Business ideas for the future essay. Ten disruptive marketing trends of the future. Idea: always increase the pie

Business does not stand still, today this process has become especially noticeable, constant transformations in any business are inevitable, there is nothing unusual in this, those who can adapt to new realities will remain in business, those who cannot leave. In this article, we put you to consider the business of the future ideas that have come into being due to the emergence of new directions in business.

5 business ideas of the future

Today we will look at modern business areas, or rather the fastest growing areas. Each of these areas is interesting in its own way. They are also good because you do not need to have starting capital. And if you are interested in the ideas of the present, here.

It's no secret that in recent years the Internet has expanded significantly and more and more advertisers go online in order to make additional sales via the Internet. Based on where the path leads modern business, the business ideas of the future of 2019, will be intertwined with the Internet in one way or another. Advertising on social media has become even more popular at the end of 2019, as millions of potential customers visit social networks every day.

How to make money from it for a social media specialist, the answer is very simple. If you have experience in promoting a community or selling a product through social networks, you will be a very sought-after specialist. You can do it in two ways, either work for yourself (sell your product or a partner for a percentage) or work for a company that promotes groups and sites.

But also, if you wish, you can combine these two options, for example, you can work for a company without leaving your home (remotely) and after completing the required amount of work for the day, you can own projects or work on other client projects.

If you have knowledge in some area, whether it is professional knowledge (medicine, law, psychology, or perhaps you are a good mechanic), such knowledge can be used to educate your clients. Such “business of the future ideas” have been relevant in the past, but as the field of online learning is gaining momentum, we can safely assume that in the future this business will become even more relevant and possibly become a replacement for standard education.

Already today, through Skype, many conduct training seminars (on learning various languages, copywriting and many other specialties or subjects). Such lessons can be various forms, with hourly pay, pay per full course etc.

Your YouTube channel

This video monetization option came to us from the West. And every day it is gaining more and more popularity in Runet. Already thousands of people all over Russia have their own YouTube channels and share their videos with subscribers and earn very good money from showing ads. But creating a high-quality channel with a large number of subscribers is not so easy. You have to have really interesting stuff for the masses.

Earnings come from showing contextual advertising in each video clip (it is set automatically). Such a business can be safely called the business of the future, at least in the near future there are no prerequisites for this business to become less profitable.

The idea is to create beautiful phone cases with the customer's photo. Such an original case will definitely attract attention, such a case can even be given as a gift for some holiday or birthday.

It is not necessary to produce such a cover yourself, although it will be much more profitable, you will not need much equipment for production, but if there is no financial opportunity to purchase equipment, you can become an intermediary, take an order from a client for such a cover and then order the portrait you need from the company.

Not many companies offer such services, so this is an interesting solution that can bring you good profits, you just need to find a company that makes such things to order.

Fresh food

Today it has become very fashionable to conduct healthy lifestyle life and there are reasons for that, the first is, of course, the desire to extend your life and the second is to have good well-being. These things are justified, because those who refused junk food for at least a period of 1-3 months felt the difference. Such business of the future in Russiahas been actively developed over the past few years. Large corporations have already actively entered this business and offer different options for healthy food, someone offers food without GMOs, etc.

There is also a place for small businesses in this area. If you think about it, domestic agriculture offers quite a few healthy foods. You can organize your business based on this, for example, open an eco store or organize the delivery of such products to people at home, they place an order through the website or by phone, and you bring the ordered goods to him. Potential clients athletes and all those people who lead a healthy lifestyle can become. You do not have to produce these products, you can act as an intermediary. You buy products from farmers and deliver them to addresses, taking a small percentage for yourself.

In order for someone to buy such products from you, you certainly need to have some reputation in the market. The most ideal option would be to make a branded store, launch advertising, etc. But if there is no money, this is not an option, you can create your own website and social groups. networks and YouTube in them you will tell in detail in the video and other material where you get the product from, why it is worth buying, etc.

