Being diligent and aware of new trends is a basic survival trait in today’s business world. Understanding how these traits impact your business can either help you formulate a defense against the competitors, or provide an opportunity to leapfrog the entire industry.
Emerging business trends often involve the latest technologies, new consumer behaviors, new supply chain methodologies, or new cultural phenomena. With a creative mind and keen eyes on these trends, businesses can activate powerful forces that propel your business to the next level.
Of the many new trends each year, some of them disappear quickly while others remain a game changer. Researchers and business strategists spend countless hours on trend analysis to measure their impact and longevity. And it is up to you to adapt them to your business to capture success.
In this article, we will take a look at top 3 technology trends this year that might be relevant to your business.
1. Promise of Artificial Intelligence
The topic of artificial intelligence is a contentious one. Some think it is the future of work while others think it is the end of work as we know it. For now, the applications of AI have helped companies streamline data analysis, business logic, consumer experiences, and sometimes in generative industries such as medical research and architecture. The benefits of these applications are huge even at this early stage of AI. As technology continues to evolve we will see much deeper and broader of AI integration to all layers of our world.
What may seem as simple virtual assistants today will likely become the steward of our experiences at work, at play, and at home in the future – powering every interaction with the world around us.
2. Video Engagements vs Social media
Social media has taken over our lives and video is a major driving force behind it. Although Snapchat was not able to kill Facebook with video, the popularization of video content on Instagram as well as on Facebook’s own platform provide generous clues on which direction social media is evolving towards.
Just this year we see the rise of another platform TikTok, which has surpassed Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Youtube in downloads last month. The app uses a video centric format unseen in any other social network with 500 million users and growing rapidly.
3. Teamwork as the core competency
As the hunt for talent continues to heat up in Silicon Valley and around the world, teamwork and employee satisfaction is more important now than ever. One of the hottest trend in corporate team building is escape rooms. These games helps enhance working relationship of company teams by immerse employees in realistic challenges where they must work together to find the solution. One of the leaders in this space is Reason, a future technology escape in San Francisco. They work with innovative companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple on team bonding events and have found a way to re-ignite the imagination of corporate team building.
Conclusion
In the business world, trends are changing as rapidly as the market and its customers. By taking an agile approach to explore and experiment, you might find the most impactful trend to your business is just around the corner.