Artificial Intelligence (AI) is among a list of emerging technologies that will play a critical role in enabling companies "to be ubiquitous, always available, and connected to business ecosystems to survive."
This is according to Gartner's Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2018 report which included 'democratised AI' as part of a five emerging technology trends (digitalised ecosystems, DIY biohacking, transparently immersive experiences and ubiquitous infrastructure) that the research and analysis firm says will blur the lines between human and machine.
These technologies will "profoundly impact the way they (business and tech leaders) engage with their workforce, collaborate with their partners, and create products and services for their customers," said Mike J Walker, research vice president at Gartner.
"CIOs and technology leaders should always be scanning the market along with assessing and piloting emerging technologies to identify new business opportunities with high impact potential and strategic relevance for their business," he added.
The company believes AI technologies (including autonomous mobile robots, deep neural nets and virtual assistants) "will be virtually everywhere over the next 10 years" and will become available to the masses, driven by cloud computing, the 'maker' community and open source.
"Technologies representing democratised AI populate three out of five sections on the Hype Cycle, and some of them, such as deep neural nets and virtual assistants, will reach mainstream adoption in the next two to five years," said Walker. "Other emerging technologies of that category, such as smart robots or AI PaaS, are also moving rapidly through the Hype Cycle approaching the peak and will soon have crossed it."
According to Gartner, technologies including Blockchain, IOT Platform and Knowledge Graphs is enabling the shift from compartmentalised technical infrastructure to ecosystem-enabling platforms.
"Digitalised ecosystem technologies are making their way to the Hype Cycle fast," said Walker. "Blockchain and IOT platforms have crossed the peak by now, and we believe that they will reach maturity in the next five to ten years, with digital twins and knowledge graphs on their heels."
Technology will continue to become more human-centric to the point where it will introduce transparency between people, businesses and things. These technologies extend and enable smarter living, work, and other spaces encountered, the company added.
Infrastructure is no longer in the way of obtaining an organisation's goals. The advent and mass popularity of cloud computing and its many variations have enabled an always-on, available and limitless infrastructure compute environment.
Additional analysis on emerging technologies will be presented to African CIOs and IT leaders during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, taking place in Cape Town from 17 to 19 September.
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