It is also worth enlisting the support of athletes, this would give your brand even more more weight. It does not have to be athletes with world-famous names, there are enough small athletes who can be found in any gym (coach), they will simply tell their wards where you can buy healthy food.

2 small tips:

You must be honest with your customers (don't overthink it, like your product is super-eco clean, etc., just real facts);

You should not make a large margin on products, the amount should cover your expenses, plus there should be a small plus for the work done.

In order for everything to be officially open, you need to open an individual entrepreneur or LLC, today you can do it yourself, following simply.

This is how we see the business ideas of the future, more precisely part of them. In any of these areas, you can succeed even without investments, which will be nice to hear for novice businessmen. Whatever area you choose, we wish you success in your endeavors.

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Currently, in almost all areas of business there is very tough competition, which encourages start-up entrepreneurs to master unusual business: unusual ideas from the future for business, we will consider in our article, perhaps they will be an excellent start for opening and organizing new activities.

You can fantasize endlessly, but in order to determine which non-standard approaches to entrepreneurial activity really prove to be popular among consumers, it is necessary to comprehensively analyze the supply and demand functions and predict the probability successful implementation goods and services. The demand function is constantly fluctuating and depends on many external and internal factors: economic indicators, price segment, fashion trends and trends.

IN modern times new technologies are constantly emerging, innovative services are being introduced, while some bring huge profits, while others are not in demand. How to determine what is better to invest in now in order to make a profit in the future, and what unusual business idea will be a breakthrough in the market, every businessman thinks.

The market for goods and services is constantly expanding, and consumer preferences change over time. short term: if a few years ago one product was at the peak of popularity, now it has been ousted from the market by other, more progressive proposals. In view of the constant growth of the assortment, buyers have become more capricious and picky, they are trying to find the most prestigious and modern goods at a reasonable price.

The disadvantage of the current situation for businessmen is that it is extremely difficult to predict the development and state of a particular business niche. In order to be on the crest of the wave, you need to be at the forefront, offering those goods and services that buyers have only just thought about. If competitive organizations If they manage to bring a revolutionary product to the market earlier, this can be disastrous for the entrepreneur.

In order to offer unusual ideas from the future for business, we tried to analyze the current market conditions and predict the likelihood successful development one activity or another. Of course, every entrepreneur probably has his own ideas about what to do and what to offer the consumer, but perhaps the options below will also be of interest to those who want to infiltrate a business and open their own business. It is impossible to predict what new technologies scientists will create, or how the economic situation in the country will turn, but nevertheless we suggest that you consider a list of very relevant and interesting business proposals that may well come in handy in the future.

Non-standard business: offers that will interest consumers

1. Asteroids as sources of resources.

Information that the amount of resources on our planet is inexorably declining is constantly broadcast on television, radio, and on the Internet. Various scientific conferences are being held, alternative ways to maintain resource bases are being researched and developed, but a specific solution to the problem has not been formulated. With a decrease in useful minerals, their cost increases, which, in principle, is quite natural. It is this trend that is driving the development new business ideas: use asteroids as sources of extraction of necessary minerals. It is likely that this will become not only a new, but also a more profitable way to meet the needs of mankind.

According to various studies conducted by scientists from all over the world, it is asteroids that contain a lot of necessary minerals, such as platinum, iron ore, manganese, cobalt, nickel and many other resources. Also, specialized studies have recently been carried out aimed at finding additional sources of water resources. As it turned out, the main component of the Trojan asteroids of the planet Jupiter is ordinary ice, which can fill the needs of living organisms in water.

