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Markets and Trends

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Earlier this summer, my friend’s daughter began a new job, her first one right out of college. Amidst all the usual starting-a-new-job hubbub of picking health insurance and setting up her direct deposit, she was also faced with getting her hardware – laptop, tablet, and smartphone – selected and set up. It’s a task many of us are usually faced with, and don’t spend too much time thinking about. However, not long after starting her job, she called me at work with a question:

“Ramon, which wearable should I get?”

The business of IT is changing. Service providers moving away from pure infrastructure services, digital transformation, and the advent of the cloud have all created a major shift in dynamics in the traditional supply chain.

The market is evolving, and many companies are offering cloud services now. So, where will the market go in the next two years, and what role will technology vendors play in the success of the opportunities this trend represents?

For the second year, IDC surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. vehicle owners to learn more about how they prefer to buy, use, and pay for connected, automated, and next-generation vehicle technologies. IDC utilizes these surveys to help reinforce and realign the priorities of IDC’s Next-Generation Automotive Strategies’ research practice, as well as to assist automotive and technology suppliers, buyers, and manufacturers understand technology adoption and areas of focus.

The digital economy is changing how business professionals work, thanks to new emerging technology. Almost all areas of business are undergoing digital transformation, including procurement. Innovative technologies such as cloud, AI/cognitive, machine learning, natural language processing, and big data/analytics are completely altering traditional procurement applications, digitizing procurement and partners.

While we’ve discussed the disruptive power that artificial intelligence (AI) applications bring to enterprise organizations, the truth is that AI adoption is still low for these businesses. However, adoption level is at a tipping point; investment in AI has tripled, and recent technical innovations promise to make AI not just an underlying technology capability, but a fundamental business tool. Here are just three of the technical innovations that enterprises can use to better leverage the disruptive power of AI:

By now you’ve probably heard about this next generation of cellular connectivity thing known as 5G.  Nationwide advertising campaigns tout the ability to play multiplayer games on the move and logos are already changing on our phones. You might even think you have it via the 5G (GHz) channel on your WiFi router. Mobile operators began announcing launches of one form of 5G service or another beginning late last year and are continuing through 2019. Leading academics and engineers have already moved on and started talking about 6G and 7G. The 5G era is signed, sealed and delivered, right?

The Internet of Things (IoT) market is a tricky thing; customers aren’t necessarily looking to buy “IoT technology” but are instead searching for solutions that can help them achieve a specific business goal, such as supply chain efficiency or cost savings. That’s why IoT vendors need to not only have a good handle on the other players in their space, but on the ways they and their competition are framing their individual IoT solutions. It’s not enough to talk about the IoT market; vendors must frame their solution in a business value context in order to connect with their customer base.

For companies that are committed to creating Digital Transformation (DX) within their organizations, artificial intelligence (AI) is a critical component. The data that is created in DX initiatives has limited value if an organization can’t extract valuable, accurate, and timely insights from it. That’s why enterprise organizations are using AI technologies to pull actionable value from its data; in fact, by the end of 2019, 40% of all DX initiatives will be related to AI.