Thursday, April 14, 2022

100 Trends Shaping Our World


Sometimes it’s useful for marketers to understand trends that may affect their businesses. Here are some of the current trends that I am monitoring:

  1. 5G technology
  2. The Internet of Things
  3. Mobile Internet
  4. Cloud technology and distributed infrastructure 
  5. Democratization of technology
  6. The world becomes hyperconnected
  7. Move toward all media consumed through the Internet
  8. Seamless language translation, making the world even smaller
  9. Exploration of more direct human-computer interfaces (HCI)
  10. Electrification
  11. Electric vehicles (EVs)
  12. Autonomous vehicles
  13. Drones
  14. Battery technology, including sodium-sulfur molten salt batteries
  15. Microgrids
  16. Grid-connected renewable energy systems
  17. All forms of clean tech
  18. Atmospheric (electromagnetic) energy
  19. Software defined vehicles (SDVs)
  20. AI & machine learning
  21. Deep structured learning
  22. Autonomic systems
  23. Generative AI
  24. Big data analytics
  25. Edge computing & tinyML
  26. Quantum computing
  27. Nanoparticles
  28. Next generation materials including honeycomb lattice
  29. Photonics
  30. Quantum teleportation
  31. Virtual and augmented reality
  32. 3-D multisensor transmitters
  33. Advanced robotics
  34. 3-D printing 
  35. Process automation and hyper-automation
  36. Explosion of smart devices
  37. Genomics/genetic engineering
  38. Psychobiotics and microbiome therapeutics
  39. Health care data analytics
  40. Personal medical devices
  41. Telehealth and mobile medicine
  42. Hyper-personalized medicines
  43. Social determinants of health (SDOH) receive greater attention
  44. Mental health becomes a larger priority
  45. Unbundling of health care
  46. Living building material
  47. Web 3.0
  48. Homomorphic encryption
  49. Blockchain (distributed ledger) technology and decentralized identifiers
  50. Cryptocurrency
  51. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
  52. A cashless society
  53. Privacy and cybersecurity
  54. Open-source intelligence (OSINT)
  55. Biometric technology (face, voice, eye, hand and signature security)
  56. Deglobalization
  57. Redesign of supply chains
  58. Increased self-service
  59. Recurring revenue streams
  60. Distributed enterprises and remote employees
  61. Increased flexible work 
  62. Continued growth in the gig economy
  63. Huge need for retraining for new economy jobs
  64. Minimum living wages as an alternative to job loss
  65. Increased time sharing of all things
  66. Fractional CXOs
  67. Extreme personal profiling
  68. Hyper-targeting and hyper-geofencing 
  69. OTT (Over-the-top) media service platforms
  70. On-demand personalized customer experiences
  71. Move from retail stores to Internet distribution centers and home delivery
  72. Move toward unique and boutique in retail
  73. Increasing use of personal digital assistants
  74. Cameras, cameras everywhere
  75. Struggle for personal privacy
  76. Increasing popularity of veganism and vegetarianism
  77. Increased focus on personal health
  78. Decrease in romantic relationships
  79. Increasing acceptance of sexual freedom 
  80. Decrease in organized religion, increase in personal spirituality
  81. Continued decreasing trust in traditional institutions, especially government
  82. Shift from a patriarchal society to a matriarchal society
  83. More focus on the home
  84. Increasing self-care and compassion toward others
  85. Increasing importance of pets as family
  86. Increased frequency and severity of natural disasters due to climate change
  87. More eco-friendly lifestyles
  88. The private sector steps up its support of social and environmental issues
  89. Distributed localized agriculture through hydroponics and aeroponics
  90. Increased “fake news” and disinformation
  91. Increased sophistication of deep fakes
  92. Increased botnet activity
  93. More censorship, less free speech
  94. Increased public awareness of and pressure to address economic inequality
  95. Less capitalism, more socialism
  96. Continued urbanization
  97. Continued population shifts to less expensive states
  98. Less abundance thinking, more scarcity thinking
  99. The blurring of war and crime with the emergence of terrorism
  100. Rethinking of the criminal justice system

If you aren’t familiar with some of these, I would recommend that you search on and read about those that most interest you.