Denis Opudo
There has been quite a huge revolution in the tech industry in 2017. A good number of disruptive technologies were developed and became the talk of the different stakeholders. Technologies like blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud have become an important unit of company’s plans for the future. Sridhar Iyengar, Vice President at ManageEngine, has taken his time and listed the factors that are possible to be the order of the day come 2018.
Natural language processing to be used as a new form of human-computer interface
Some players in the industry have been waiting for computers to understand natural language. For example, sales managers who wish to generate a quarterly report. If the manager has to ask for it from an analytics specialist, the manager has to explain what she’s looking for and hope the specialist accurately translates her request into something the computer can process to generate the information he/she wants. Natural language processing bypasses the analytics specialist and lets the manager work with a computer directly via speech. In response, the computer may generate a visual or auditory response, depending on the manager’s preference.
Developing of AI-powered chatbots in customer service and support
For the past few years, chatbots which are automatic have been responding. like human beings. However, this has been more of an experiment with less adoption. Now, chatbots are becoming more important as people see the benefits of those experiments, especially in customer service and support. Unlike human customer service and support reps, chatbots don’t have the physical and mental inconsistencies that can degrade service levels. More, AI-powered chatbots are learning how to respond to customers and predict what they want.
Increase in the usage of artificial intelligence, machine learning with data analytics, and business intelligence
Business applications continue to consume a huge amount of data, and users are trying to get that data to determine patterns and predict user behavior. In e-Commerce, users want to know customers’ buying patterns, which will help market better the market products. Business intelligence and data analytics activities are becoming easy to perform, and that’s driving their adoption in businesses that are aiming to make better, faster decisions.
Tightening of data protection laws
Most of the human issues are heading towards digitization. Now, many countries are recognizing that their citizens’ data need to be protected.Tight data protection laws are designed to secure their citizens’ privacy as well as prevent data abuse and outright criminal activity such as fraud or theft. The most recent example of this is Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Protection of Public Information (POPI) bill in South Africa. Notably, some countries like India are also coming up with data protection frameworks, others will enhance their current data protection framework.
Use of blockchain in enterprise security for identity management
Blockchain gives a distributed, secure, and unique system of records, so you can have a strong way that prevents malicious users from breaking in. This makes it a great choice in terms of enterprise security, especially for the identity access management system, which manages user logins and authentication.
Continuation of cloud adoption in mid-sized & larger enterprises
Cloud is a mindset and governments and larger enterprises have been reluctant to adopt that mindset, preferring to a private cloud/private data center strategy as a starting point. Now, the biggest barriers to their cloud adoption, security and data privacy risks, are well understood, and processes and mechanisms have been put in place to control them. Enterprises now also recognize that most cloud companies invest heavily in the security of their cloud infrastructure, platforms, and cloud application. The larger enterprises are finally becoming comfortable and confident with cloud security and the cloud itself.
