It seems like just yesterday we were getting ready for 2017, but 2018 is just around the corner! It’s time to make goals for 2018  (Goals we will actually stick to this time around, hopefully.) To reap the rewards of tech trends, it’s important to embrace them early, and implement them before your competition does! Here are 2018 Top Tech Trends we’ve predicted – three big technology trends to sweep the business world next year.

2018 Top Tech Trends  – Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has many of uses. Uses range from automation, to personalisation, and decision-making.

It’s been on the rise for a while – a recent Gartner survey indicates 59% of organisations are gathering information to build an AI strategy. 30% of CIOs will include AI in their top investments by 2020.

Here are three examples of how AI will be a 2018 Top Tech Trends.

Smart Speakers

Smart speakers, voice-commanded devices that sit in homes and offices, can do almost anything. They can update your calendar, play music, and search for products and places with a simple phrase.

Smart Speakers are set to boom in the coming years, with 7 billion units expected to be produced by 2020. We can expect to see an increase of adoption of smart speakers in Australia with the much-anticipated arrival of Amazon.

With smart speakers on the rise, make sure you’re ready for their arrival. Your company should be easily found with voice-activated commands. List your  business details on Google, and invest in the online presence of your company.

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Chatbots

Chatbots are relatively cheap, efficient, and automated assistants. The Chatbot market is expected to be worth over $3000million by 2021, thanks to the growing demand for smart customer engagement. This puts them up high on the list of 2018 Top Tech Trends.

Chatbots can  offer tailored, personalised messages to your customers – an action which boosts conversion rates and ROI. They can also trawl through a user’s data to better understand their behaviour and demographic.

Juggle St is a chatbot success story. This babysitting and nanny network began as a start-up in Australia and was later sold to Fairfax for $45million.

By targeting their specific buyer personas, the Chatbot was able to send personalised, helpful messages to the user based on their needs and demographics. Different parts of the website are shown to parents and babysitters. First-time users are given a welcome message. After setting up the friendly Chatbot, Juggle St saw their bounce rate decrease. Conversion rates also shot up to 10 per cent for registrations.

Emotion AI

Emotional appeals are incredibly effective in marketing strategies. Emotional content spreads 10 times more than interest-oriented content, with positive emotions associated with engagement, sales, and loyalty.

Voice-computer interfaces and front-facing cameras capture human emotion data. This allows the AI to understand emotional context and deliver high-level relevant content at the right time.

Implementing emotion data in content and advertising strategies could have a profound effect on conversions. Rather than optimising content based on exposure, clicks, and engagement, advertising can be optimised to emotion, generating a much larger ROI.

READ MORE: 6 CHALLENGES AUSTRALIAN SMALL BUSINESSES WILL FACE IN 2018

2018 Top Tech Trends – Augmented Reality

Apps & Tools

Augmented Reality incites excitement, intrigue, and furore. Many imagine running around in headsets, shooting virtual monsters in a real environment – while this can be done right here in Melbourne, the reality is a little different.

Augmented Reality involves overlaying computer generated enhancements over real space. It’s used in presentations, as a tool, and within maps. Less exciting than shooting zombies perhaps, but the AR trend is growing fast.

AR is expected to be worth $61billion by 2023, with tech giants Google and Apple adopting it in new and innovative ways.

There are apps on the Apple store which serve as virtual tape measures, allowing you to display an item – such as a TV or couch – along the intended destination to see if it fits. Google is embracing Tango Visual Positioning Service, an AR GPS for indoor use which will see indoor features to give users hyper-local directions and guidance to studios and boardrooms.

Ikea embraced AR early, developing an app which allows consumers to virtually view Ikea products in their house, while L’Oreal  has reaped the benefits of their AR app, which allows users to virtually apply makeup. L’Oreal’s app currently exceeds 20 million downloads.

2018 Top Tech Trends – Internet of Things

The Internet of Things continues to impress the public. Iot monitors, updates, and surveys the most smallest actions.  IoT can monitor your fridge, the water quality of the fish tank, your heart rate and blood. They’re sure to continue to be one of many 2018 Top Tech Trends.

The internet of things has continued to grow with edge computing, computation and processing which occurs closer to the ‘thing’ submitting data, right at the edge of the network. Edge computing reduces the communication bandwidth needed compared to cloud computing, and eliminates latency.

Smart Labels & NFC

Barbadillo, a Spanish winemaking company, developed in July this year smart bottles for its Castillo de San Diego Wine. This is the largest global deployment of NFC (Near-field communication) technology to date in the wine and spirits industry.

The Mediterranean company partnered with NFC specialist Thinfilm to develop SpeedTap tags. These tags integrate with a product’s packaging, and scanned with the tap of a smartphone without the need for the app.

Tapping the bottle provides information about the wine, and allows consumers to check the authenticity of the alcohol. This limits the production of counter-feit bottles of their ultra-premium product.

Digital Twins

Digital Twins are an embodiment of IoT – literally. A digital representation of a real-world entity or system, digital twins allow 3D rendering of a person, place, or object, to predict behaviour and reaction, provide details and descriptions of the devices, and generate sensor readings that simulate real-life operations.

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