At Gartner’s recent Digital work conferenceVice President Analyst Matt Cain shared several predictions about how today’s tech trends will affect the way we live and work tomorrow.
Cain’s presentation, “2030: A Day in the Life,” illustrated what the world will look like if existing tech trends are more widely disseminated and fully integrated into our daily lives. Cain’s predictions, though daring, were for the most part based on the known. As Cain put it, “There is no revolution here. This has all evolved evolutionarily from technology that exists in various forms today.”
Health and wellbeing
Cain asked those attending the Digital Work Conference to imagine an urban professional named Serena in the year 2030. He then described the role technology would play in Serena’s work and personal life.
For example, one area where Serena’s life is very different from ours is health and wellness.
In Cain’s 2030 vision, Serena will start her day receiving biometrics from her smart mattress and smart wristband, which will tell her how she slept. That data is transferred to a personal blockchain that saves all her personal information†
Later in the day, Serena receives a message from the city she lives in, requesting permission to access her personal information for an investigation they are conducting. After receiving Serena’s consent, the city will use APIs to access its health records in a distributed ledger.
Cain predicts that all of this will require a massive workforce, something that will transform both the public and private domains:[In 2030,] data scientists make up a large part of the municipal workforce. … A large industry has sprung up around the maintenance, assessment, and guidance of health history data.”
work life
Serena’s work life will also be different from ours today.
Cain predicts that AI-led “digital sidekicks” will give workers help and focus, so much so that our jobs will be “unthinkable” without them. With the help of smart algorithms, tasks are distributed to employees so efficiently that most employees only work 25 hours a week.
Work will be largely remote, with meetings often taking place in the metaverse† When commuting is necessary, Serena will primarily use autonomous electric cars, allowing her to work while commuting.
Shop
What about retail shopping? Cain does not envision a world in which physical stores have completely disappeared. Instead, stores will take a very different shape.
Cain said that when Serena enters a store, biometric store sensors will identify her and look up her past transactions. Algorithms determine her most likely purchase and make suggestions. For example, in her earbuds, she’s asked, “Curryed chicken salad sandwich?” If she decides to order that, in-store robots will prepare her sandwich and the transaction will be settled in real time using digital currency.
Conclusion
Cain doesn’t seem to share the fears that many have automation will mean a drastic reduction in the human workforce. For example, there will be no fewer supermarket employees in the future; it’s just that their roles will have changed. Supermarket employees will primarily be “data scientists, IoT specialists, robot programmers, and microservice integrators.”
Like the technology we use today, the jobs of 2030 will not be radically different from the jobs that people have today. Today’s high-tech roles will simply be more common and widespread and will play a more integral role in everyday life.
Do you have any predictions about how current technology trends will evolve? Share them in the comments below!