Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017

Published: 14 October 2016 ID: G00317560

Analyst(s): David W. Cearley | Mike J. Walker | Brian Burke

Summary
Gartner's top 10 trends will drive the future of the intelligent digital mesh.
Enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders must prepare for the
impacts of these disruptive trends on people, businesses and IT departments,
and determine how they can provide competitive advantage.

Overview
Key Findings

An intelligent digital mesh is emerging to support the future of digital business and its
underlying technology platforms and IT practices. The mesh focuses on people and the
Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints, as well as the information and services that these
endpoints access.

Capabilities such as blockchains, distributed ledgers and digital twins will bring the
physical and digital realms ever closer to supporting digital business initiatives.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are the means of injecting intelligence into
new and existing apps and things to form the intelligent digital mesh.

Relentless and ever-increasing security attacks require adaptive security architectures

that emphasize security-aware solution design; AI-enabled user and entity behavior
analytics; and new architecture, methods and tools to address IoT and intelligent digital
mesh security.

Recommendations
Enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders using enterprise architecture to master
emerging and strategic trends must:

Plan for a radical, long-term (2020 to 2025) evolution of the user experience for both
customers and employees as conversational systems, augmented reality (AR), virtual
reality (VR) and continuous/contextual user experiences radically change the way people
interact with systems.

Explore opportunities to create new systems that require AI and machine learning, and
showcase their intelligent feature systems (such as virtual personal assistants [VPAs],

robots and autonomous vehicles), and augment existing apps and things (for example,
customer service, enterprise applications, consumer electronics and medical devices).

Examine specific, targeted and high-value use cases to apply AR/VR, build digital twins to
support IoT initiatives, and embrace blockchains and distributed ledgers in 2017 to 2019.

Build a security mindset into application design and operations, while augmenting
preventive controls and security monitoring with user and entity behavior analytics.

Table of Contents

Analysis
o

Trend No. 1: Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Machine Learning

Trend No. 2: Intelligent Apps

Trend No. 3: Intelligent Things

Trend No. 4: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Trend No. 5: Digital Twins

Trend No. 6: Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers

Trend No. 7: Conversational Systems

Trend No. 8: Mesh App and Service Architecture

Trend No. 9: Digital Technology Platforms

Trend No. 10: Adaptive Security Architecture

Gartner Recommended Reading

Figures

Figure 1. Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017

Figure 2. The Characteristics of Smart Machines
Figure 3. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Will Have Obvious and Inconspicuous Uses
Figure 4. Forecast for Sales of Head-Mounted Displays, 2015-2020
Figure 5. Digital-Twin Models Are Digital-Entity Models for Assets
Figure 6. Key Elements of Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers
Figure 7. Conversational Systems Include New User Experience Design Elements
Figure 8. The Shift to a Central Role for Event Processing in Digital Business
Figure 9. Abstract System Model for Conversational Artificial Intelligence Platform
Figure 10. User and Entity Behavior Analytics

Analysis
Digital business is an overarching theme that covers how the blurring of the physical and virtual
worlds is transforming business designs, industries, markets and organizations. The continuing
digital business evolution exploits new digital models to align more closely the physical and
digital worlds for employees, partners and customers. Technology will be embedded in
everything in the digital business of the future. Rich digital services will be delivered to
everything, and intelligence will be embedded in everything behind the scenes. We call this mesh
of people, devices, content and services the intelligent digital mesh . It's enabled by digital
models, business platforms and a rich intelligent set of services to support digital business. As an
enterprise architecture or technology innovation leader seeking to exploit the intelligent digital
mesh, you must respond to the disruptive technology trends enabling this future.

Our top 10 strategic technology trends include three groupings of complementary trends (see
Figure 1) that are mutually reinforcing, with amplified disruptive characteristics:

The intelligent theme builds on the way in which data science and programming
approaches are evolving to include AI and advanced machine learning. This is enabling
the creation of intelligent physical and software-based systems that are programmed to
learn and adapt, rather than programmed only for a finite set of prescribed actions. AI and
machine-learning capabilities are seeping into virtually every technology, and represent a
major battleground for technology providers over the next five years.

