With only three months left in the year, 2019 will be here before we know it. At Codeintel, we welcome another new year filled with technological advances. We’ve always been committed to looking forward to the year ahead to predict some of the most significant digital transformation trends.

Hopefully, these top trends can serve as a compass of sorts, for organizations looking to move their business and digital transformations forward. While a few of our top 2019 digital transformation trends build on trends from last year, there are definitely a few new additions as we come to the end of 2018.

1. 5G Fixed to 5G Mobile

   5G has been a topic of discussion for a while now and if you’re a jet setter or on certain networks like Sprint, you know it’s still possible to get booted into 3G zones from time to time and not even know it. That’s what makes 5G fixed such a big deal now. Long story short we’re finally going to start seeing 5G everywhere. Companies like Qualcomm, Intl, Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung and Huawei are all getting into the 5G action. There are new companies like Mimosa Networks making it possible to roll 5G out to both rural and urban locations, making way for larger 5G mobile providers like AT&T and Verizon to start offering new cooler faster, more innovative services for mobile users. While 2018 was the year that fixed 5G applications, in 2019 we are going to see 5G finding its way into the upper corner of our Mobile devices, but for those iPhone users it is more likely going to be 2020 or

2. Chatbots from Good to Great

   Now hear us out. You might have experienced some frustration in 2018 when using a chatbot. But the good news is that huge strides continue to be made in the way of natural language processing and sentiment analytics. Some believe that NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) will shake up the entire service industry in ways we’ve never imagined. Think about all the services that could be provided without humans. NLP allows companies to gather insights and improve their service based on them. Some 40% of large businesses have or will adopt it by the end of 2019. Now circling back to the frustrating experience you might have had with a chatbot. Because NLP allows for businesses to have more insights into their customer’s experience they can either improve the experience or even come to the conclusion that a real person is better suited for that job and allow companies to better equip their employees with insights into what their customers are looking for. Now, we know many are alarmed by where AI and Chatbots may impact the workforce, but we’re also confident that companies are going to be upskilling their work force rather than displacing them as machines may be good at delivering on clearcut requests but leave a lot to be desired when it comes to dealing with empathy and human emotion required to deliver great customer experiences.

3. Connected Clouds (Public, Private, Hybrid):

   A more appropriate title might be “the continued evolution and growing pains of cloud adoption.” Companies are realizing that going all public cloud, private cloud, or data center isn’t the best option. At times they need a mix of both or all. Connected clouds are continuing to develop in order to meet companies’ changing needs-whether they want to cloud-source, networking, security, or app deployment. Major providers like Amazon and Alibaba are offering private cloud (or in Google’s case, container-based) Microsoft via Azure, HPE with their 2017 acquisition of Cloud Technology Partners and their consumable IT services as well as VMware with their recent acquisition of CloudHealth Technologies all show increased commitment to connecting clouds. Multicloud will be the new buzzword for the cloud conversation and what we believe this movement means more than anything else is that no matter which workloads are being run in which cloud, the experience for IT and those are utilizing the applications needs to be seamless, secure and streamlined. This means for most businesses a mix of workloads running in public, private and hybrid environments and this will be a big topic in 2019.

4. Blockchain Understood and Flops

   As we continue to explore this technological “miracle worker,” we’ve come to realize that blockchain is kind of a mess. It’s just too complicated for lay people to use right now. Currently there’s no right way to use it because we all want to use it A good way to get mass blockchain adoption would be to create plug-and-play version that all of us can use and understand. Leading technology firms like IBM continue to make massive commitments to the potential of Blockchain for applications beyond cryptocurrency. The financial industry is keeping a close eye on Blockchain as well as a mass of applications in transportation of goods and services. Most seem to be using it as more of a marketing ploy than an actual technology offering. Chances are good that a lot of smart developers will continue to work on realizing the potential of blockchain in 2019. It could be 2-3 more years before we start to see blockchain gain serious mainstream traction.

5. Data to Analytics to Machine Learning to AI

   Data is the key to being able to make good decisions about products, services, employees, strategy and more. We’ve created 90% of the worlds data just in the last year. Research also shows that we are only using 1% of that data effectively. With all the advances in both marketing and technology, we as a society should be ashamed of that number. With a plethora of companies like Microsoft, SAP, SAS and Salesforce (just to name a few) showing market leadership in the promotion of data being made into meaningful business analytics, there is much to be done by data driven organizations to realize the power of the data on hand and the data that they are collecting. With improved processing power that can increase machine learning, we are going to see digital leaders investing in making more of all of their data and this will be done with machine learning and AI and I believe that 1% figure will grow to 3 or 4% by 2020; which may seem small but is a massive increase in data utilization.

6. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) Forces Brand Hands

   As of August 2018 about 1/3 of companies were still not complaint with Europe’s GDPR, which aims to provide huge layers of data protection for users. At this time about 1,000 U.S. news sites aren’t available in Europe, generally because they don’t care enough about data security to make GDPR a priority. In terms of 2019 digital transformation trends it means informed customers will start to see which companies truly care about protecting their data, and which companies really don’t. GDPR could be the start of a more global trend that will hold companies accountable for how they treat privacy and personal data. Even though brands don’t necessarily want to be forced to comply, the movement will serve as a warning to companies to find better ways to genuinely build relations with their audience as opposed to the often misuse and abuse of personal data in the name of marketing and selling.

7. AR Yes, VR (still) No

   VR is so cool, but it just isn’t feasible beyond gaming and highly specialized applications in today’s marketplace just yet. Instead, the less sexy little sister augmented reality (AR) continues to be the name of the game in 2019 digital trends. AR has shown to not only be cool but useful. Tons of enterprises have used it for workforce training. Some believe it will be a slow growth but we could see a ramp up in 2019.

8. Edge to Core and IoT 

   Last year major trends were around IoT, AI, Machine Learning and Edge. This year the four become one because they are so deeply interconnected. As the IoT* grows—and the number of connected devices skyrockets—it makes sense that we need more space—and closer space—to process the data it’s working to capture and process. The concepts of Smart Cities and Autonomous Vehicles have zero chance of being realized if data processing has to happen in the cloud. That means we’ll be leading more and more toward edge** computing in terms of 2019 digital transformation trends. Analytics and data won’t just be for processing—they’ll be for processing in real-time. And that’s something only the edge can support right Now, it’s important that we emphasize that edge and cloud are not mutually exclusive. Cisco refers to the interdependence of edge and cloud as “The Fog” as they recognize that critical data interactions that take place between the edge and the cloud to maximize data utilization. While their vernacular may or may not become ubiquitous with the connection between edge and core, you can be certain that the two will work together tirelessly to achieve the possibilities being sold to us with AI, IoT and Machine Learning.*IoT is short for Internet of Things. The Internet of Things refers to the ever-growing network of physical objects that feature an IP address for internet connectivity, and the communication that occurs between these objects and other Internet-enabled devices and systems.** Edge computing is a distributed computing paradigm in which computation is largely or completely performed on distributed device nodes known as smart devices or edge devices as opposed to primarily taking place in a centralized cloud environment.

9. Consumption – Based IT Services

   This year Daniel Newman (CEO of Broadsuite Media Group) and his team did their homework and extensive They asked the CIOs and IT executives about their IT budgets and trends in their consumption of cloud and overall, they are interested in creating efficiency, having more flexibility with their workloads (note trend 3) and having the ability to scale up and down quickly based on the business requirements. With the as-a-Service industry growing, companies are becoming more sophisticated in choosing “a la carte” IT services to fit their needs. This ITaaS allows for scalability, the latest technology (without the latest tech price tag), shorter procurement cycles, and increased agility. It only makes sense that companies are leaning this way and they will be more and more in 2019.

10. CEOs Take the Reigns

    It’s about time! Countless studies have shown an overwhelming desire from employees to see digital transformation start at the very top of the company. Trends show that the task is still too often being delegated to IT, Marketing or HR Even though we’ve seen a range of C-suite leaders charged with taking the reigns of digital transformation, CEO’s will (must) finally step up in 2019 and realize that digital transformation isn’t going anywhere. They will make it more of a priority to hire digital transformation or contract out the work. C-suite leaders will start recognizing the critical nature of building cultures that can change, and the value of reskilling employees and hiring for agility-learning to trust data more than ever before.

Credit and thank you to Daniel Newman and his team for putting together this list and preparing us for 2019.

About CodeIntel

 Codeintel is a technology company that specializes in web design/development, mobile app development, and the full spectrum of digital marketing, from content strategy to SEO and social media management. Based out of Reno, Nevada, Codeintel has worked with companies of all sizes and industries, from Fortune 500 to Mom & Pop businesses. Codeintel’s signature approach to digital success is anchored on a matrix of creative, yet rigorously studied, intelligence-based strategies that are executed with love and discipline under the personal (human) attention of caring Codeintel team members.

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