The key IT trends for 2018

Companies let AI think for themOver the next few years, companies will increasingly take advantage of the opportunity to let artificial intelligence (AI) do their thinking for them. They will store the parameters for the classification of desired business results in the AI systems, define the rules for their business actions and establish the framework for what constitutes an appropriate reward for their actions. Once these rules have been stored, the AI systems can identify new business opportunities driven by data almost in real time.The "IQ" of objects increases exorbitantlyComputing power and the networking of objects via the Internet of Things are becoming increasingly cost-effective. The embedding of intelligence in objects will therefore make huge progress in 2018. The data from networked devices combined with the large computing power and artificial intelligence available will enable companies to orchestrate physical and human resources automatically. Employees will become "conductors" of their digital environments and smart objects will act as their extension.AR headsets are becoming common headgearAugmented reality (AR) has already proven its economic benefits. Many teams of designers, engineers and architects are already using AR headsets. Be it to visualize new buildings, to coordinate their activities on the basis of a uniform view of their developments or to instruct new employees "on the job" even when the responsible trainer cannot be on site. In future, AR will be the standard way of maximizing employee efficiency and harnessing the "swarm intelligence" of the workforce.Customer relationships are deeper than everNext year, companies will be able to understand their customers even better with the help of predictive analytics, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence and thus optimize their customer-first strategies. Customer service will perfect the connection between man and machine. It will not be first-generation chatbots and prefabricated messages that handle customer concerns in service, but teams of people and intelligent virtual agents.The "Bias Check" will be the new spell checkerOver the next decade, technologies such as AI and virtual reality (VR) will enable managers to evaluate information without bias and make decisions with complete impartiality. In the short term, AI will be used in application and promotion processes to reveal conscious or unconscious bias. VR will increasingly be used as a tool for job interviews to disguise the identity of applicants with the help of avatars. "Bias checks" could become a standard procedure in decision-making processes in the future, just as spell-checking is today in text creation.The mega cloud is just around the cornerIn 2018, an overwhelming majority of companies will pursue a multi-cloud approach and combine different cloud models. The next step in overcoming the associated cloud silos will be the mega cloud. It will interweave companies' different public and private clouds in such a way that they behave like a single holistic system. With the help of AI and ML, it will be possible to automate this IT environment across the board and evaluate it consistently.IT security is becoming more important than everIn an increasingly networked world, companies need to be able to rely on third parties for IT security more than ever before. They are no longer individual instances, but parts of a larger whole. Even the smallest error in any of the connected subsystems can lead to fatal failures in the entire ecosystem. For multinational corporations in particular, it will therefore be a must in 2018 to give top priority to the implementation of security technologies. This development will be further fueled by new regulations such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation.E-sports is becoming mainstreamDriven not least by virtual reality, the e-sports phenomenon will finally become a permanent fixture for companies in the media and entertainment industry in 2018. Millions and millions more players and viewers will jump on the bandwagon and make e-sports mainstream next year. This phenomenon is representative of a larger trend: even intrinsic physical activities such as sport are being digitized. In the future, every business will be a technological business and people's leisure time will be characterized by networked experiences.