Worldwide spending on items such as virtual reality headsets and games is forecast to double every year until 2021. Athena’s extracted forecasts below suggest that many workers and consumers alike will be demanding virtual tools within the next 8 years.
Trend Alerts
Right now, the world economy is seemingly stable. Sentiment could shift rapidly if a clear and present geopolitical event, caused by a paucity of international leadership and diplomacy shocks the markets. This, coupled with the high-risk combination of record debt, low growth, and limited scope f...
Our robot, Athena, finds that the global value of mobile and wearable contactless payments will reach $95 billion annually by 2018, and that by 2020, mobile payments will become the preferred method for both consumers and merchants. The payments market could be disrupted by then with too many pl...
The Asia-Pacific region is the world's fastest growing market. It has registered the CAGR of more than 8% and is expected to grow by 9.5% in the forecasted period. Read on to discover Athena, our robot’s, findings on some of the opportunities and risks facing the region and take action accordingly.
The threat of protectionism and economic fragmentation hangs over global trade and therefore impacts on your organization. Read on to discover what our robot, Athena, has discovered about the likely future of trade and respond accordingly.
The race to build smart cities is on, but unless you have deep pockets or a unique, protected or niche product this is potentially an area to steer clear of as the substantial payback is likely to be a long way off. Read on to discover where the opportunities are.
Amazon represents a real threat to many businesses and an opportunity to learn, Read on to see the forecasts that our robot, Athena, has found on its likely future activities and act accordingly. There will be no hiding place in the markets that Amazon chooses to dominate as the book stores found...
By 2025, solar will be the cheapest energy globally. In 2040, oil and natural gas are expected to make up nearly 60% of global supplies, while nuclear and renewables will be approaching 25%. Improved efficiency of lighting and home appliances is expected to continue to reduce residential electric...
Pressures from potential pandemics, the environment we live in, ageing populations and funding threats take centre stage in this week’s Trend Alert. Read on to discover where the opportunities lie in the future, consider how these could affect you and your organization and act accordingly.
Geopolitical issues and rapid technological change threaten traditional supply chains. Read on to discover where the opportunities lie in the future and take action accordingly.
Athena has determined which forecasts should be included in this Trend Alert, and halved the time to produce it. Now it takes just 30 minutes. She can also turn these summaries into slides and audio files very quickly.
The next 100 years will be defined by sustainable innovation with survival of the fittest businesses and oblivion for the rest. Read on to discover our robot’s potpourri view of emerging opportunities and risks that she has gleaned from extracting the latest forecasts from professional sources. L...
This week marks a departure from our traditional Trend Alerts that were previously produced by our research team from forecasts produced by our robot, Athena. Now Athena has determined which forecasts should be included in this Trend Alert and cut the time for us to produce this summary in half t...
Within the next decade or so 100s of large satellites and about 2,000 micro and nano satellites will be launched into Earth's orbit. Read on to discover where Athena, our robot, thinks there are opportunities and risks associated with a burgeoning space industry.
In coming decades, jobs will disappear due to the development of AI. Our robot, Athena, finds that most forecasts do not make similar projections for the many jobs that will be created by new technologies. The forecasts below are indicative of disruptive changes coming to many livelihoods. You c...
There will be a global decline in the proportion of the populations in paid employment in the coming decades resulting from automation and other technological innovations. Robots and technological advances will take more than 5 million jobs from humans over the next 5 years.
2017 will be the year that digital risk insurance really gets off the ground. Read on to discover where, Athena, our robot thinks your job, your home, your vehicle, your life and organization will be affected by the sweeping changes that threaten to completely disrupt the traditional insurance bu...
The next 10 years is going to see an exponential growth in remote work and delivery in many sectors. Demand for technologies that facilitate communication and interaction will rise. The use of remote monitoring is expected to continue its growth at a compound annual rate of almost 50% for at leas...
Athena is reporting a significant downturn in global feelings of uncertainty in past 6 months. Similarly, the pundits seem less sure of continued stability. Are these the early signs of a looming recession? The risk of either a US or global recession in 2017 is no more than 25%. But it’s ...
Global trade is predicted to grow by 3.1% but will also stay below potential, growing half as fast as it used to before the Great Recession. Every economy will have to adjust to the decline of the global growth model compared to the previous 30 years, and adopt a new model based more on innovatio...
Agents and brokers will have to work smarter in 2017 and roll with the punches as technology further encroaches on their jobs. This year 2 out of 3 customer interactions will no longer require human intervention. By 2020, 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human. If you're cur...
Recently, the views of our enterprise clients has change from seeing cloud as a risk to seeing it as either risk-neutral or cutting both cost and risk. Shaping Tomorrow went cloud-based in 2013 with similar concerns. So far, we have reduced risk and space requirements, lowered costs and substanti...
Happy New Year. May it be your best year yet! The pundits certainly think it will be a positive year based on their views from December 2016, after months of ambivalence and despite the many geopolitical uncertainties that exist today. Find out how to get ahead of the crowd with the forecasts tha...
Sales of sports goods will reach a personal best of £7 billion in 2016. By 2020, sports will have become a real battleground for hi-tech apparel. New media, sensors and instant, online gratification will replace traditional sports play and spectating. Read on to discover the partial forecast offe...
While the powers that be at the top of the EU push for ever more federal policies, such as an EU defence force, populist parties continue to push for national independence. There’s a highly unlikely, but increasing chance that the UK may not have to negotiate an exit strategy or invoke Article 50...
Donald Trump’s first term in the White House promises to be a radical administration in the U.S. bringing both new opportunities and potentially new risks and uncertain times to the world. Read on to discover our robot’s partial forecast of what is likely to change under Trump and to determine wh...
People will increasingly have choice about how or when they travel due to the rapid expansion of new options and assistive technologies. Read on to discover where Athena, our robot, thinks emerging change will most affect you and your organization then read the full forecast at Shaping Tomorr...
Animal and plant species are declining so quickly that world biodiversity loss is no longer within a "safe limit" and could start to threaten much of the planet's ability to support humans. Habitat loss, climate change and invasive species are threatening mass extinctions. Read on to discover why...
A neutral sentiment level belies the fact that human-centered design has expanded from the design of objects (industrial design) to the design of experiences (adding interaction design, visual design, and the design of spaces). The next step will be the design of system behavior. Read on to disco...
The future of physical retailing will increasingly lie in creating rich "experience bazaars" that help to amplify return on attention for the consumer. Read on to discover how and where our robot Athena thinks we might be shopping in the not too distant future. Contact us for an in-depth report c...