Thursday, April 14, 2022

101 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. Hydrogen powered vehicles
  14. Drones
  15. Battery technology, including sodium-sulfur molten salt batteries
  16. Microgrids
  17. Grid-connected renewable energy systems
  18. All forms of clean tech
  19. Atmospheric (electromagnetic) energy
  20. Software defined vehicles (SDVs)
  21. AI & machine learning
  22. Deep structured learning
  23. Autonomic systems
  24. Generative AI
  25. Big data analytics
  26. Edge computing & tinyML
  27. Quantum computing
  28. Nanoparticles
  29. Next generation materials including honeycomb lattice
  30. Photonics
  31. Quantum teleportation
  32. Virtual and augmented reality
  33. 3-D multisensor transmitters
  34. Advanced robotics
  35. 3-D printing 
  36. Process automation and hyper-automation
  37. Explosion of smart devices
  38. Genomics/genetic engineering
  39. Psychobiotics and microbiome therapeutics
  40. Health care data analytics
  41. Personal medical devices
  42. Telehealth and mobile medicine
  43. Hyper-personalized medicines
  44. Social determinants of health (SDOH) receive greater attention
  45. Mental health becomes a larger priority
  46. Unbundling of health care
  47. Living building material
  48. Web 3.0
  49. Homomorphic encryption
  50. Blockchain (distributed ledger) technology and decentralized identifiers
  51. Cryptocurrency
  52. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
  53. A cashless society
  54. Privacy and cybersecurity
  55. Open-source intelligence (OSINT)
  56. Biometric technology (face, voice, eye, hand and signature security)
  57. Deglobalization
  58. Redesign of supply chains
  59. Increased self-service
  60. Recurring revenue streams
  61. Distributed enterprises and remote employees
  62. Increased flexible work 
  63. Continued growth in the gig economy
  64. Huge need for retraining for new economy jobs
  65. Minimum living wages as an alternative to job loss
  66. Increased time sharing of all things
  67. Fractional CXOs
  68. Extreme personal profiling
  69. Hyper-targeting and hyper-geofencing 
  70. OTT (Over-the-top) media service platforms
  71. On-demand personalized customer experiences
  72. Move from retail stores to Internet distribution centers and home delivery
  73. Move toward unique and boutique in retail
  74. Increasing use of personal digital assistants
  75. Cameras, cameras everywhere
  76. Struggle for personal privacy
  77. Increasing popularity of veganism and vegetarianism
  78. Increased focus on personal health
  79. Decrease in romantic relationships
  80. Increasing acceptance of sexual freedom 
  81. Decrease in organized religion, increase in personal spirituality
  82. Continued decreasing trust in traditional institutions, especially government
  83. Shift from a patriarchal society to a matriarchal society
  84. More focus on the home
  85. Increasing self-care and compassion toward others
  86. Increasing importance of pets as family
  87. Increased frequency and severity of natural disasters due to climate change
  88. More eco-friendly lifestyles
  89. The private sector steps up its support of social and environmental issues
  90. Distributed localized agriculture through hydroponics and aeroponics
  91. Increased “fake news” and disinformation
  92. Increased sophistication of deep fakes
  93. Increased botnet activity
  94. More censorship, less free speech
  95. Increased public awareness of and pressure to address economic inequality
  96. Less capitalism, more socialism
  97. Continued urbanization
  98. Continued population shifts to less expensive states
  99. Less abundance thinking, more scarcity thinking
  100. The blurring of war and crime with the emergence of terrorism
  101. 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.