Data management is the new skill set
Data is the new raw
material. Left untreated, data is useless. Today, we can process data using big
data technologies like Spark and Hadoop. These are the new skills of 2020. Data
can be used to create new industries and disrupt existing ones.
Data and Cloud will take many jobs away
Cloud computer has
enabled robots to replace manual labor. Robots can learn from stored
experiences. Humans must learn by themselves. Robots do not. Experience can be
uploaded.
A study by University of
Oxford found that 47 percent of all US jobs are at great risk of being done by
robots in the next two decades. Within 2 – 3 years, Uber vehicles will be
driverless.
Robots can service more
people at lower prices and can work all the time. Humans are expensive to hire,
fall sick and sometimes cheap. Savings from implementing robots will likely go
to MNCs that make them. Government must step in and redistribution income.
You will live longer
Cancer is the result of
mutated DNA, which malfunctions, failing to stop the growth of unhealthy cells.
A new blood sample test known as a liquid biopsy lets
technicians identify even the smallest pieces of cancer DNA in a blood sample.
This makes it possible to discover a tumor that’s 1 percent the size of those
an MRI can find.
Mobile penetration has
increased by so much. For example, Kenya’s
mobile penetration rate during
the first quarter of the 2015-16 financial year has hit 88%, with 37.8million
subscribers making use of mobile services. In Indonesia it is estimated that
the smart phone penetration rate will reach about 43,2%
by 2017, whereas in Sub-Saharan
Africa the penetration rate reached 44%
in 2015, with 386million unique
subscribers and SIM connections. It is estimated that the rate will reach about
49% by 2020. In
Latin America, examples of poor or
small countries such as Haiti, Venezuela and Honduras, have coverage levels of
75% or less. Cuba has no mobile broadband coverage at all.
Across the developing
world, the number of people who are able to access the internet through mobile
phones reached 2.5 billion in 2015, which is a significant growth compared to
870 million users in 2010. The mobile internet penetration has reached 40% of
the population over developing countries, showing threefold increase for the
period of 2010-2015. It is expected that until 2020, an additional number of
1.3 billion people in the developing world will be able to access mobile
internet, augmenting the total number of users to 3.8 billion users, accounting
for just fewer than 60% of the population.
Because most people have
mobile connection, it is now possible to offer medical care over mobile phones
in areas where the ratios of doctor to population are less than 1%.
Your financial world will change
Payments will also
increasingly be disrupted by technology. Today, most retail payments still
route through card associations. There is no way banks and merchants will
continue to tolerate scheme fees when other technologies allow direct to wallet
payments. In short, the role of schemes and in some cases, even banks, may be
diminished. There is a lot of literature on this, so we won’t elaborate on this
point.
Top 5 areas that will change in the next decade
The world will change
rapidly. Below, I list down 5 areas which I think will transform global
population in the next 5 to 10 years.
1. Machine learning
Your phone will start predicting what you want to say. You can relive chatting with your dead relatives or loved ones. Al Bots can record how your loved ones reply and and start emulating them. Machines will be able themselves as humans.
- Bypass banking and payments verification process
- Weaken network defense
- Impose as a social media identity
- Smarter devices that can interact like a human being
2. Augmented reality
There will be huge implications on learning. Kids can use AR to experience the world. AR is now expensive and inaccessible- battery life, cost of machine and data. In the near future, when sense of smell can be replicated, AR will replace a % of travel.
3. Gene-editing
You will be able to pay and upgrade your genes. Want to have enhanced performance? Want to reduce cancer rates? Pay a few million dollars, wait in queue and have your genes mapped and edited.
4. Wireless power
Pods will beam enough power to devices. There will be minimum downtime. Battery wastes and charging pains will be a thing of the past. Imagine never having to charge your phone.
How to get ready for change?
Your past experiences will be less
important compared to your ability to learn rapidly. Nimbleness will become a
core survival tactic for the individual and a firm.