AI and 5G ranked as most significant technology trends for 2022 and beyond

The continuing rollout of 5G and the application of AI top the list of the most important technologies expected to grow in 2022, according to a survey of senior technology officers published by international technology organisation IEEE. Ron Alalouff reports.

In the survey of 350 chief technology officers, chief information officers and IT directors, AI and machine learning, cloud computing and 5G were identified as the most important technologies for 2022 and beyond. Technology leaders said they had accelerated their adoption of cloud computing (60%), AI and machine learning (51%) and 5G (46%), due to the global pandemic. An overwhelming 95% of them agreed – and 66% strongly agreed – that AI will drive most innovation across almost all industry sectors in the next one to five years.

Turning to industry sectors most impacted by technology in 2022, respondents cited manufacturing (25%), financial services (19%), healthcare (16%) and energy (13%). Some 92% of respondents agreed – including 60% who strongly agreed ­– that implementing smart building technologies that benefit sustainability, decarbonisation and energy savings had become a top priority for their organisation.

As a result of the pandemic and the shift towards hybrid and remote working, more than half of respondents (51%) believed the number of devices connected to their businesses that need to tracked and managed – such as smartphones, tablets, sensors, robots, vehicles and drones – increased by 50%, while for 42% of those surveyed the number rose by more than 50%. Respondents were divided on whether such a rate of growth in the number of devices is sustainable; with 51% saying it would be manageable and 49% that it would be unmanageable.

Participants in the survey nearly all agreed (97%, including 69% who strongly agree) that their team was working more closely than ever with human resources leaders to implement workplace technologies and apps for office check-in, space usage data and analytics, Covid-19 and health protocols, employee productivity, engagement and mental health.

Cyber security concerns

The top two cyber security concerns of technology leaders are those related to the mobile and hybrid workforce, including employees using their own devices (39%) and cloud vulnerability (35%). Additional concerns include data centre vulnerability (27%), a coordinated attack on their network (26%) and a ransomware attack (25%).

No less than 59% of all technology leaders surveyed currently use – or in the next five years plan to use – drones for security, surveillance or threat prevention. There are regional disparities though: current drone use for security or plans to do so in the next five years are strongest in Brazil (78%), China (71%), India (60%) and the US (52%), compared to only (32%) in the UK, where 48% say they have no plans to use drones in their business.

The vast majority of those surveyed (92%) believed that compared to a year ago, their company is better prepared to respond to a potentially catastrophic event such as a data breach or natural disaster. Of that majority, 65% strongly agreed that Covid-19 accelerated their preparedness.

The Impact of Technology in 2022 and Beyond surveyed 350 CIOs, CTOs, IT directors and other technology leaders in the US, China, UK, India and Brazil at organisations with more than 1,000 employees across a range of industry sectors. These included banking and financial services, consumer goods, education, electronics, engineering, energy, government, healthcare, insurance, retail, technology and telecommunications. The survey was conducted between 8 and 20 October 2021.