In order to be absolutely sure that the composition of the people is really suitable for the use of water in the life of the natural organisms of our planet, special complex projects are formed, in the amount of three stages. For their implementation, it will be necessary to take test elements from the surface of asteroids, and analyze the physical and Chemical properties soil samples. The mission plan has already been fully drawn up and formulated, they will have the following names:

The Japanese interplanetary station begins a mission to take samples of the ground elements of the asteroid, according to class C. The operation is called Hayabusa-2. Experts plan to deliver soil samples to our planet no later than December 2020;
The Americans also developed design plan, which aims to get close to a celestial body called Bennu, take samples of soil elements, and send to planet Earth. The process is planned to begin in the year two thousand and nineteen, and to be completed four years later;
Our country has also developed a plan for the development of the soils of other planets, such as Phobos and Mars, calling the development Operation Phobos Soil 2. The mission is to be completed in the period from 2019 to 2020.

There are quite a few ways to extract resources from asteroid soils, and development and research are currently ongoing to expand them. The same can be said about the transportation of fossils to our planet, their study and analysis.

It is likely that the unusual business related to space bodies will very soon become one of the most profitable and necessary niches, so you should take a closer look at this industry.

2. Shop in three-dimensional graphics.

This business idea is focused on organizing a workflow using printers that provide an image in three-dimensional format. For example, a consumer picks up a new phone case or computer keyboard. In order to reduce resources, time and labor costs, there is no need to create an entire manufacturing process to showcase a particular model. It is much easier to provide variations in the form of printed pictures in 3D graphics format. Moreover, the creators of printers of this format say that every day the capabilities of devices grow and become more professional, so that very soon they will be able to make life much easier.

At present, some companies have just begun to produce developments, which explains the inflated prices for equipment they have set, but this is quite natural. Suffice it to recall the first laptops or cell phones - once it seemed an unaffordable luxury, but now almost every inhabitant of the country has it. So stores based on 3D printers may well turn into a great business of the future, and the buyer will be able to realize all his wishes and get an image of the product that suits him perfectly.

3. The process of restoring body tissues.

Now we are not talking about the fact that in the laboratory it is easy to restore the entire limb of a person or his internal organ, but also about the possibility of such manipulations after some time, scientists say. An unusual business idea is to restore human skin, tendons or muscles, as well as all soft tissues separately.

There are some Western companies that are actively working on research and development of tools and conditions for such processes. Let's say an American organization is developing special devices that will stimulate the creation of a stem cell in the place where a tendon rupture has occurred. This process will be aimed at achieving the most natural regenerative level of tissue repair.

It is rather a business of the future, which will become available after some time, given that many of the nuances are under development and are far from becoming available to doctors in city clinics. But the fact that it will be really in demand and profitable can be argued with a high probability.

4. Trade in air.

Reasonable entrepreneurs have long implemented the water trade, although earlier it seemed illogical and unnecessary, then why not great idea business – sale of air. The idea of oxygen cocktails was very popular in the mid-nineties, but at the present moment, some US companies are actively producing special air bottles for athletes. The air is sold purified, which stimulates the growth of oxygen elements in the human blood, and also helps to relieve nervous tension.

If you look at current environmental conditions, we can assume that pure and fresh oxygen will become a very sought-after commodity after a while. Moreover, its popularity among consumers can reach the level of demand for bottled drinks at the moment.

In cities where a large number of factories and enterprises operate, a lot of vehicles travel, entire initiative groups of residents are formed who oppose advanced level oxygen pollution. More recently in Hong Kong, activists recorded a video based on how residents are forced to buy fresh oxygen. Thus, it is likely that air trading is that unusual business that will soon become profitable and popular.

5. Refueling for electrical machines.

Given that oil reserves are declining at a fairly rapid pace, drivers will soon have to think about replacing their usual cars with electric cars. And this is a great opportunity for an entrepreneur to start an unusual business by installing car charging stations. The more electric vehicles appear on the roads, the more popular such stations will become, and by occupying this business niche before competitors, the businessman will secure a good market share for himself.

By itself, the station for charging the car works on the same principle as gasoline or gas stations The only fuel here is electricity. The specialists who were involved in forecasting this business idea are almost sure that in a few years it will bring huge profits to its organizers. Of course, the best positions in the market will be occupied by those businessmen who will be the first to sell electric chargers for a new generation of cars.

