With 2018 in the books lets take a look at what may be in store for 2019.
1 – Behavioral biometrics – We have already seen fingerprint and facial biometrics become much more commonplace. Behavioral biometrics are poised to add an additional layer of security as they will be able to recognize a user in new ways such as how they type, talk, scroll and browse.
2 – Cryptocurrencies – Have gone through a massive shakeout. (See 2018 Forecast for more details) It now feels a lot like it did after the dot com crash. We definitely have some extreme pessimism in place as some see no relevancy for these products long term and are calling for all of them to go to zero while others are still believe in their usefulness. You can put me in the second camp as I still think there are significant opportunities here and though it faces competition, I believe Ethereum has the potential to be a longterm winner as it could disrupt the way we think about computing. Even if that were to be the case, usually bubbles take considerable time to work themselves out. It seems likely that the hype will continue to die down this year, but many exciting developments will continue to take place around new and existing protocols.
3 – Merger Action – With stocks on sale and many companies having flush balance sheets there is money to spend, but buyers will likely slow their roll given the volatility in the market. Even with the slowdown, some names seem likely to get gobbled up such as Roku, Nutanix, Lyft, and Snap which could all be leveraged by a strategic acquirer. Biotech also looks ripe for more acquisitions by big pharma.
4 – Digital Twin – Can be thought of as a bridge between the digital and physical world. The connection is made using real-time sensors which have been liberated by IoT. It can be the digital representation of a physical object, product, people, place, device, process, or service. This technology is already being deployed in industrial settings to optimize assets, methods, systems, and maintenance. Expect to hear this term more often going forward as established players and some startups leverage the tech to enable artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital simulations, and analytics.
5 – Accelerated Computing – Is primed to take off with its ability to better support AI. I am really excited about this space and the work Bitfusion is doing to make it easy to improve performance and reduce costs.
6 – Yawn – Two technologies that will fail to deliver on their hype are 5G and foldable phone screens. 5G won’t have enough devices or coverage to really move the needle though I can’t wait to play with it. Foldable phones sound cool, but the demos thus far look bulky. Perhaps in a year or two, this will be ready for prime time.
7 – Salesforce – isn’t going anywhere and will continue to dominate the CRM space. Their sheer size has begun to create opportunities for new entrants that can do things better, are less bloated, more focused and with less friction. I am really excited about the potential for serving customers that have had failed CRM implementation or never deployed a CRM. One of my favorite companies I am working within this space is Spiro which has developed an AI-driven CRM system that reduces friction and produces a high ROI.
8 – Recession – was coming sooner or later but now appears more likely for 2019 than just a few months ago. Trade wars, government shutdown, rising interest rates, stock market volatility and a variety of other issues are creating much uncertainty. This will cause decision makers and eventually consumers to be much more cautious and could move the US into recession quickly. Chance of recession in 2019 now over 50%.
9 – AI – advances continue to move into the mainstream. We will see more adoption in 2019 as these products generate high ROI and can give companies a competitive advantage, especially for early adopters. I am particularly excited to monitor the progress of OneModelon the HR front and to see what Zylotech will do in the Martech space.
10 – Amazon – is not the only company demonstrating many anti-competitive practices but it apparently has center stage. I won’t even get into shipping, logistics, or data capture of Amazon Resellers. I just want to focus on AWS as they work to build a monocloud system where they copy, assimilate or layer any technology they want into the environment. They already have a massive advantage concerning capital, customers, developers, and an ecosystem to push them further ahead. They have already crushed the majority of the competition, and only a have a few legitimate competitors at this time. Amazon will likely face much more scrutiny going forward which could force AWS to be spun off as a separate company.
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