Rinchi
TechInAfrica – As technology has become advanced, many innovations are invented, especially ones that are like a personal assistant that can arrange a calendar, schedule meetings, and a reminder when to leave the office or when to have lunch. This type of virtual personal assistant has become common in the current time.
People nowadays are already familiar with Virtual Assistants (VA) like Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Microsoft Cortana. The technologies started to migrate from personal-use assistant to business-use assistant.
A Senior Director Analyst of Gartner, Annette Jump said: “There is a lot of innovation happening in the personal technology space, and many companies have a variety of digital initiatives linked with personal performance and behavior. This will enable personal technologies to play an immense role in driving and supporting digital business. These personal technologies should be used to support the end customer’s digital-business-outcome-driven use cases.”
Gartner then shares 10 technologies that should be incorporated into business strategies and roadmaps. Those technologies include:
- Machine Learning
Machine Learning (ML) is a part of Artificial Intelligence that can translate knowledge and patterns through observations. It is often used by commercial industries to identify patterns and automate processes. Moreover, it’s efficient for tasks automation and is able to detect fraud and discover customer behavior patterns. Nevertheless, the optimized use of ML will depend on continuous maintenance and data quality.
- Virtual Assistant
As the popularity of Virtual Assistant (VA) increases, some companies are now utilizing it for their businesses while others are creating enterprise-specific Vas. The VA technology helps to increase the business productivity and interactions with customers. However, if it’s utilized it efficiently, companies need to pay attention carefully on technical and security aspects of the VA.
- Immersive Technology
The Immersive Technology—AR, VR, and MR—is a mix between the real and digital worlds despite its early development stage. The technology can be used for the employees training as well as maintenance and repair within various industries, including healthcare and design. However, if businesses want to adopt the technology, they need to be sure that they need it for its value, not the hype surrounds it.
- 3D Printing
3D Printing is able to create a wide range of objects in various materials. It’s currently commonly used and going to grow and evolve rapidly in the future. This technology helps organizations to create one-off products and product cycle times, like medical implants, for example. Moreover, it also offers opportunities to create aerospace components that are lighter.
- Location Tracking
Location tracking technology has the ability to track people’s or things’ position that creates business applications, linking digital objects to the physical world. Currently, 25 location tracking technologies have existed with different accuracy degrees and price. The technology uncovers many types of business opportunities, including location-aware car insurance and real-time usage and tracking for medical machinery in a hospital.
- 3D Cameras
3D Cameras offer depth-in images, enabling businesses to measure various objects as well as using 3G content for facial and gesture recognition as well as logistical planning. It has potential for streamlining business processes that is surrounded by hype.
- Biometrics Authentication
The technology uses inherent biological features unique, including facial or iris recognition. An example for a company that has adopted this technology is Microsoft with its Windows Hello. It requires a 3D camera as well as face and fingerprint recognition. Compared to PIN and Passwords, it’s definitely more secure. As in businesses, the technology has the potential to enable more streamlined mobile purchasing and security building.
- Wearables
Wearables consist of various technologies, including mature wristbands and VR headsets. Consequently, it offers business opportunities in many industries, like medical smart patches, mobile payment, industrial repairs, and so on. To adopt it in businesses, entrepreneurs need to make sure that they fit into the digital business first.
- Chatbots
Chatbots are technologies of conversation interface and automation tools. It’s available in various range of maturity. To adopt this technology, enterprises will have no difficulty in finding a platform. However, there’s still little standardizations of the products. The technology can be utilized to replace human involvement in call centers or for internal use of scheduling and doing simple tasks.
- Wireless Power
The technology has the ability to charge electronic devices without cables connection. It’s available in two types, power harvesting and wireless charging. Power harvesting gathers powers from environmental sources like heat or light while wireless charging enables electronic users to charge their devices without cables. As we know that most electronic devices don’t support wireless charging, thus this technology is highly potential for a digital business offering.
