Navigating The Tech Landscape: Which Technologies Are Ready For Adoption And Which Need More Time To Mature

When spring comes, I know two things for sure: I will sneeze non-stop because of my seasonal allergies, and I will have to deep clean our house. This year, my wife persuaded me to go through the dusty, spider-filled attic and clean it up properly. Among the boxes that had my old high school awards and comic books, I found crates of old gadgets I kept over the years.

I’ve always been a techie—I have a collection of electronics that were great for their time and others that were less popular. For example, I had a video game system that had a modem for online gaming with my friends, although it didn’t work well because many homes lacked internet access. One of the boxes had a first-generation digital video recorder that let my family record TV shows and movies without tapes and discs. I got it for my wife, hoping to get rid of the piles of tapes she used to record her soap operas—but she just put our VCR on top of the digital recorder because she didn’t want to learn a new technology.

Sorting out those dusty bins in my attic made me think about what technologies businesses might want to adopt to help them improve today versus in the long run. Budgets for investing in new technology can be low, and leaders want to know which products will give them a fast ROI. In this blog, I will look into my magic eight ball and tell you which new technologies can offer immediate benefits to your business versus those that need more time to grow.

Now: Generative AI

Read any tech magazine or listen to a business podcast, and you will inevitably encounter a discussion on how generative AI is impacting our everyday lives. This conversation has already made its way into many boardrooms across the country, as businesses explore how they can utilize generative AI to improve employee productivity and business efficiencies.

According to IDC, 78% of mid-market organizations are adopting AI, and 77% are adopting generative AI.¹

Generative AI refers to a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content, such as text, images or music, based on patterns it learns from existing data. This technology offers businesses the opportunity to automate processes, personalize customer experiences and drive innovation, providing them with a competitive advantage in their respective industries. Generative AI can be used to elevate the customer experience by creating more nuanced marketing communication. Plus, it can also be used in customer support to provide help centers with real-time information and specific sale tactics that can enhance the totality of their experience with the customer.

All in all, generative AI is a game changer because it’s a critical component of the overall AI infrastructure that allows for the development of applications that help support key business functions.

Needs more time: Autonomous Vehicles

When I was young, I saw cartoons that showed the roads of the future in the sky. I expected to have flying vehicles that can weave around skyscrapers—or I would have a car that at least drove itself while I read a book in the back seat. Sadly, that reality is not going to happen anytime soon for the general public.

To be clear, autonomous vehicles in a closed or restricted area are very useful for manufacturing and other dependent industries. The use of autonomous vehicles in those specific spaces is possible because they have the infrastructure that is needed to support the technical requirements critical to running those vehicles while keeping up their service requirements.

To replicate the unique environments on a connected factory floor and extend it to the outside world, two things must be true: reliable high-speed connectivity has to be widely available, and separate systems must be able to communicate with each other. For instance, an autonomous trucking company would have to keep a stable mobile connection in remote areas and be able to talk to nearby cars, some of which may have different software. Additionally, federal regulations would have to be changed to make it more likely for consumers to adopt them with incentives such as dedicated lanes.

While the promise of fully autonomous vehicles may lead to more fuel efficiency, fewer driver accidents and time savings, the infrastructure needed to create a safe, reliable autonomous ecosystem is far from being a reality.

Now: Edge Computing

Continuing with the topic of infrastructure and enablement, edge computing is ready to support other technologies in your IT stack and create new use cases to optimize your business operations. Edge computing is a distributed computing framework that moves enterprise applications closer to data sources such as IoT devices or local edge servers. This means that data does not have to travel back to the cloud and beyond but can be processed near its source—which can deliver powerful benefits, including faster response times, increased bandwidth availability and stronger security.

As the hallmark of edge computing, lower latency maximizes speed and reliability between the computer and the end device. This enables next-gen use cases such as smart factories and autonomous guided vehicles. Another significant benefit is improved security and minimized risks, as edge computing distributes data processing in a way that avoids single points of failure, which can lead to a more secure data management strategy.

Moreover, edge computing can help businesses lower costs. By enabling localized processing, companies can reduce dependence on centralized data centers, decrease operational costs and enhance data security. This technology offers immediate ROI for most businesses and is critical for the enablement of future technologies.

Needs more time: AR/VR products

While augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies have gone through several hype stages over the past decade, they have yet to reach the point of being widely adopted. This slow uptake from consumers and businesses can be seen by the long list of unsuccessful AR/VR glasses, goggles and headsets that have been forgotten in attic storage boxes across the nation.

To be fair, there are some use cases where AR/VR technology has been able to provide benefits to businesses. For instance, the healthcare industry has used AR/VR to train staff, assist in-house and remote surgeries, and treat certain health disorders. But similar to edge computing, AR/VR is constrained by the infrastructure and technology available to the business and the general marketplace. The end-user devices for AR/VR are expensive, and other environmental devices meant to enhance the virtual immersive experience are still in their early stages.

As with many emerging technologies, widescale adoption of AR/VR technology will be hindered until the ecosystem of supporting technologies advances.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as we navigate the ever-changing landscape of technology, it’s important to carefully consider which technologies offer immediate returns and which ones need more time to mature.

Investing in technologies such as generative AI and edge computing can help businesses see immediate benefits in terms of improved productivity, personalized customer experiences and increased innovation. On the other hand, technologies such as autonomous vehicles and AR/VR products may need more time to develop before they can offer the same level of returns.

By making informed decisions about technology adoption, businesses can position themselves for success in the present and the future.

Explore how Lumen solutions and capabilities can benefit your business today.

¹IDC, Generative AI Adoption and Attitudes: A Survey of U.S. Developers, 23 March 2023.

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