6. Development of devices for studying DNA.

Western companies have long begun to engage in similar research and development, which relate to human DNA, its reading and recognition. The main purpose of these manipulations is the ability to detect various diseases at the very beginning of their development using a specialized test. In our country, DNA research to determine the state of health is an unusual business idea, which has not yet been presented anywhere as an accomplished business project, so go ahead for development.

This technique can be used for newborns, in order to diagnose their health status. It is also possible to develop a device capable of studying the DNA of the future father and mother of the child, making a forecast of the state of health and possible problems baby who has not been conceived. The very idea of a business is very promising, which in the near future will be in demand all over the world. These are advanced technologies that will be able to analyze almost all information based only on human genomes.

7. Control of emission of harmful substances.

Every year the problem of air pollution and environmental degradation becomes more and more discussed and relevant. Societies of activists who defend environment, indicate that in the near future enterprises will be organized to conduct special measurements to control the emission of waste, including greenhouse gases. The opening of such a controlling enterprise is a very unusual business idea, which can soon bring profit to businessmen. This is justified by the fact that more and more civilized countries are puzzled by the problem of regular atmospheric pollution.

Manufacturers will soon turn to such firms in order to obtain data on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as to check its compliance with the standards established by law.

8. Theater of holograms.

In modern times, holographic technologies are beginning to develop actively. They are an updated and improved way of presenting magic tricks that were popular in the nineteenth century. At that time, for its implementation, thick glass was used, with which the fakir separated the audience from the image itself. The picture at that time could appear as if from the air, after which it stopped in a state of weightlessness, which extremely surprised the public.

After the focus was improved, and the glass was replaced by a special polymer, which has an enhanced reflection function. But at the moment, high technologies are developing in parallel, which can make a person feel like a participant in a holographic presentation.

Now 3D movie rentals and virtual reality rides are very popular. But connecting holographic technology to a theater or film distribution is a rather unusual idea from the future for business in our country, which is likely to become very popular among lovers of new sensations.

9. Personal flying backpack.

The phrase “personal flying backpack” will seem strange to many, but remember, a couple of decades ago we could not even imagine that we would be talking on the phone anywhere in the city, and for our ancestors a personal car seemed something fantastic. The same thing will soon happen with flying backpacks, because since the middle of this year, a company operating in New Zealand has begun commercial production of such devices. This unusual business can become very profitable and popular.

At the moment, developments only allow flying over the fields, but given the constant progress, it is likely that over time, flying backpacks will become a popular transport. If we assume that the citizens of the country could coordinately move through the air using such a backpack, then the problem of kilometer traffic jams would fade into the background.

10. Lunar excursions.

Entrepreneurial businessmen come up with a variety of trips and excursions around the world: tourists explore uninhabited islands, conquer mountain peaks and go in for extreme sports. It would seem that all niches tourism business already mastered and worked out, but why not allow more to those who have the opportunity to pay for a unique excursion?

People who have enough funds would certainly be interested in traveling to the moon, because now it is much more affordable than in the past, when the space zone was considered a taboo for everyone, except for some specialized groups. Now the idea of creating a line of expensive sightseeing flights into space is visiting many businessmen. Of course, this unusual business requires significant investments, but the fact that it will pay off is almost a 100% fact.

The pricing policy of such excursions starts from hundreds of millions of dollars, and the American representative plans to start the first flights from 2018. There will be only two places for tourists in the tourist ship, and for one flight he will receive two hundred thousand dollars.

11. Production of meat by artificial means.

Many entrepreneurs have already thought about how to grow beef or pork in a laboratory, because such a business can be very promising in today's conditions of constant progress. In order to produce chicken or another type of meat product artificially, stem cells are needed. With their use, some scientists have been able to obtain the desired results in this area.

In order for artificial meat to get into general consumption, a number of improvements, testing and refinement of the product should be carried out. In addition to these points, you will need to pass a series of checks and obtain legal permission to sell products.

