According to Gartner, the top ten strategic tech trends include: agentic AI; AI governance platforms; disinformation security; postquantum cryptography; ambient invisible intelligence; energy-efficient computing; hybrid computing; spatial computing; polyfunctional robots; and neurological enhancement.

According to Gartner, the trends center on factors that will cause “significant disruption and opportunity” during the next ten years.

According to Gene Alvarez, senior VP analyst at Gartner, “this year’s top strategic technology trends span AI imperatives and risks, new frontiers of computing, and human-machine synergy.”

“IT leaders can use responsible and ethical innovation to shape their organizations’ futures by keeping an eye on these trends.”

The capacity for intelligence

Agentic AI systems, which can autonomously plan and perform actions to accomplish user-defined objectives, are one trend to watch in the coming years among the many AI advances.

According to Gartner, agentic AI “offers the promise of a virtual workforce that can offload and augment human work,” and by 2028, the intelligence is expected to make at least 15% of daily work choices.

“This technology’s goal-driven capabilities will result in more flexible software systems that can accomplish a wide range of tasks,” the company said.

Regarding AI, governance platforms are anticipated to be popular in the near future for managing the moral, legal, and functional performance of AI systems.

According to the company, “these technological solutions have the capability to create, manage, and enforce policies for responsible AI use, explain how AI systems work, and provide transparency to build trust and accountability.”

Accordingly, Gartner forecasted that by 2028, organizations using AI governance tools would see 40% fewer ethical events using AI than those that do not.

Ambient invisible intelligence, which employs very inexpensive, tiny smart tags and sensors for widespread, reasonably priced monitoring and sensing, is another kind of intelligence that is expected to succeed in the future.

“By enabling low-cost, real-time tracking and sensing of items to improve visibility and efficiency, early examples of ambient invisible intelligence through 2027 will focus on solving immediate problems, such as retail stock checking or perishable goods logistics,” according to Gartner.

The research organization said that neurological enhancement—technologies that read and decode brain activity to augment human cognitive abilities—should be anticipated soon in order to keep up with machine-only intelligence.

The technology offers “huge potential” for human upskilling, next-generation marketing, and performance. It does this by using unidirectional or bidirectional brain-machine interfaces (BBMI) to read a person’s brain.

“Neurological enhancement will improve human neural capabilities to optimize outcomes, improve cognitive abilities, and allow brands to understand what consumers are thinking and feeling.”

According to Gartner, 30% of knowledge workers will rely on and benefit from technologies like BBMIs by 2030 in order to “stay relevant with the rise of AI in the workplace.” These technologies may be supported by people or by organizations.

Safety

Disinformation security is anticipated to develop as a system to prevent impersonation and the exploitation of damaging information, while also guaranteeing authenticity and integrity, due to AI’s potential for “nefarious purposes.”

Furthermore, by 2028, half of businesses would use disinformation security solutions, according to Gartner.

“Disinformation incidents targeting enterprises are expected to increase due to the widespread availability and advanced state of AI and machine learning tools being leveraged for nefarious purposes,” said Gartner. “Any organization can suffer serious and long-lasting harm if this is allowed to continue unchecked.”

Postquantum cryptography, which provides data protection that is immune to the dangers of quantum computer decryption, is another security feature that the tech sector is anticipated to adopt.

According to Gartner, “it is anticipated that several types of conventional cryptography that are widely used will end as quantum computing developments have progressed over the last several years.”

“Organizations must have a longer lead time to prepare themselves for robust protection of anything sensitive or confidential because it is difficult to switch cryptography methods.”

According to Gartner, most traditional asymmetric cryptography will become “unsafe to use” by 2029 due to advancements in quantum computing.

Calculating

Aside from AI and security, another significant development is that people will use computers differently. In the next five to seven years, it is anticipated that organizations will use more spatial computing.

“This is the next level of interaction between physical and virtual experiences,” according to Gartner, who used a variety of technologies, including augmented and virtual reality.

It is anticipated that the special computer market would gain momentum during the following nine years, increasing from $110 billion in 2023 to $1.7 trillion by 2033.

Furthermore, it is anticipated that hybrid computing—which combines different compute, storage, and network components to address computational issues—will become more popular starting in the next year.

“This computing approach enables organizations to investigate and resolve issues, enabling technologies like artificial intelligence to surpass existing technological boundaries,” according to Gartner.

“Highly effective transformative innovation environments that outperform traditional environments will be created using hybrid computing.”

Having previously been in Gartner’s list of the top 10 IT trends for 2024, sustainability is still a key topic. However, this time around, the emphasis is on energy-efficient computing, particularly in light of compute-intensive applications like video rendering, modeling, optimization, and AI training.

According to the research company, new computing technologies such as photogenic, anthropomorphic, and innovative accelerators will be widely used for specialised tasks like AI and optimisation starting in the late 2020s, using “significantly” less energy.

Finally, it is anticipated that the popularity of robots will increase, particularly poly-functional robots, or robots that can do several tasks, which are already displacing robots that were created to execute a single activity.

Poly-functional robots are also anticipated to increase productivity and provide a quicker return on investment.

The research group said that “poly-functional robots are made to function in a world with humans, which will make for quick deployment and simple scalability.”

According to Gartner, by 2030, 80% of people will interact with intelligent robots every day, up from the current rate of fewer than 10%.

Disclaimer:

This article is for informational and educational purposes only. The technology trends, forecasts, and statements mentioned are based on publicly available research from Gartner and other industry sources. Actual future outcomes may vary. This content does not provide financial, legal, or professional advice. The author and website are not responsible for any decisions made based on the information provided.