In addition to 5G, big moves in AI and IoT are forecast.
Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor believes artificial intelligence, the internet of things and “5G” technologies will be the key trends for this year. According to a recent report by the telco’s research unit, these trends had been mentioned in last year’s report but that they will continue to gain traction during this year.
“Last year we highlighted several important developing trends and predicted that these would gain speed and attention during the year,” said Bjørn Taale Sandberg, head of Telenor Research. “IoT is on our list again for 2017, but we also claim that social media fatigue could be starting to appear, that chatbots are hot, that 5G will show itself in demos and pilot installations long before the standard is ready and that the ethics of AI will be a hot topic.”
Regarding artificial intelligence, the group noted an increase applications using the technology and that it will soon be difficult to imagine a digital service that does not tailor itself to your needs and preferences or takes into consideration the specific context in which the service is used. However, Telenor said keeping AI ethical in terms of transparency and customer privacy is critical to move the technology forward.
Telenor also predicts this will be a landmark year for innovations within the IoT ecosystem, which will shape the way businesses, consumers and governments interact in the physical world across multiple sectors, such as manufacturing, the connected home, transportation, utilities and agriculture.
Regarding the development of 5G technologies, Telenor’s report highlighted this year will be the year of 5G trials. Trials are expected to focus on technology capabilities, system aspects for vertical ecosystems and new market opportunities offered by 5G verticals such as health, automotive and energy.
“These trends will offer some very exciting technology developments in 2017,” Sandberg added. “We’ll experience crucial progress within areas such as AI, IoT and 5G, and in other areas a possible change in direction as millennials may begin experiencing social media fatigue. … And underlying all of this should be the awareness of ethical and regulatory considerations, which will be evermore crucial in how we can experiment with and apply these new technologies in our increasingly digital lives.”