The digital theme focuses on blending the digital and physical worlds to create an
immersive, digitally enhanced environment. In the digitally enhanced mesh, the digital
world is an increasingly detailed representation of the physical world. Rich digital
services, connections and interfaces connect the two. Digital trends, along with
opportunities enabled by AI and machine learning, are driving the next generation of
digital business.

The mesh theme refers to exploiting connections between an expanding set of people
and businesses, as well as devices, content and services, to deliver digital business
outcomes. The mesh demands new interface modalities (for example, conversational
interfaces), security models, technology platforms and approaches to solution design.

Strategic technology trends have substantial disruptive potential. Our top 10 list highlights
strategic trends with broad industry impact that aren't yet widely recognized. Technologies
related to the strategic trends are experiencing significant changes or reaching critical tipping
points in capability or maturity. Examine the business impact of our top 10 strategic technology

trends, and adjust your business and IT strategies and operational models appropriately. If you
don't, you'll risk losing competitive advantage to those who do.

Figure 1. Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017

SOURCE: GARTNER (OCTOBER 2016)

Trend No. 1: Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Machine Learning

Applied AI and machine learning are composed of many technologies and techniques (such as
deep learning, neural networks and natural-language processing [NLP]). The more-advanced
techniques move beyond traditional rule-based algorithms to create systems that appear to
understand, learn, predict, adapt and potentially operate with little or no human input or
guidance. This is what makes smart machines appear "intelligent." Applied AI and machine
learning enable a system to not only understand concepts in the environment, but also to learn
(see Figure 2).

Figure 2. The Characteristics of Smart Machines

DNN = deep neural network

SOURCE: GARTNER (OCTOBER 2016)

Through machine learning, a smart machine can change its future behavior. For example, by
analyzing vast databases of medical case histories, "learning" machines can reveal insights in
treatment effectiveness. They can apply such insights at the speed of data ingestion, making
them useful augmenters of productivity and accuracy. In scenarios involving high precision, a
smart machine using intelligent ensemble techniques can achieve a reduction in error rates of
5% to 30%, or even more, which may result in substantial cost savings or extra profits.
Additionally, natural-language generation dynamically increases the volume and value of insights
and context in data analytics. It automatically generates a specialized narrative for each user in
context, to explain meaning or highlight key findings in data.

Evaluate a number of business scenarios in which AI and machine learning could drive specific
business value, and consider experimenting with one or two high-impact scenarios. For example,
you could use these technologies in a retail setting to pull together and analyze online purchase
histories, and product likes and dislikes from eye-gazing technologies in stores to sensory
data from smartphones to create propensity-to-buy models that predict which product a
customer is most likely to buy. In banking, you could use AI and machine-learning techniques to
model current real-time transactions, as well as predictive models of transactions based on their
likelihood of being fraudulent. If you're an early adopter or seeking to drive disruptive innovation,
begin to implement predictive analytics, ensemble learning, and natural-language recognition
and generation. If you're a mainstream user or have more modest innovation goals, use third
parties and packaged solutions with embedded AI and machine learning.
AI and advanced machine-learning techniques are evolving rapidly. Significant investment in
skills, process and tools is needed to successfully exploit these techniques in terms of setup,
integration, algorithm/approach selection, data preparation and model creation. In addition,
exploiting the system's learning capabilities, evaluating the accuracy of findings, and updating
the algorithms and models to improve results can take significant effort, not only from the data
scientists creating the system, but also from others who have the knowledge needed to "train"
the system.

