IBM Sees Five Tech-Powered Changes in Next Five Years

Agence France-Presse

Over the next five years, IBM expects classrooms, local shops, doctor’s offices, and cities to increasingly benefit from the impact of technology on society.

In its annual forecast of five ways technology will change lives in the coming five years, IBM predicts classrooms will be integrated with systems to track and analyze the progress of each student. Smart classrooms will learn the students, and assist teachers in tailoring the curriculum and targeting learning techniques.

IBM says software is evolving to think in ways similar to the human brain, and computing power and data in the cloud will enable machines to power such innovations. Retail shops will blend their online and real-world storefronts with Watson-like technologies and augmented reality, and doctors will use patient DNA to tailor treatments.

Cities will use social networks, smartphones, sensors, and machine learning to better manage services, and digital guardians will protect people from unusual activity online.

The tech changes are “driven by a new era of cognitive systems where machines will learn, reason, and engage with us in a more natural and personalized way,” IBM says.  Report

DCL: All of this assumes a lot of advances in combinations of technologies such as CEP, Mobile Networking and AI.  Event processing is already buried “under the hood” as an enabling technology. It is not talked about, or visible, any longer. But you can bet its there!