5 Tech Trends That Will Change Businesses in the Near Future

Tech Trends

Technology spells opportunity for efficiency and productivity, values that businesses place a premium on. If you run a small company, you know that keeping up with the times is indispensable for its viability for many years to come.

Technologies are emerging and marking a significant departure from the conventional ways of doing things, making paper forms and in-person meetings almost obsolete. For example, you have artificial intelligence, whose myriad applications include a say in decision-making. Needless to say, adopting tech trends involves a learning curve and alignment of priorities and resources.

For your business, you either improve or die. And here are the freshest, if not the most relevant, technologies you can add to your toolbox to steer your business in these exciting times. 

Leverage LMS

LMS, or learning management system, enables companies to train employees in formats like text, document, and video through asynchronous and synchronous learning. The software application also keeps and organizes records, tracks trends and data, and generates reports. It’s an interactive way for employees to relearn and learn new skills, encouraging them to stay in your company forever. As for you, it is a convenient tool to stay on top of your company’s training materials, updating and tweaking them as you go without additional costs.

Fortify Cybersecurity

You stand to lose files and resources if no measures are put in place against cyberthreats, the most dangerous of which is ransomware. While you can run antivirus programs, restrict your internet network, and backup files, employees must be in on the situation.

Nonprofit organization Center for Internet Security has these recommendations for employees as end users to take cautionary steps in protecting your business assets:

  • Avoid taking any action on suspicious emails and visiting unknown websites.
  • Close browser after using it.
  • Report any suspicious activity (you must have an incident report and response plan for such events).

Engage Chatbots

It’s difficult to replace live persons and their human touch, but for odd hours and customers who dislike waiting, chatbots are here to help. These friendly bots can increase customer satisfaction without fielding people 24-7.

Chatbots are built in many ways. A typical arrangement is to set up bots alongside a live chat such that they hold the line until employees become available online. Come 2020, the adoption of chatbots is expected to strengthen as business leaders have shown plans or intent in using them.

Optimize Voice Search Content

Voice assistants like Siri (Apple), Google Now (now known as Google Assistant), Alexa (Amazon), and Cortana (Microsoft) are the intelligent counterparts of chatbots. Their key role is to perform a voice search, an emerging trend that is predicted to cover half of the total searches in 2020, per Comscore.

Your task is for these assistants to pull up your page as an answer to a query by doing the following:

  • Make your site mobile-friendly.
  • Come up with a question-based content.
  • Create relevant and readable posts.
  • Add geotags for localized search. Your address makes a difference when someone wants the closest business where they live.
  • When in doubt, go back to SEO principles.

5G Networks

Ultrafast mobile internet connectivity is soon to be within your reach with the substantial deployment of 5G service late this year or 2020. The technology will surely offer a speedier connection, which on paper shows an upload peak rate of 10 Gbit/s and a download peak rate of 20 Gbit/s. Notwithstanding the variance by network carrier plans, you can imagine the power to unlock technologies that are part of the internet of things.

A Quick Glance at the Future

Despite the promise of 5G and the seamless interconnectivity of many devices, it remains to be seen whether this technology will replace the Ethernet or the wired network anytime soon. One impediment is the cost of infrastructure to support a fully wireless network. You also have to factor in physical barriers, such as buildings, which tend to disrupt the signal.

For now, you can continue to count on a wired connection and its equipment. If you have yet to get one, consider a network switch to connect multiple computers and devices to your office internet. Certain switches provide Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, which makes it ideal for enterprise-level use.  As it is, you have many technologies to look forward and study to automate, streamline, or expedite processes in your business. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *