Human-centered smart space
Key Strategic Technology Trends of 2020


All organizational actions are determined by how technology directly or indirectly affects individuals and groups. This is precisely a human-centered approach. And smart spaces are based on this human-centered concept.

A smart space is a physical environment where humans and technology can interact within an open, connected, organized, and intelligent ecosystem. Various elements, such as humans, processes, services, and objects, converge in a smart space to create more immersive, interactive, and automated experiences.

On the 24th, Gartner announced the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2020 that companies should pay attention to.

The top 10 strategic technology trends of 2020 consist of two types of technologies. These are new technologies with innovative potential that have moved beyond their initial stages and are showing broader influence and use cases, as well as technologies that boast rapid growth and are expected to reach their peak within the next five years.

David Cearley, Vice President and Fellow at Gartner, stated, “‘Human-centric smart spaces’ is the framework used to select and evaluate Gartner’s strategic technology trends for 2020,” adding, “Placing humans at the center of technology strategy is to better understand how technology impacts humans.”

Based on human-centered smart spaces, Gartner presents the following 10 strategic technology trends for 2020: hyperautomation, multi-experience, democratization of expertise, human augmentation, transparency and traceability, autonomous edge, distributed cloud, autonomous things, practical blockchain, and AI security.


1. Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation involves performing tasks by combining multiple machine learning methods, packaged software, and automation tools; it is a concept that encompasses not only a wide range of tools but also all stages of automation itself. This includes detection, analysis, design, automation, measurement, monitoring, re-evaluation, etc.

It primarily focuses on understanding the scope of automation mechanisms, the relationships between mechanisms, and how mechanisms are combined and organized.

Hyperautomation began with Robotic Process Automation (RPA). However, RPA itself does not equate to hyperautomation. Hyperautomation requires the combination of various tools to replicate the parts of the work where humans are involved.


2. Multiexperience
User experience will change significantly by 2028 in terms of users' perceptions of the digital world and the way users interact with the digital world.

Interactive platforms are changing the way people interact with the digital world. VR, AR, and MR are changing the way people perceive the digital world. These changes in perception and interaction models are leading to future multi-sensor and multi-modal experiences.

Brian Burke, Research Vice President at Gartner, stated, “The model will shift from one where humans had to understand technology to one where technology understands humans,” adding that “the role of grasping intent will shift from the user to the computer.”

He added, “The ability to communicate with users by utilizing various human senses will provide a richer experience in conveying ambiguous information.”


3. Democratization of Expertise
Democratization focuses on providing people with technical expertise, such as machine learning and app development, or business expertise, such as sales processes and economic analysis, through an extremely simplified experience without requiring additional expensive training.

The emergence of citizen access, such as citizen data scientists and citizen integrators, alongside the development of citizen development and no-code models, can be seen as an example of the democratization of professional skills. Gartner predicted that four key elements of democratization would accelerate by 2023. ▲ Democratization of data and analysis ▲ Democratization of development ▲ Democratization of design ▲ Democratization of knowledge.

The democratization of data and analytics refers to tools aimed at data scientists that expand to the professional developer community, while the democratization of development refers to AI tools that can be utilized in custom-developed applications.

The democratization of design is a phenomenon in which low-code and no-code are becoming widespread, along with the automation of additional app development features that empower citizen developers, and the democratization of knowledge means that IT non-experts can access various tools and specialized systems that allow them to utilize and apply specialized skills beyond the professional skills or training they originally possess.


4. Human Augmentation
Human augmentation explores how technology can provide enhancements to human perception and the body as an essential part of the human experience.

Physical augmentation enhances humans by implanting technological elements, such as wearable devices, into the human body to alter innate physical functions.

Cognitive augmentation can be achieved by evaluating information on traditional computer systems and new multi-experience interfaces within smart spaces, and by utilizing applications.

As individuals pursue personal improvement, increasing the level of human physical and cognitive enhancement will become commonplace over the next decade. This will create a new consumerization effect, enabling employees to leverage and expand their personal enhancements to improve their work environment.


5. Transparency and Traceability
An increasing number of consumers are recognizing the value of their personal information and demanding control over it. Companies are aware of the rising risks associated with the protection and management of personal data, and governments are implementing strong regulations to ensure this. Transparency and traceability are critical elements in meeting these demands for digital ethics and privacy protection.

Transparency and traceability refer to various attitudes, behaviors, supporting technologies, and practices designed to meet regulatory requirements, preserve ethical approaches to the use of AI and other advanced technologies, and restore eroding trust within the enterprise.

Companies must focus on three areas—AI and machine learning, personal data protection, ownership and control, and ethical design—while building transparency and trust practices.


6. The Empowered Edge
Edge computing is a computing topology in which information processing, content collection, and delivery are processed in close proximity to the source, storage location, and consumer of the information. To reduce latency, we aim to handle traffic and processing locally, leverage edge capabilities, and enable greater autonomy at the edge.

With the emergence of the need for IoT systems capable of providing disconnected or distributed functions to the embedded IoT world for specific industries such as manufacturing and distribution, a great deal of interest is being focused on edge computing.

Edge has gained autonomy based on increasingly sophisticated and specialized computing resources and richer data storage.

Edge computing will now become a dominant factor across virtually all industries and use cases. Complex edge devices such as robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, and operating systems will accelerate this change.


7. Distributed Cloud
A distributed cloud is one in which public cloud services are deployed in various locations. At this time, the existing public cloud service provider is responsible for the operation, governance, updates, and development of the service.

Distributed clouds, which will bring significant changes to the centralized model of most public cloud services, will drive a new era of cloud computing.


8. Autonomous Things
Autonomous objects are actual devices that utilize AI to automate functions previously performed by humans. Autonomous objects are mostly implemented in the form of robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, autonomous ships, and home appliances.

The automation of these devices goes beyond the automation provided by rigid programming models, utilizing AI to implement advanced behaviors that interact more naturally with the surrounding environment and people. As technological capabilities improve, regulations become permissive, and social acceptance increases, an increasing number of autonomous objects will be deployed in uncontrolled public spaces.

Vice President Burke stated, “Individual intelligent objects will now transition into groups of intelligent objects that cooperate independently or under human direction,” and gave an example, saying, “For instance, heterogeneous robots can operate within an organized assembly process.”

He continued by stating, “The most efficient solution in the delivery market would be to transport goods to their destinations using autonomous vehicles,” and gave an additional example, noting that “robots and drones mounted on vehicles can influence the final delivery of goods.”


9. Practical Blockchain
Blockchain is a technology with the potential to reshape industries by building trust, providing transparency, enabling value exchange between business ecosystems, reducing potential costs, shortening transaction settlement times, and improving cash flow.

Utilizing blockchain in various transactions significantly reduces the possibility of fraud because the source of assets can be traced. Asset tracking provides value in diverse areas, such as tracing food supply chains to more easily identify sources of contamination or tracking individual components to support product recalls.

Another area where blockchain holds potential is identity management. Smart contracts can be programmed into the blockchain so that events trigger specific actions. For example, a payment could be made upon the receipt of a product.

Vice President Burke stated, “Blockchain is immature for enterprise implementation due to numerous technical issues, such as low scalability and interoperability.” However, he added, “Blockchain holds significant potential for innovation and revenue generation,” noting that “companies should consider blockchain technology even if they do not adopt it.”


10. AI Security
AI and machine learning will continue to be utilized in human decision-making. While this creates numerous opportunities to implement hyperautomation and achieve business transformation through the use of autonomous things, it presents new challenges to security teams and risk leaders.

This is because attackable points are increasing extensively due to IoT, cloud computing, microservices, and highly connected systems within smart spaces.

Security and crisis management leaders must focus on three key areas: protecting AI-based systems, enhancing security defenses using AI, and predicting attackers' use of AI for criminal purposes.