■Support IoT initiatives by developing and prioritizing targeted, high-value business cases to
build digital twins of physical things and organizational processes.
■Learn about and monitor quantum computing while it is still in the emerging state. Identify real-
world problems where it has potential and assess its possible impact on security.
Table of Contents
Strategic Planning Assumptions.3
Analysis..4
Trend No. 1: Autonomous Things.....6
Autonomous Physical Things and Autonomous Virtual Things....7
A Range of Autonomous Capabilities......8
Autonomous, Intelligent and Coordinated...........9
Trend No. 2: Augmented Analytics..10
Empowering the Citizen Data Scientist..11
Beyond the Citizen Data Scientist.........12
Take Action.......12
Trend No. 3: AI-Driven Development...........13
The Augmented Developer.......14
The Automated Developer........15
Trend No. 4: Digital Twins...16
Digital Twin of an Organization..18
Trend No. 5: Empowered Edge.......20
Edge Computing and Cloud Computing Are Complementary Concepts...........20
Exploiting Advanced Capabilities at the Edge....21
Communicating to the Edge — The Role of 5G22
Trend No. 6: Immersive Experience.23
How We Perceive the Digital World Is Changing23
VR and AR Can Help Increase Productivity.......24
How We Interact With the Digital World Is Changing.....24
The Future Will Be an Ambient Experience........25
Trend No. 7: Blockchain.....27
Trend No. 8: Smart Spaces30
Smart City Spaces Lead the Way.........33
Smart Spaces Are a Journey, Not a Destination33
Trend No. 9: Digital Ethics and Privacy........34
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Trend No. 10: Quantum Computing37
Quantum Computing and Security........38
Quantum Computer Maturity....39
Don’t Ignore QC, but Proceed With Caution.....40
Gartner Recommended Reading..........41
List of Figures
Figure 1. Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2019...6
Figure 2. A Framework for Assessing Autonomous Things.........7
Figure 3. The Evolution of Augmented Analytics...........11
Figure 4. Applying AI to the Development Process........14
Figure 5. Digital Twins Are Digital Representations of Real-World Objects.........17
Figure 6. Cloud and Edge Computing Are Complementary Concepts...21
Figure 7. The Future of the User Experience.....27
Figure 8. Key Elements of Blockchain...28
Figure 9. Smart Space Evolution...........31
Figure 10. The Hierarchy of Intent.........35
Figure 11. Quantum Computing Timeline..........40
Strategic Planning Assumptions
By 2021, 10% of new vehicles will have autonomous driving capabilities, compared with less than
1% in 2018.
Through 2020, the number of citizen data scientists will grow ve times faster than the number of
expert data scientists.
By 2022, at least 40% of new application development projects will have articial intelligence co-
developers on the team.
By 2021, half of large industrial companies will use digital twins, resulting in a 10% improvement in
effectiveness for those organizations.
Through 2028, storage, computing, and advanced AI and analytics technologies will expand the
capabilities of edge devices.
By 2022, 70% of enterprises will be experimenting with immersive technologies for consumer and
enterprise use, and 25% will have deployed them to production.
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By 2030, blockchain will create $3.1 trillion in business value.
By 2022, more than 50% of all people collaborating in Industry 4.0 ecosystems will use virtual
assistants or intelligent agents to interact more naturally with their surroundings and with people.
By 2021, organizations that bypass privacy requirements and are caught lacking in privacy
protection will pay 100% more in compliance cost than competitors that adhere to best practices.
By 2023, 20% of organizations will be budgeting for quantum computing projects, compared to less
than 1% in 2018.
Analysis
Digital transformation drives organizations to continually refresh their business models, and much of
the change will be technology-enabled. Technology is also amplifying continuous change at an ever-
increasing velocity. Technology innovation leaders must adopt a mindset and new practices that
accept and embrace perpetual change. “Continuous next” is the strategy for achieving success in a
world that is constantly changing. It positions organizations to foster perpetual innovation,
integration and delivery. The top 10 strategic technology trends are a critical ingredient in driving a
continuous innovation process as part of a continuous next strategy.
The future will be characterized by smart devices delivering increasingly insightful digital services
everywhere. We call this the “intelligent digital mesh.” The intelligent digital mesh has been a
consistent theme of Gartner’s strategic technology trends for the past two years, and it continues as
a major driver through 2019. EA or technology innovation leaders seeking to exploit the intelligent
digital mesh must respond to the disruptive technology trends driving this future.
There are three core themes to the intelligent digital mesh:
■The intelligent theme explores how AI — with a particular emphasis on machine learning — is
seeping into virtually every existing technology and creating entirely new technology categories.
The exploitation of AI will be a major battleground for technology providers through 2022. Using
AI for well-scoped and targeted purposes delivers more exible, insightful and increasingly
autonomous systems.
■The digital theme focuses on blending the digital and physical worlds to create a natural and
immersive digitally enhanced experience. As the amount of data that things produce increases
exponentially, compute power shifts to the edge to process stream data and send summary
data to central systems. Digital trends, along with opportunities enabled by AI, are driving the
next generation of digital business and the creation of digital business ecosystems.
■The mesh theme refers to exploiting connections between an expanding set of people and
businesses — as well as devices, content and services — to deliver digital business outcomes.
The mesh demands new capabilities that reduce friction, provide in-depth security and respond
to events across these connections.
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