Predicting the future from 2018

When you tell your parents nobody will drive cars in the future, they think that’s crazy. Maybe it’s better delivered in a fancy report like EY’s Megatrends 2018.

Here are some choice selections from the report. I’m thrilled my employer is putting this much thought into where the future is headed. And how we can help our clients get there.

Photo credit - Lee Aik Soon / Unsplash

Questions we will face…

• What new challenges will drones create for regulators?
• How will brands engage with the AR-empowered (augmented reality) super consumer of the future?
• Will exoskeletons help human workers compete with robots in manufacturing?
• How will healthcare diagnosis and delivery change when smart clothes replace today’s wearables?
• How are human augmentation technologies such as BMIs (brain-machine interfaces) challenging existing regulations?
• When bionic eyes provide instant visual access to information, how will they change work?
• How will nanobots change the role of the physician?
• How will autonomous vehicles redefine cityscapes?
• When virtual assistants make buying decisions, how will companies need to think about branding and marketing?
• What impact will VR (virtual reality) have on where and how people work in the future?
• How will 3D printing disrupt supply chains and business models?
• Will we prefer home robots that look like humans or machines?
• When robots become common at work, how will human workers’ roles change?

This quote introduced the section on the elderly individuals of the future, but I really liked it in general…

Every individual could have a unique healthy aging profile that tracks physical/cognitive wellness, social wellness, and material wellness.

It would interest me to invest in such a business with the right team and technologies in place.

Addressing elderly individuals in the future…

• Virtual personal assistants and social media to keep individuals socially engaged
• New drugs to tackle the diseases of aging
• New technologies and approaches to keep seniors mobile as they age (i.e. autonomous vehicles)
• Wearables and implantables to track various dimensions of health
• (Behavioral) incentives to nudge people to save for retirement
• Avatars to make aging tangible and motivate behavior
• Smart homes embedded with sensors to empower seniors to age in place
• Robot caregivers to allow seniors to take care of their needs independently
• New ways of thinking about work and retirement

This is just a taste. It’s a long read but I highly recommend EY’s Megatrends 2018 report for yourself.

It espouses a lot of the “futurist” concepts I’ve been musing on for years. Though sex robots didn’t make the list.