City of the Future
Source: Smithsonian
British Airways apparently has a panel of global trend watchers. In my words here is a selection of their predictions for 2019.
- Machine Vision – In 2019 there will be an estimated 44 billion cameras in the world and much better facial recognition capability. Bad for liberty but good for security and payment systems?
- Future Proofing – With the growth in Artificial Intelligence (AI), consumers will be increasingly concerned about how it will affect their jobs and lives. There will be opportunities for smart companies to help answer these questions. For example, I’d like to know if there be an ongoing need for blogs like this?
- Fairer Algorithms – There will be increasing pressure for fewer toxic tweets and less biased and more ethical decisions made by AI. Got to be a good thing.
- Bolder Branding – More brands will get off the fence on cultural and political issues. P&G and Coke have already done so on the issues of racial inequality and gay marriage, respectively.
- Personal Well-being – Nestle are already trialing a service using DNA swabs to provide personalised nutrient-rich supplements to maximise an individual’s health. Family sit down meals will be fun!
- City Slickers – More than 60% of the global population will be living in cities by 2030. This will lead to the need for innovation in many areas such as transport, construction and sustainability.
- Chinese Brands – Expect to see China exporting more of their successful local brands to western high streets in product lines such as telecoms and white goods. I wonder what Trump is going to say about that!
- Digital Detoxing – Parents remain concerned about their kids having too much screen time. Expect to see a trend towards reconnecting with the natural world, maybe even some tree hugging?
- Sustainable Food – After the success of non-dairy milk, a Chilean food tech company is using machine learning to recreate milk and mayo without the moo. Expect mainstream brands to follow.
What other trends do you predict for 2019?
Tony Reiss 
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