Tech Predictions for 2017
Published in
2 min readDec 20, 2016
- Gig Economy — 1/4 of American’s currently get their income from the likes of Uber, AirBnB, Etsy, Upwork, Ebay, et al. This will rise to greater levels in 2017 across all economies.
- AI and IoT — Alexa, Cortana, and Siri will get smarter than ever before pushing the “smart” home concept further and making it more accessible / affordable to the average consumer. Apple will also release a Siri based competitor to rival Google Home and the Amazon Echo making apple fans very happy.
- Data Privacy — Government is continuing the campaign to be intrinsically linked to our lives by coming after our data (social media, registers, databases, communications, browser history, et al). New and emerging startups will be created to protect users and their data from the prying eyes of governments. It will be interesting to see how Governments react.
- Bitcoin & Blockchain — Bitcoin will grow in popularity and price from a niche early adopter product into the early majority category. Blockchain tech will start to move into more traditional use cases as well as mainstream financial services.
- Autonomous Vehicles & Automation — The rise of autonomous vehicles will continue in a BIG way. America will see widespread trials, by the likes of Uber, in number of key states as well as at least 1 state allowing their use without a human driver / observer present. However, the biggest change won’t come from passenger transport but from goods transportation. Companies like Otto, Mercedes, and Tesla will get regulatory approval to operate both in the US and abroad and this will be a game changer for the industry (but not for those that drive trucks for a living as they will be slowly replaced by machines). This change will prompt Governments around the world to look at new ways to assist workforces replaced by technology, AI, and automation. Smart administrations will look to make far reaching changes to social security benefits with a move to Universal Basic Income (UBI) for all citizens — ideally with no means cap. UBI is believed to be cheaper than current social security efforts and promotes a culture of innovation and creativity never seen before by raising the tax free threshold. Those on middle and higher incomes will recirculate their UBI earnings helping to stimulate the economy and attracting sales tax. Win win.
