HAPPY NEW YEAR

Paul Wallbank decided to ponder what might the biggest tech trends in business might look like in 2020. So, as we start 2020 let's look at some of his ideas for fun. HAPPY NEW YEAR

Now we’re in the second decade of the Twenty-First Century, business is accelerating as a combination of changes in technology and society come together.

Many of these trends have been predicted for some time. It’s the availability of the cheap (almost free!) computing power that’s delivering many of the promises made by technology over the last thirty years. These are worth examining more closely.

The top business trends in 2020 might be

1) Robots taking our jobs

Probably the biggest change that is affecting our businesses is how machines are taking over tasks ranging from window cleaning to inventory management. Anyone with a transaction-based job or business will be having a forced career change before the end of the decade.

2) The Internet of machines

Those robots and computers are talking to each other which speeds up business decisions and will strip layers of management from organizations.

3) Flatter organizations

A consequence of those faster decisions is the need for less management. Organizations need to be flatter in order to process information faster unless they want to risk nimble competitors seizing business opportunities.

4) 3D printing

One of the most exciting, and business changing, technologies is 3D printing which allows you to print a coffee cup at your desk, help robots construct new buildings and a give a little boy a set of fingers.

5) Nano-technology

3D printing is happening alongside biological engineering. By the end of the decade, we’ll be able to print our own skin. By 2030, we’ll be printing replacement body parts like heart valves.

6) Mobile apps redefining service industries

The mobile phone app is currently booming but the real effects of these mobile services will be felt on industries as diverse as the taxi industry to the mining and agricultural sectors.

7) The fight for control of the mobile payments system

An upshot of the app economy is the question of who processes, and makes money, from online payments. The battle between banks, credit card companies, telcos and software companies is going to be a major business story of the decade.

8) Reinventing entertainment

Apps and connected machines are going to change consumer behaviour and nowhere is this more notable in the entertainment industries which are being revolutionized by tools like Google Glasses and social media.

9) The fall and rise of social media

Like many innovations social media was greatly hyped and now we’re seeing the backlash of it being oversold. Over the rest of the decade, organizations are going to figure out how to use social media services effectively and profitably without hype.

10) Newspapers cease to exist

One of the effects of social media, mobile phone apps and the pervasive internet is the end of newspapers by 2020 as futurist Ross Dawson has predicted.