Digital Lifescapes

Commercial buildings are getting smarter. They now include a growing variety of technologies that are part of the Internet of Things (IoT) phenomena. Across the globe, new buildings are being constructed with both wired and wireless IoT infrastructure that enables innovation. According to the latest worldwide market study by Berg Insight, the installed base of sensors, actuators, modules, gateways and other 'connected devices' deployed as part of IoT-based automation in smart commercial buildings was an estimated 151 million units worldwide at the end of 2018. Commercial Building Automation Market Development Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33 percent, the installed base will reach 483 million units in 2022. About 4.5 million of these devices were connected via cellular communication networks in 2018. The number of cellular connections in the building automation market will grow at a CAGR of 44 percent to reach 19.4 million in 2022. In terms of reve...

As more CIOs and CTOs focus attention on selecting the best-fit IT infrastructure for their particular cognitive computing needs, vendors of semiconductor technologies are exploring new ways to optimize their investment in solutions at the edge of enterprise networks. Revenue from the sale of Artificial Intelligence (AI) chipsets for edge inference and inference training will grow at 65 percent and 137 percent respectively between 2018 and 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. During 2018, shipment revenues from edge AI processing reached $1.3 billion, and by 2023 this figure is forecast to reach $23 billion. While it's a massive increase, that doesn’t necessarily favor current market leaders Intel and NVIDIA. AI Chipset Market Development According to the ABI assessment, there will be intense vendor competition to capture this revenue between established players and several prominent startup players. "Companies are looking to the edge...

According to the latest findings in the BCG report, "The Most Innovative Companies 2019" -- savvy business leaders are the early adopters of artificial intelligence (AI). "All of the ten highest-ranking companies -- and many in the top 50 -- use AI, platforms, and ecosystems to enable themselves and others to pursue new products, services, and ways of working." Worldwide spending on AI systems is forecast to reach $35.8 billion in 2019 -- that's an increase of 44 percent over the amount invested in 2018. International Data Corporation (IDC) expects spending on AI systems will more than double to $79.2 billion in 2022 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38 percent over the 2018-2022 forecast period. Artificial Intelligence Market Develpment Global spending on AI systems will be led by the retail industry where companies will invest $5.9 billion this year on solutions such as automated customer service agents and expert shopping advisors & produ...

Savvy CIOs and CTOs at innovative retailers and other progressive organizations are piloting and deploying new cognitive technologies that enhance their customer experience. This is an acceleration of the ongoing trend that's very likely to transform legacy online support applications. According to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner, 37 percent of customer service leaders are either piloting or using artificial intelligence (AI) bots and virtual customer assistants (VCAs), and 67 percent of those leaders believe they are high-value tools in the contact center. Virtual Customer Assistant Market Development In recent years, no other channel technology has piqued customer care and support leaders’ interest more than AI bots and VCAs, according to Gartner’s Technology Roadmap Survey. In the survey of 452 service leaders across all industries and business types, respondents showed that confidence is leading more companies to adopt the technologies -- with 68 percent of...

Mobile roaming allows customers of one network operator (home network) to use the network of another network operator (visited network). The visited network is normally outside the geographical coverage area of the customer’s home network. Mobile roaming has traditionally provided network operators with an opportunity to gain additional service revenues. However, regulatory policy interventions, such as the EU law to abolish roaming in member states, is having a negative impact on roaming revenues for many network operators across the globe. Mobile Roaming Market Development According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, mobile network operator revenues from international mobile roaming are expected to recover slightly, following a decline in 2017 after the introduction of RLAH (Roam Like at Home) in Europe and other markets. However, overall mobile roaming revenues are expected to stay flat over the next 4 years, representing around 6 percent of total operator b...

The manufacturing sector will undergo a transformation as new technologies enable innovative factory automation solutions. The 'Digital Factory' market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 33 percent to reach $673 billion in 2026, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. These new technology investments include the actual hardware for entire industrial robots, collaborative robots, connected PLCs, intelligent industrial battery management systems, electric motors, pumps, tank management systems and smart glasses. Digital Factory Market Development It also includes data and analytics service, device and app platform, device interconnections, network service, professional service and security service revenues for all the above applications plus asset tracking and other equipment monitoring. Of these applications, only asset tracking solutions include connections both on and off the factory floor. “Currently, most manufacturing equipment s...

Fintech solutions that incorporate distributed ledger technology continue to gain momentum. Worldwide spending on blockchain solutions is forecast to reach $2.9 billion in 2019 -- that's an increase of 88.7 percent from the $1.5 billion spent in 2018, according to the latest study by International Data Corporation (IDC). IDC expects global market blockchain spending to grow at a robust pace over the 2018-2022 forecast period, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 76 percent and total anticipated spending of $12.4 billion in 2022. Blockchain Market Development "Blockchain is maturing rapidly, and we have reached an inflection point where implementations are moving quickly beyond the pilot and proof of concept phase. That is why data on the actual spend on the technology is so vital: it provides the context in which blockchain is evolving," said James Wester, research director at IDC . Global blockchain spending will be led by the financial sector, ...

Augmented analytics, continuous intelligence and explainable artificial intelligence (AI) are among the top trends in big data and analytics that have significant disruptive potential over the next three to five years, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. "The size, complexity, distributed nature of data, speed of action and the continuous intelligence required by digital business means that rigid and centralized architectures and tools break down,” said Donald Feinberg, vice president at Gartner . “The continued survival of any business will depend upon an agile, data-centric architecture that responds to the constant rate of change." Gartner recommends that data and analytics leaders collaborate with senior business leaders about their critical business priorities and explore the ten top related trends. Augmented Analytics Augmented analytics is the next wave of disruption in the data and analytics market. It uses machine learning (ML) and AI t...

Fintech innovation continues to disrupt the Global Networked Economy. The value of consumer spending on remote payments for digital and physical goods is estimated to have surpassed $3.3 trillion in 2018 -- that's up 10 percent on the 2017 total of $3 trillion. A recent worldwide market study by Juniper Research found PayPal already accounts for 20 percent of all transactions made outside China, while the success of Alipay and Weixin Pay within China means that these two players combined now account for 45 percent of global payment volumes. Mobile Payments Market Development Mobile payments impact on eCommerce’s growth cannot be overestimated. The emergence of an app-based economy in the wake of Apple’s App Store launch in 2008 made many online retailers -- such as Amazon, eBay and Alibaba -- recognize the channel’s potential. When digital and physical goods are taken together, mobile devices (including media tablets) are expected to account for nearly 51 percent of online ...