2021 Information Technology Update: Now Where Were We?!

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Artificial Intelligence   Strategy  

Goodbye 2020—and good riddance to the most painful year in our lifetime. 2021 is hopefully the year of recovery—and a year of advancements in technology. It’s time to begin our goodbyes to technologies that will be leaving the landscape in the next five to 10 years.

Last year (pre-pandemic), the prevailing wisdom was:

• Artificial intelligence technologies were going to triple with “AI as a Service” (AIaaS) beginning to be the primary way AI would be delivered, mostly in the form of business analytics and machine-learning applications.
• 3D printing was on track to make big strides in the materials it could use like different metals, super alloys, ceramics, nylon and chopped carbon fiber.
• Robotics was going to be coupled more tightly with AI to create expansion in the robotic process automation (RPA) space.
• The Internet of Things (IoT)—coupled with PRA and autonomous vehicles—was going to expand and become more visible to consumers.

Then COVID hit and things became a tad chaotic; all bets were off. For 2021, expect things to continue to pick up where 2020 was headed before the pandemic. One big change will be on technologies that leverage the needs for organizations to expand and improve on the ability of remote workers to communicate, collaborate and stay productive.

Akin to this will be a heightened focus on …

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