IT trends for 2021

Will 2021 bring stabilisation, or on the contrary, even more disruption? No one knows, but one thing is certain - technology will play a vital part in the days to come. But what to look out for when it comes to IT predictions for 2021? Well, there are surely already some tech trends visible that can give us a sneak peek into what’s coming and allow us to prepare to take the most out of it.

Here are our top IT predictions for 2021:

Internet of Things (IoT)

In 2020, we’ve observed a rapid increase of applications of IoT devices. In fact, there are few dozens of billions of IoT devices installed already, and these numbers are expected to double or even triple in the upcoming years. There’s plenty of IoT examples we wouldn’t live without already: smart wearables are our friends for good, smart grid is affecting the way we transfer and consume energy, whereas smart sensors and RFID tags help us with daily tasks. 

But in fact, IoT is on the rise especially in these three fields:

IoT: Smart City

Due to pandemic, whole societies were forced to rethink and redesign daily routines of a casual city dweller. A move towards outside of town flourished and resulted in a shift of expectations towards cities. IoT is a great answer to this challenge, already supporting plenty of Smart City features: public transportation, waste and traffic management, monitoring safety in urban areas and facilitating water distribution. But that’s still just a taste of what IoT brings to the Smart City table.

IoT: Healthcare

Because of a tangible threat we are all experiencing, we never cared about our health as much as we do now. Thankfully, technology supports telehealth and telemedicine, trends that will continue to surge. In fact, the pandemic fueled another type of disruption, a marriage of health and technology. Gartner  already speaks about the Internet of Behaviour (IoB), which is all about collecting data from distributed sensors to drive and change behaviours towards hygiene, health and safety. Tech to the rescue once again!

IoT: Deliveries and Supply Chain

In a locked down, isolated world where delivery is king, logistics and supply chain management are increasingly important. With an ever growing demand for contactless deliveries and shipping, there’s an escalating need for safe and resilient technology backing up these operations. Advanced tracking systems with sensors and tags are a great way to support both manufacturing, logistic processes, customer experience and security of the whole supply chain. And that’s where top-notch IoT comes really handy.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is topping the tech trends lists for a good few years already, but long gone are the days of the AI hype. With its proven in action performance, robustness and flexibility, combined with plenty of functionalities, AI is here to stay and will only maintain momentum. Especially in the fields of biotech, healthcare, supporting diagnosis and treatment, automating mundane, admin work or even with as ‘simple’ use cases as chatbots - there’s a growing acceptance of increased presence of AI in our daily lives.

Outsourcing

Is outsourcing ‘boring’? Not anymore. 2020 convinced even the most sceptic ones that remote work is here to stay, bringing continued expansion of outsourcing. It is no longer about cutting costs or digital nomadism only. Since we’re all used to working from home and with state-of-art tools we have available, businesses benefit from being location independent and can run operations anywhere. There’s virtually no difference if your partner sits in a different city, country or event continent, so why not tap into the vast pool of outsourcing benefits? Endless opportunities arise once you don’t have to be bound by geography. That’s a trend to observe!

Let’s wrap things up

On the eve of 2021, yet again the world is at a turning point. That means uncertainty of course, but here's where major opportunities arise, further leveraged by technology. Those who manage to pivot, adapt and be antifragile, stay on top of the situation in the volatile covid and post-covid world full of disruption. Those who won’t will unluckily fall behind.

One thing is certain - the rapid pace of change will only accelerate, fueled by technology. IoT and AI will continue to drive the revolution, so let’s make a good use of it!