Scott Hubbard - Tech Trends: 2021 Simple Guide for Future Technologies. AI, IoT, Edge Computing and 10+ Innovations

Today's technology is expanding at such a speed, allowing speedier change and advancement and causing a rate of change to accelerate until it becomes exponential. However, not only technological trends and top technologies evolve, much more has altered this year owing to the breakout of COVID-19 that makes IT workers recognize their position would not remain unchanged tomorrow in the world of contactless ness. And in 2020-21, an IT worker will continually learn, unlearn and relearn (out of necessity if not desire).

For you, what does that mean? It implies keeping up to date with new developments in technology. And it means having your eyes on the future and knowing what abilities you'll need to know tomorrow to acquire a safe job and even to learn how. Every bow to the epidemic everywhere, most of the world's IT population is working from home. And if you want to make the most of your time in your home country, here are the 9 new technology trends that you should be looking for and trying to do in 2021, and perhaps one of the jobs that this new technology trend will generate.

There are three broad technological trends that are going to impact product design and architecture:

These advancements create unique design opportunities, since they transform the way in which products and systems work. Their ability to learn enables a two-step approach to design. They allow the designer to think of a problem from the beginning of the design process, as opposed to focusing on constraints and requirements during design. This allows companies to focus on the problem, and then look for creative solutions that may not have been part of the original requirements.

Software as a Service (SaaS) describes an approach to software delivery in which customers license, pay, then use applications over the Internet. For most manufacturers, SaaS applications offer the ability to quickly add features and functionality to products at a reasonable cost, without an onsite, expensive IT department. Thus, there is an enormous growth opportunity for software companies, particularly in the factory automation industry, which is seeing an increased interest in smart-tech.

This category includes various smart-techs such as robots, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), computer vision, autonomous vehicles, machine learning and networked devices. While many of these smart-techs are in their infancy, their growing adoption will affect the design of products that range from drones to the Internet of Things (IoT) devices that are at the heart of the smart factory.

BMS is an acronym that stands for Business Process Outsourcing. It describes the outsourcing of work to external service providers. As a result, the model changed how manufacturers approached product development and sales. Using BMS companies takes manufacturing out of the traditional work-on-site (WOS) or work-in-house (WIO) manufacturing environment and moves it into the global market.

To survive in the BMS ecosystem, manufacturers are increasingly becoming BPO providers themselves. Thus, they no longer design products, but merely send design and engineering work to outside services.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) reports that the U.S. has a $500 billion trade deficit. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in 2016, foreign manufacturers have contributed a negative dollar amount to the trade deficit, which has contributed to the loss of one-quarter of American manufacturing jobs in the past 16 years.

The U.S. trade deficit has decreased by about 40% since 1993, according to the NAM. However, with the growth in the IoT, the trade deficit is projected to continue growing in the future.

The challenge in developing smart manufacturing products is to increase production and improve efficiency without using huge amounts of capital equipment and transferring labor into highly skilled, highly-skilled positions.

This challenge demands rapid iteration in problem-solving and experimentation with smart-tech to find creative solutions to problems that were once fixed by physical labor and by human-factors such as boredom and employee safety.

The ability to creatively solve problems with smart technology could determine if manufacturers are successful in converting the U.S. trade deficit into a trade surplus.

Machine learning, wireless communication, drones, sensors, smart machines, artificial intelligence and robots are moving in a disruptive direction. The pace of change is incredibly fast and this is impacting the way manufacturers look at the future.

In 2016, the focus was on digital and digital transformation, but in 2018, manufacturers will be rethinking all aspects of their business model, production process and customer relationships, from how they work with their customers to how they work with their suppliers and even how they build their products and services.

Some of these solutions, while focused on the future, are already being implemented today, such as artificial intelligence and robotics.

With the right innovation, right business model and right workforce, manufacturers will be able to leverage the smart-tech revolution to rethink manufacturing and transform their businesses.