CIOs must prepare for disruptive future trends

Research firm Gartner has listed seven potentially disruptive technological and social trends that CIOs should familiarise themselves with and prepare for.

Speaking at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in Australia, the company’s VP analyst, David Yockelson, warned that some trends that seem futuristic might be closer than we think.

“Disruptions are fundamental shifts that create lasting change, and successful organisations will be those that are prepared to address them,” he said. “We need to keep asking ‘what if’ to remain open to opportunities presented by disruptions.”

One such trend is the emergence of the metaverse, the next level of interaction in the virtual and physical worlds. Gartner is predicting that fully virtual workspaces will account for 30% of the investment growth in metaverse technologies and will reimagine the office experience through 2027.

Another potentially disruptive trend is the emergence of flying autonomous vehicles or UAVs. With the first flying taxi service scheduled to launch in 2024, CIOs should be assessing which transportation problems might be solved by the emerging technology, Yockelson said.

Gartner is also predicting the emergence of the ‘digital human economy’, such as virtual influencers and medical carers. The company predicts that by 2035, the digital human economy will become a $125 billion market and continue to grow. Another disruptive transport trend is the emergence of wireless electric vehicle charging for fleet vehicles, the company said.

Organisational models could meanwhile be disrupted by the emergence of a new model of decentralised autonomous organisations, digital entities running on blockchain technology which can engage in business interactions with other DAOs, digital and human agents, and corporations, without conventional human management.

The technology industry’s reliance on silicon could be disrupted by the potential for graphene to replace it with the development of carbon-based field-effect transistors, Gartner said. Finally, there is the prospect of the technology industry mirroring the fashion industry, with ‘throwaway’ applications designed to be made, used and disposed of quickly.

Image credit: iStock.com/Dilok Klaisataporn