Over the last year, there were dramatic shifts in technology due to a global pandemic that shut down the world. 2020 became a year of shifting things from working in offices and other types of buildings to working virtually accessing all technology from the comfort of your own dwellings. Some of the most significant changes over 2020 included edge AI, 5G, and automated artificial intelligence, and the momentum for next-gen talent management and technology supporting sustainability. Some of the top trends set to have a significant impact on 2021 include AI on the edge, 5G ushering in Industry 4.0, automated AI helping to power the financial industry, and cognitive science and gamification helping to win the war for talent. Here are a few of the leading technology trends for 2021.

AI in Finance

There is expected to be an 86% increase in AI investments by 2025 by The Economist Intelligence Unit. For AI to be used to its full potential, employees with little to no background would need to be able to use it to increase their operational performance. Due to there being employees involved that do not know what AI is, there needs to be AI platforms that will allow business employees to quickly build models, easily understand and trust the product’s output, and make decisions with confidence. All these features are critical in the development of AI on a bigger scale.

Cybersecurity

The increase of more people working remotely has created a huge opportunity for cybercriminals to increase the number of attacks. One of the easiest ways cybercriminals are hacking is through compromising a company’s active directory infrastructure. After hacking the active directory, the criminal could take over a CEO’s phone, usurp their identity, and access confidential internal information. Alsid, a cybersecurity start-up, suggested that clients tailor security into their AD and invest in monitoring to be able to detect attacks in real-time and then investigate all breaches.

Healthcare Data Gold

There is expected to be a market for healthcare big data reaching nearly $70 billion by 2025, which is almost six times the 2016 value of $11.5 billion. This acceleration of health data being collected can help leverage opportunities for groundbreaking digital capabilities, such as AI, that can help improve patients’ treatment. An application developed using AI has led to a substantial decrease in cutting healing times from years to months and the unnecessary use of antibiotics in wounds that have been classified as hard-to-heal.
2020 helped to jump-start new technology trends, and it should improve greatly in 2021. There are going to be a ton of new trends that will change technology as we know it.