Innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) are starting to dramatically improve the provision of goods and services ranging from healthcare to financial services and technology. But it's just the start. As big data gets even bigger and computing power continues to grow, AI will transform virtually every aspect of life as we know it.

The UK currently adheres to the UK Data Protection Act 1998. However, this will be superseded by the much tougher GDPR despite Brexit; which was agreed in December 2015 in Brussels. It is imperative that all businesses (whatever the size) who control or process personal data understand the implications and requirements they MUST update or adopt to be fully compliant or face bankruptcy fines.

China is currently piloting a vast ranking system using big data and AI processes to monitor citizens’ behaviour. The social ‘Sesame credit’ system was first announced in June 2014 by the governing State Council of the People’s Republic of China and will be mandatory for all businesses and citizens once fully operational by 2020.

Big data on big Data

Big data is a term that is used to describe the large volume of digital data that is created daily. Growing exponentially, it is estimated that we create on a daily basis at least 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, of which 90% has been created globally in the last two years. In 2015 according to IDC the estimated value of the big data market was $59bn and by 2019 it’s expected to roughly double to $102 billion. Companies are able to process, transmit and store more data than ever before and are understanding the valuable insights it can provide.

Data will continue to be the fuel of the digital economy and this year it underpins all our tech themes. We believe blockchain technology has only just started to revolutionise industries, IoT adoption will surge as it drives productivity and government regulation will have to move fast to catch up with past innovation. A year on from our Ten Tech Trends for 2017 - A quantum leap the digital revolution continues to displace and disrupt. 

‘The digital revolution is the new industrial revolution’. Digital disruption continues to shape our world of today and our future of tomorrow. Following on from our research on Ten Technology Themes to watch in 2016, here are the ten tech trends we shall be tracking in 2017.