Such a business idea will be approved by all animal protection associations, fighters against the killing of animals and vegetarians. By the way, with the help of laboratory meat, you can help residents of third world countries where meat products are in short supply.

12. Development and production of nanosatellite technologies.

The size of the manufactured satellite determines the cost of its production and development, which can be taken as the main principle of limitation. It is the cost that prevents many manufacturers from launching a line for the manufacture of satellite systems, but nanosatellites differ from the rest precisely in that they have quite acceptable, small dimensional characteristics. At the same time, the dimensions do not affect the functionality of the devices, they, like huge technologies, can collect the data necessary for weather forecasts, stopping natural disasters and other facts important for the life of the planet's population.

Nanosatellites are becoming an increasingly popular area for investment in development, as, according to scientists and business leaders, this technology has a great future.

13. Security of classified and private information.

Now information is one of the most significant and important resources on the planet, which can dramatically affect any area of human activity. Since most enterprises and companies are fully computerized, and important documents are increasingly sent not through couriers and postal orders, but with the help of Email, a significant proportion of very significant information and data is located on the Internet.

Cybernetic specialists can steal any data, from personal videos to contracts and information about money transfers. That is why almost every company needs specialized protection of its data, as well as a well-versed specialist who will control all computer processes.

Another business of the future can be built on the basis of modern technologies and systems to protect the security of personal data of an enterprise or a particular person.

14. Hotel business in space.

This is a very unusual business idea that many countries have undertaken to master: including America and Russia. The very essence of the project is that willing tourists can stay in a specially designed hotel, while watching our planet. The duration of such a journey is short, and the number of settlers is no more than six people. This project requires a huge investment, but it will surely pay off over time. After all, for sure there will be more than one six people who want to look at the earth through the window of their own room.

15. Farming vertical format.

This type of farm is still a prospect for a rather distant future. But if we consider the efficiency of greenhouses that are in full swing on our planet, we can conclude that the addition of floors and the formation of farm skyscrapers will be a very relevant and profitable enterprise. A multi-storey farm takes up little space, as it grows not in width, but upwards, which also reduces the burden on the environment. Of course, now a vertical format farm does not fit into the head. This is indeed an unusual business: unusual ideas from the future for business always seem fantastic, but this is only on initial stage, people will not have time to notice how, over time, they will begin to save money for traveling into space, use flying backpacks and charge not only phones, but also cars from electricity.

Current trends that will have an impact on brand communications with consumers

There is more and more information on the Internet and the outside world, the interaction of users with brands is getting shorter, and their requirements for communication tools are getting higher. Techniques and techniques that seemed new and interesting a year ago, today no longer cause their former delight, and some even annoy. In this regard, entrepreneurs and marketers are looking for new non-standard solutions. Punk You Brands agency shared its vision of trends that will have an impact on marketing in its corporate blog.

1. Mobile devices
become the dominant platform

Smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and other wearable gadgets (as well as glasses, lenses, microchips and all) will completely change and reshape the world of marketing. The more smart devices fill the world, the more personalized the relationship between the consumer and the seller becomes. And those companies that began to use this before others will develop this area and play a leading role in it.

2. Openness and customer focus -
key to a successful business

Consumers want to be more involved in the life of companies or brands. Closed and uncommunicative brands will not have a very bright future if they continue to adhere to such a policy of relationships with their customers. According to analysts, by 2020, consumers expect more "transparency" and openness from companies.

Sincere brands - especially those that are not afraid to admit their own mistakes - will be on a roll, as will companies that write social responsibility part of their culture. Openness and the ability to admit your mistakes help you form a close bond with your customers, and without that bond, it's harder to retain customers.

3. Content is the new currency

In the Internet environment, educational and entertainment content is one of the key ways to attract people. But from now on, content can be not only static (like texts or posters, say) - it can use new formats: virtual reality, video games, 3D, 4D. Such chips already exist on the Xbox and Oculus Rift platforms.

