From Flying Cars to VR: IT Professionals Sound off on Their Predictions for the Future

Well, it's 2020 and we still don't have flying cars. Popular movies like Back to the Future and its sequel made flying cars look inevitable—the next natural step in transportation. I thought for sure I'd be flying to work in a self-driving, Willy Wonka-style elevator by now. (Clearly I watched too many movies as a kid.)

But ambitious filmmakers did get a few things right. Our current world is bustling with automation, wearable technology, and virtual reality. The Internet of Things surrounds us, and we have brilliant bot friends named Alexa and Siri.

Ivanti Insiders briefly talked about their tech predictions in this blog about their New Year's resolutions, but for length reasons, we didn't include all the responses. Below we include all the responses from our customers.

So tell Alexa to turn on your favorite background music, grab a beverage, and enjoy the predictions. They are categorized in alphabetical order based on each customer's first prediction.

AI

• "AI; machine learning; automation." — Ivanti Insider
• "Bigger AI; bigger tech; more breaches." — Ivanti Insider
• "More AI, home controls, smaller tech." — Ivanti Insider
• "More AI. More automation. Doing more with less." — Ivanti Insider
• "More AI. Growth starts to slow. Big(ger) push for security." — Ivanti Insider
• "More AI. People getting over the AI boom. Significant advancements in security, breaches, and cyber threats." — Ivanti Insider
• "News about AI reaching a 'dangerous level of consciousness' at least thrice during the year (and, of course, nothing really happening). Wide banning on facial recognition by law enforcement, leaving facial recognition by private companies out of the ban, thus tacitly endorsing it, and by the end of the year some big chain will hit the news with facial recognition in their stores to show you targeted ads. Hopefully, some judicial decisions on loot boxes in video games (to be added to the one by Belgium), that will either control them or, straight up declaring them gambling and applying gambling laws to them." — Daniel, Systems Developer

Automation

• "Automation career skillsets being marketed more for the need of advancing a company. Further consolidation of tools. Advancement in machine learning for practical application." — Ivanti Insider
• "Automation, chatbot will excel into offerings, industry will see some major mergers/acquisitions shakeups." — Ivanti Insider
• "Automation, security breaches, and AI." — Jason, Sr. Systems Analyst
• "More automation, more crappy web interfaces for administering apps instead of full application consoles, and more options to go password-less." — Robert, Systems Architect
• "More automation. AI advances. More efficient electric cars." — ​Jonnathan, Endpoint Operations Analyst
• "More automation. More Ivanti ELA's for SMB. Even more malware/ransomware." — Ivanti Insider
• "More work that is being automated. Be able to work even more mobile. Security issues." — Rene, On Site Support
• "We're going to see more automation as more industries continue to jump on the bandwagon. Cloud services will continue to grow in leaps and bounds. Massive focus on Security as AI, cloud, and automation continue to grow." — Kelly, Technical Support Specialist

Cloud

• "More providers forcing cloud solutions." — Ivanti Insider
• "Cloud security." — Jim, Cyber Security Engineer
• "Cloud, improved battery tech, more AI." — Ivanti Insider
• "Cloud, WVD, Azure." — Ivanti Insider
• "Cloud. Cloud. Cloud." — Ivanti Insider
• "Development of more cloud; flexibility and varity; less hassle for finding antivirus." — Ivanti Insider
• "More cloud, more mobile, and hopefully more security." — Josh, Cyber Security Administrator
• "More cloud. More hacks. More patches." — Ivanti Insider
• "More movement into the cloud; AI development." — Ross, System Engineer
• "More virtualization/cloud. More automation. More security exploits." — Ivanti Insider

Cyber Security

• "Cyber security progressing, automation process continued growth, new video game systems." — Ivanti Insider
• "Cyber security risks rise for the Macs. Virtual gaming platforms continue growing. Rise of cyber security threats as a whole." — Karl, Technical Manager
• "From a security perspective I see an increase in ransomware, phishing attempts, and an increase in the use of AI."— Katelyn, Info. Security Admin
• "Increase of cyber security." — Ivanti Insider
• "Lots of breaches. Lots of ransomware. Lots of new security software." — Ivanti Insider
• "More focus on IT security, more breaches in cloud services, more automation." — Eric, Tier 3 Support
• "Security will be highlighted. A major breech will happen. A new type of malware will be coming out." — Thomas Smith, Director, Telecom and IT Support

Software & Apps

• "Less frequent software changes. More stable releases. Fewer incompatibilities." — Ivanti Insider
• "Microsoft continues to drive the industry to adopt technologies faster because of their forced upgrades. A massive virus/data breach wreaks havoc among all cloud platforms, causing a shift back to on prem devices. Google buys Facebook." — David, Operations Engineer
• "Modern workspace. Modern apps. Less VDIs and terminal servers." — Ivanti Insider
• "More focus on modern management of Windows. Faster update cadence for applications, OS, etc. Microsoft will inevitably break something with an update." — Brandon Smith, Design Engineer
• "More voice-controlled items, more personalized/wearable items, more flexible technology." — Ivanti Insider​
• "Updates are going to be mayhem. Microsoft will keep everyone on their toes. AI and Cloud will start rising more." — Ivanti Insider

Virtual Reality

• "VR gaming will finally have its killer app. Internet data caps will be challenged in the US. Some ridiculous sci-fi breakthrough in battery tech." — Adam, Systems Administrator
• "VR tech/uptake will get a huge surge on the release of Half Life Alyx. Apple will do something controversial but everyone will secretly love it (haha, too easy?). Facebook will be found out doing yet more awful things (again...too easy?)." — Ivanti Insider

Misc.

• "I predict that we will master 5G, make a new way to have air fryers be better than they are now and we will have a new way in transferring data." — Ivanti Insider
• "IT will get a big drive from solutions for climate change." — ​Marco Feuerstein, Senior Sys Admin
• "Expansion further into mobile microchip tracking, and smart eco advances." — Ivanti Insider
• "Nothing changes technology wise, more companies get hacked, the government starts looking into a new way of tracking identities." — Ryan, Systems Administrator
• "Products/services will increase in price due to higher corporate taxes, we'll see a rise in fake 2FA prompts being utilized in cyber attacks, and Microsoft will release at least one bad Windows update." — Brian, Applications Administrator