Emerging technologies

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Artificial Intelligence (AI),
Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR),
Robotic Process Automation (RPA),
Internet of Things (IoT),
Chatbots, ...

The list of radical new technologies is long and fluid. Yet these technologies all carry a common trait:
the potential to cause a disruptive socio-economic impact.

"New technologies, create new opportunities"

Emerging Technologies can play a significant role in your digital strategy or transformation to create a competitive advantage. They are building blocks to automate, innovate and streamline your digital operations.

The Hype Cycle highlights the emerging technologies with significant impact on business, society and people over the next five years. Designed by Gartner, the Hype Cycle follows a curved path from triggering a technology, to its heightened peak and drop, before settling on a plateau of productivity. It helps to understand the maturity and adoption of new and emerging technologies and how they can be used to address and solve real business problems.

The development and/or practical use of emerging technologies is not yet mainstream. Yet, the assumption that they will change the current status quo in a disruptive manner is valid.

So can you use emerging technologies today?

"Yes"

A common misconception is that because these technologies are emerging and not yet fully developed, they cannot be used in an existing business plan. Although moving forward with emerging technologies comes with complexity, it is worth it considering the competitive edge they hold. Standing still is essentially the same as moving backwards.

"Some of the emerging technologies we master"

Though there are plenty of emerging technologies to tackle, we focus on the ones that are most relevant and carry the most value.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term for a group of smart technologies that contain a certain level of intelligence. Today, AI is often linked to machine learning and deep learning. Machine learning refers to technology that is fed big amounts of data in order for it to ‘educate’ itself. Deep learning goes further than that and uses a complex architecture that mimics the human brain.

Think of

An airport scanner that verifies your identity through facial recognition.

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Augmented reality

Unlike VR, Augmented Reality (AR) does not provide a fully immersive virtual experiences. Instead, it enhances the real-word with images, text and other visual information via devices such as headsets, smartphones, tablets, smart lenses and glasses. Objects are superimposed onto the real-world but users are not able to interact with them like they would be able to in real life.

Think of

Pokemon Go

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Robotic process automation

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) refers to a piece of software, or ‘bot’, that automates company processes. It is aimed at mimicking the manual process of a human employee through the user interface, by clicking, writing, reading, editing, saving and deleting. RPA-bots are virtual employees that carry an almost unlimited working capacity.

Think of

A bot that analyses, filters and responds to application letters.

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Internet of things

An umbrella term for all devices connected to the Internet, Internet of Things (IoT) most commonly refers to smart objects outside of computers. For instance fridges, televisions, lamps, heating, doorbells, washing machines and other devices that contain sensors and are part of a shared eco system. These devices connect with each other or with computers without human interference and are designed to simplify our life.

Think of

Controlling a device you have invented with a smartphone.

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Conversational interfaces

There are two branches of Conversational Interfaces (CUI): Chatbots and Voice Assistants. While chatbots solely communicate via text messages in a chat interface, voice assistants use voice recognition and AI to function which makes them much more complex. Both make use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) - a complex set of processes involving audio sampling, speech recognition, sound recognition, conversion to text - to provide meaningful feedback.

Think of

Alexa, Siri and online customer support chatbots.

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