In the near future, technologies like HoloLens (virtual reality glasses) will become more widespread and completely change the very essence of presenting and creating content. This is one of the most disruptive areas of marketing where you can create new standard engaging content for consumers.

4. User-generated content will be more valuable

This means that reviews, video reviews and notorious blog posts about new products will become more important yardsticks than standard PR events and boring advertising from actors hired to shoot commercials. Only a positive user experience will give the brand a good reputation. Therefore, such cooperation between brands and consumers will be beneficial to both parties.

They already look like new media, because more and more often in the news you can find such a wording - “the video has gained viral popularity in in social networks around the world"; this shows how widespread they are around the world and what influence they have in modern society. With virtually ubiquitous access to high speed internet, social media content has already become more important than any other format, be it classic television or aging radio. That is why Vkontakte, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram are the future in content placement.

6. Brands will focus on their sites,
bypassing publications in the mainstream media

Companies will develop blogs on corporate websites, their own pages in social networks, create applications in which they will conduct a dialogue directly with consumers. It is due to this that so-called brand advocates and simply loyal customers will appear. After all, if the client is satisfied, he will only contribute to the success of the brand.

7. Companies that focus on Generation Z
will have an advantage

Generation Z, which will appear after the millennials, will be more demanding, and brands will need to try harder. In 2023, there will be a shift, and companies created by millennials (like Facebook and Instagram) will have to change dramatically to keep up with the new generation. Here the usual shift marketing strategy will not do - generation Z will constantly demand something new, no matter how much profit the company that owns the brand that is popular for them will have.

8. Products will become more important than services

While some companies are chasing loyal customers to serve as cash cows, others are focusing on product innovation and quality. What works well here and now is great, but it is the focus on the future that will help to last much longer. Entrepreneurs of the future must understand that customer satisfaction alone will not be enough - the true value for them will be innovative products and solutions.

9. Data-Backed Marketing
become the norm

The marketing of the future will focus on real data and insights that will help shape customer attitudes and trust. At the same time, marketing ploys that will push with quantity, but not quality, are unlikely to succeed. Brands that build the right attitude around a good product and work for their target audience, I will be on horseback (unlike one-day companies that are famous for poor service and low-quality goods).

10. Metric will become more accurate

Currently, many companies measure their marketing success by the number of likes, shares and visit statistics. But programs and services for analyzing metrics are still in their infancy. In the future, analytics technologies will become more advanced, and this will help marketers better assess both cultural and emotional significance, as well as financial and investment prospects.

What to do with all this?

You should not fall into a fever now and frantically look for flaws in your marketing system. The future has not yet arrived :-) But it is already possible to prepare, and this is where it would make sense to start:

Look for new ways to interact. For example, mobile mailings via Wats'App (just don't say later that we taught you). Or maybe you should get confused about creating your own video game with the participation of key products or services and throw it in social networks. Is free. Customers will squeal with delight and share with friends. Or at least add a couple of new channels tailored for some special segment - Snapchat or Telegram, for example. And don't forget bloggers!

Think about innovation. Search, improve, modify. The best is the enemy of the good, but you can’t stand still, thinking that the service will fix everything. Spy on competitors, modify and implement your product and your technologies. This is where Carl Sewell's book Customers for Life comes in handy.

Recruit someone from Generation Z. Follow the course of his thoughts - suddenly he sees your product in a completely different way!

The outgoing year was the year of robots - smart machines, autonomous systems, autopilots and androids. They attracted investments, participated in bold experiments and shone on the screens. Their successes will not go anywhere in the next 12 months, but how much is already possible.

The 2017 trends included technologies that were invented a few years ago, found venture capital or brought in revenue, interested in monster corporations, but only next year they will be everywhere and enter every home. These technologies sometimes complement each other, and sometimes compete with each other, but each of them is a separate direction of technological progress. The Secret describes the five battles of 2017.

