, and in 2018 we will see more companies joining the bandwagon across a myriad of different fields.

Conversational Interfaces

Conversational interfaces are nothing new, and while 2017 saw the birth of countless chatbots in all number of platforms, 2018 will be the year were conversational interfaces will continue growing and gain significant maturity.

Why it matters

Conversation interfaces vary from voice recognition platforms like Siri, Alexa and Google Home; to hundreds of bots on platforms like Facebook, Telegram and Slack; but they all have one thing in common, they are slowly changing the way we interact with software.

Regardless if its voice or text, in 2018 conversation interfaces will continue to provide an improved and more personalized user experience.

AI will take over …

… but not in the way you think. In 2018 we will see a raise in solutions and applications augmented by the use Machine Learning/AI.

Why it matters

For many AI seems to be an all or nothing proposition, the reality is that AI is already here and contributing in unexpected ways. In 2018 we will see the transition from AI being somewhat of a buzzword and a nice to have, to an absolute necessity for startups and businesses.

In 2017, there was a significant number of businesses using AI to drive financial and operation decisions, not only this trend will continue gaining steam but we will also see AI application in less obvious fields.

The Rise of Backends As A Service (BaaS)

Backend as a service, while typically is not reference by that name is a trend that has been on the rise in 2017 and will continue gaining steam during 2018.

Why it matters

BaaS turns traditional parts of the backend into a third party service that is consumed by other applications, some good examples of BaaS are push notifications, file storage and sharing, integration with social networks and messaging and chat, just to mention a few.

One trend that I’m expecting to see more of in 2018 is what Shopify is doing with its Storefront API, in which Shopify essentially becomes a headless backend for a fully customizable shopping experience.

Augmented Reality

AR and mobile seem to be the perfect marriage and with the release of ARKit by Apple and ARCore by Google, 2018 is poised to be the year where we will see mainstream adoption of AR.

Why it matters

While there has been a lot of hype surrounding Virtual Reality in the past couple years, there is still ways to go before it becomes commonplace and widely adopted. On the other hand Augmented Reality, might become mainstream in 2018.