IT Trends for 2021 and Beyond

Imagine: It's closing time. You call a pod (a capsule) to your location which is so intelligent that it has already picked up your groceries from the supermarket or a pizza from the delivery service. Then you're headed home without any traffic jam.
Sounds more like science-fiction or wishful thinking than reality? Not with Ottobahn. The Munich-based start-up is currently developing a fully automated transport system above the traffic, a kind of monorail. A prototype already exists, as do interested parties – realization possible in mid-2024, according to CEO Marc Schindler. The basis for this is highly intelligent software.

Technology is becoming increasingly intelligent

"Intelligent" is the keyword: Artificial intelligence (AI) is a key technology and leading the way for our future. Coupled with big data and machine learning, AI will continuously influence all areas of life and it will also be a relevant factor for economic competitiveness. It is THE IT trend of the future.

And of the present: The Corona pandemic brought radical changes. "That's why the acceptance or rejection of certain technologies will also change as erratically as we usually see it within five or ten years," says CIO. Thus, the outlook for 2021 is like jumping to 2030.
Accordingly, it sounds more like a distant vision than reality that we could soon be coughing into our smartphone to diagnose a Covid-19 infection. Not so much, though: researchers at the MIT have used artificial intelligence to develop just that. The hit rate is above 90 percent. However, a number of weaknesses still need to be fixed before the application is practicable. Still, artificial intelligence can save lives!

Technology trends of the future

Big data is no longer a trend but rather an established given. The mountain of collected data is growing alongside the digitalization and is feeding AI and machine learning. "We live in a network of networks," says the Zukunftsinstitut; in an Internet of Things (IoT). Part of this connectivity is the human-machine-interaction, which will be done increasingly through voice-based user interfaces, better known as Siri or Alexa. Therefore, one trend is to improve the quality of these interactions so that we can operate an increasing amount of work and everyday processes via voice control.

In order for us to be able to ask one of our dear digital assistants Alexa, Siri & co. for help when we are on the move, we need stable wireless networks. Therefore, 5G mobile network technology also plays an important role for the future. The leap to 5G is immense, considering that you could transmit a complete episode of a TV show in HD quality in just one second. One second! Unfortunately, however, the technology has also become a political issue. Thus, it remains unclear when 5G will actually be accessible to all end users.

So, with all the tools, gadgets and wearables available, we have become a stay-connected smartphone society in smart-homes. Combined with the trend of urbanization, smart cities are the only logical next step. More than half of the world's population lives in cities, and by 2050 this proportion will rise to 66 percent. The demand for resources and the CO2 emissions there are correspondingly high. This calls for intelligent solutions using digital technologies to make infrastructure, mobility etc. highly efficient, conserve resources and improve the quality of life. Dubai is playing a pioneering role in this field with its Smart Dubai 2021 concept.

Quantum computing would certainly be helpful for AI projects of such dimensions. In terms of performance, this is a supersonic-jet and the classic home computer is a zeppelin. However, the challenging development is still in its infancy. Researchers do not expect to see a freely programmable quantum computer until around 2030, at the earliest. And this brings us to what we have mentioned above – the outlook for 2021 might feel like jumping to 2030, but in reality, we have not quite arrived there yet.

Coopers as sparring partner for digitalization

But we are excited about the journey there. Because at Coopers, we love and live the progress enabled by digital transformation: with Coopers IT Services, we offer customized ICT solutions for companies, including digitalization. And since we are well connected internally, it is common sense for us to share this knowledge with each other. As a result, our Coopers IT recruiting team is aware of the issues and changing requirements of the IT industry and thus able to track down the right candidate – or to suggest the right position to an applicant.

Form your own picture and get in touch with us to take your IT career to the next level. Or to recruit new IT talent with us. We are looking forward to it.

Your Coopers Team