Games: AR vs VR

There are two main strategies for embellishing reality. The first of them is glorified by the Terminator, whose electronic eye imposed useful signatures on objects of the living world. The second formed the basis of the plot of dozens of films: the surrounding reality is not taken into account at all, and a completely fictional reality is presented to a person - either in the form of direct sensations (“The Matrix”), or in the form of synthetic memories (“Remember Everything”). These two philosophies, although not completely opposed to each other, represent their consumers in completely different ways: some want to forget and escape for a while from a cruel world, others want to get information and take action (“I need your jacket and your motorcycle”).

In the past year, there have been big breakthroughs in both directions. Augmented reality presented the world with its first popular application - the game Pokémon Go. Although the technology itself has been around for many years - in the form of finished products, not ideas - never before has it topped the charts and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Thanks to Pokemon, it became clear that, firstly, AR can already qualify for large investments, and secondly, gaming applications in this industry can easily bypass any others. This means that everyone will want to repeat the success of Pokémon Go.

Virtual reality first entered the market. From March to November, Facebook, HTC, Samsung, and Google launched their VR glasses, and collectively sold millions of them. Deloitte estimates that in 2016, the new industry earned $1 billion for the first time, and will earn many times more next year. The only problem is that there has not yet been a killer application that would force users to massively master virtual reality. But there is no doubt that it will appear: the most promising and mysterious company on the Magic Leap market has already raised almost $1.5 billion in investments (half in the past year), its main competitor Oculus Rift was bought by Facebook for $2 billion - there is already a lot of money.

Who will win: virtual reality or augmented reality is still unknown, but it is quite possible that an approach that unites them will be invented. Microsoft in October presented its plans to enter this market, but will go the third way: virtual reality glasses will be translucent and will allow you to combine a full view of the living world with a view of the virtual. This technology is called MR (mixed reality).

E-Commerce: Drones vs Smart Stores

Delivering goods using drones is such an obvious and attractive idea that no one can pass it by. Both Google and Amazon have promised to begin full testing of drone delivery in 2017. Already this year, experimental batches of such diverse substances as blood for transfusion and analysis (Zipline in Rwanda and Matternet in Lesotho) and pizza (Domino’s in the USA) have been delivered. Progress in this area is simply inevitable, given the level of competition in the development, on the one hand, of autopilot systems, and on the other hand, of the vehicles themselves. Both of these areas are remarkable in that many notable players are located outside the US - in Europe and East Asia.

So far, the economy of air delivery cannot compete with trucks - one UPS truck covers 120 addresses per day and delivers thousands of packages. Therefore, it is not surprising that numerous start-ups conduct test trials in countries with poor infrastructure. Matternet, for example, made the first deliveries to Haiti. The construction of a kilometer of a two-lane road costs $1 million - for this money you can buy a lot of drones in a third world country.

But in the first world, there is another radical way to save shoppers time: remove the queues from stores. So far, only one attempt has been made in this area, but it is extremely convincing. Amazon is also experimenting with this technology, opening a robotics store in Seattle that independently determines who buys what. The client only has to take the goods from the shelf, and smart sensors, using recognition programs, understand who took what and write off the price of the goods from the buyer's card at the exit. Since the vast majority of purchases, even in developed countries is still done in regular stores, so far this technology has more prospects, especially since, unlike drones, it does not require the creation of separate legislation, certification and regulation.

Communication: Chatbots vs Smart Devices

In the first six months after Facebook allowed developers to write chatbots in its messenger, 30,000 programs appeared on the platform. One of them was created by Mark Zuckerberg himself, who spent the whole year creating a smart assistant in his own home and prefers to chat with him. It is generally accepted that bots compete with traditional messengers, but in reality these are different communication channels: people use some to talk with their own kind, others to communicate with devices. And that's why the number and quality of bots will grow exponentially: gadgets are getting smarter.

