Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), cloud computing, and 5G will be the most important technologies next year, according to a study titled ‘The Impact of Technology in 2022 and Beyond’ by IEEE, a professional association dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.
The study revealed the findings of a global survey technology leaders from the US, UK, China, India, and Brazil, including 350 chief technology officers, chief information officers and IT directors.
Because of the global pandemic, technology leaders surveyed said in 2021 they accelerated adoption of cloud computing (60%), AI and ML (51%), and 5G (46%), among others. Not surprisingly, 95% agreed, including 66% who strongly agreed, that AI will drive the majority of innovation across nearly every industry sector in the next one-five years.
The technology leaders surveyed said 5G will benefit areas like telemedicine, including remote surgery and health record transmissions (24%), remote learning and education (20%), personal and professional day-to-day communications (15%), entertainment, sports and live events streaming (14%), manufacturing and assembly (13%), transportation and traffic control (7%), carbon footprint reduction and energy efficiency (5%), and farming and agriculture (2%).
As for industry sectors most impacted by technology in 2022, technology leaders surveyed cited manufacturing (25%), financial services (19%), healthcare (16%) and energy (13%). As compared to the beginning of 2021, 92% of respondents agreed that implementing smart building technologies that benefit sustainability, decarbonization and energy savings has become a top priority for their organization.
As the impact of covid-19 varies globally and hybrid work continues, technology leaders nearly universally agreed that their team is working more closely than ever before with human resources leaders to implement workplace technologies and apps for office check-in, space usage data and analytics, covid and health protocols, employee productivity, engagement and mental health.
83% of the respondents see maintaining strong cybersecurity for a hybrid workforce of remote and in-office workers as a key challenge, while 73% of the respondents viewed managing return-to-office, health and safety protocols, software, apps and data as challenging.
Looking ahead, 81% agreed that in the next five years, one-quarter of what they do will be enhanced by robots, and 77% agree that in the same time frame, robots will be deployed across their organization to enhance nearly every business function from sales and human resources to marketing and IT.