Apple created the first truly popular system a few years ago, but now Siri has long been lagging behind. Google Personal Assistant and Alexa (Amazon) work better. In addition to them, literally all large firms and several hundred small ones have their own developments. Any device and any algorithm serves people, they are forced to be interested in their desires, which means they must also acquire their own chat bot. Rapid advances in speech recognition and automatic translation make them easier to create. Already now there are people on earth who communicate with pieces of iron more than with people. So far only introverts, but someday this will be the way most of the first world will live.

At the same time, another important transition is taking place. There are more and more devices that should not ask a person about anything and work the better, the less they are interested in his opinion. They are forced to find a common language with creatures made of metal, silicon and carbon fiber. First of all, these are cars on autopilot - their whole high point is not to pull a person in the cabin at all and at the same time understand what other road users are going to do.

The experiments of Google, Uber and Tesla are not limited. A truly smart home should not be interested every time what temperature and what volume level to set on Friday evening - it should guess about it. Drones delivering pizza to a party are generally unaware of the existence of people, but cannot afford to ignore the signals of their delivery colleagues. The kettle must tell the toaster when it boils in advance, so that it toasts the bread in time. Even the Wi-Fi routers that Google (and several of its competitors) make are learning to talk to each other and to user devices in order to optimize network load.

This will be the most imperceptible change in the world around us, but extremely important: the devices will communicate with each other more than with us.

Machine Learning: Soft vs. Hard

Machine learning is the most talked about technology term of 2016. Algorithms that themselves look for a way to accomplish a given task have achieved impressive success. For example, for the first time they beat a person in go, the last game with complete information that they did not succumb to. Or they drew gigazillions of pictures in the Prisma app. But there were other achievements that are much more important for business - next year they will be on stream. For example, researchers at Google asked two machine learning systems to exchange an encrypted message that a third system could not decipher, and they succeeded. The economic potential of such experiments is enormous. The same program that beat the Go champion was used to optimize energy consumption in Google's data centers. She cut the bill by 15%. This example alone gives an idea of both the potential size of the market and why the whole world is engaged in machine learning.

The progress of software has completely changed the processor market. It has long been known that special chips, such as graphics chips, are better at machine learning tasks. On New Year's Eve, traditional industry mastodon Intel completed a $16 billion deal to buy Altera, a maker of custom FGPA processors used by self-learning programs. In 2016, Microsoft opened its own division for the development of FGPA, Google assembled its first processor in May, and Cupertino has been producing its own chips for some time. The speed of progress and the scale of the industry are such that every large software company is forced to develop its own processors.

Near-state hackers are one of the main phenomena of the outgoing year. Many thousands of Gmail users have become accustomed to the fact that a warning red bar stretches across the screen of the Chrome browser: “It seems that hackers using state support". The people who hacked into the servers of the US Democratic National Committee worked during office hours according to the Moscow time zone and rested during the official holidays. Russia, of course, denies its participation in the hack, but the world is arranged in such a way that the admission of guilt does not play any role. Intelligence agencies not only in the US, but around the world will take advantage of the opportunity to hire security experts, and at the same time new hackers of their own.

Officially, the era of cyber warfare has been going on for several years - at least since the Stuxnet virus hit Iran's nuclear centrifuges. But it was a very elegant operation, and the object of the attack was a strategic plant for the enrichment of nuclear fuel, protected by all conceivable methods. Every country has many critical infrastructures that are not secure at all, such as power plants, political party servers, and electronic signage at train stations. After the leaders of the major powers began to directly accuse each other of sabotage, it is not necessary to wait long for the next attack. Prophecies of this kind come true on their own.

To prevent the trends of the coming year from looking too rosy, it can be assumed that in 2017 attacks by near-state hackers will become commonplace and will begin to have a direct impact on foreign policy- Until now, the diplomats of the countries of the first world tried not to complain about them even when national politicians spoke out in the most unambiguous way. I would like to believe that no real war will start because of cyber attacks.

Cover photo: Oculus

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