Applied AI and advanced machine learning give rise to a range of intelligent implementations.
These include physical devices (such as robots, autonomous vehicles and consumer
electronics), as well as apps and services (such as VPAs and smart advisors). These
implementations will be delivered as a new class of obviously intelligent apps and things, and
provide embedded intelligence for a wide range of mesh devices, and existing software and
service solutions. The data science needed to create these systems is complex, so many
organizations will consume applied AI and machine learning mainly through packaged intelligent

apps and things, or through packaged "models as a service" that they can build into custom
applications.
Related research:
"Cool Vendors in Smart Machines, 2016"
"Hype Cycle for Smart Machines, 2016"
"Cool Vendors in Data Science, 2016"
"Machine Learning Drives Digital Business"
"Smart Machines See Major Breakthroughs After Decades of Failure"
"Smart Machines Primer for 2016"

Trend No. 2: Intelligent Apps

Organizations are applying AI and machine-learning techniques to create new app categories
(such as VPAs) and improve traditional applications (such as worker performance analysis, sales
and marketing, and security). Intelligent apps have the potential to transform the nature of work
and the structure of the workplace. They could alter career structures and enhance workers'
performance, but they have challenges to overcome as they move from early-stage emerging
technologies to more-robust functional products. During the next 10 years, virtually every app,
application and service will incorporate some level of AI in much the same way as consumer
appliances have incorporated microprocessors. Some of these apps will be obvious intelligent
apps that could not exist without AI and machine learning. Others will be unobtrusive users of AI
and machine learning that provide intelligence behind the scenes (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Will Have Obvious and
Inconspicuous Uses

SOURCE: GARTNER (OCTOBER 2016)

Some intelligent apps, such as VPAs, perform some of the functions of a human assistant. VPAs
make everyday tasks easier (by prioritizing emails, for example), and their users more effective
(by highlighting the most important content and interactions). Other intelligent apps, such as
virtual customer assistants (VCAs), are more narrow, special-purpose apps that advise in
specialty areas, sales and customer service.

VPAs such as Google Now, Microsoft's Cortana and Apple's Siri are becoming smarter and are a
rapidly maturing type of intelligent app. Some chatbots, such as Facebook Messenger chatbots,
can be powered by AI (for example, Wit.ai) to deliver an intelligent app. These intelligent apps
feed into the system trend to create a new intelligent intermediary layer between people and
systems. If you're an early adopter or seeking to drive disruptive innovation, begin to implement
targeted VCAs and VPAs where a high-value target persona (for example, a doctor, marketing
leader or high-profit customer) could achieve significant benefit. If you're a mainstream user or
have more modest innovation goals, consider more simple rule-based chatbots and exploit
prepackaged assistants or simple mobile assistants based on the VPA capabilities embedded in
smartphones.
Packaged app and service providers are increasingly using AI and machine-learning techniques
to deliver more robust systems. For example, many user and entity behavior analytics products
use these techniques to identify patterns of potentially malicious activity. For some time, many
enterprise application vendors have been incorporating predictive analytics capabilities into their
offerings, either directly or through partners. As the focus on AI increases, vendors such as
Salesforce, Oracle and Microsoft are incorporating more advanced AI functions in their offerings.
These three vendors are exploiting AI to varying degrees, but they are all focusing on sales and
marketing activities as a particularly valuable area for applying AI techniques to analyze
customer and third-party data. Expect AI to become the next major battleground in a wide range
of software and service markets, including aspects of ERP. Much hype will surround AI, so
examine how and where AI is applied and what concrete business results it can deliver.
Expect app and service providers to apply AI techniques in three areas:

Advanced analytics

Increasingly autonomous agents

Continuous and conversational interfaces

Expect an expanding market for models as a service. Predefined models that have been taught
about a particular domain and trained to identify key patterns will be delivered as a service (often
with a data feed) for incorporation into other packaged or custom applications.

During the next two to five years, we expect that B2C and B2B-to-consumer companies will
adopt more smart app strategies (see "Hype Cycle for Smart Machines, 2016" ). By 2018, we
expect that most of the world's largest 200 companies will exploit intelligent apps and use the full
toolkit of big data and analytical tools to refine their offerings and improve their customer
experience. Discover the many different types of intelligent apps that could be created with a
focus on specialization and purpose. Customers may use one or a combination of intelligent
apps. For example, customers may use an intelligent app to:

Help with health (diet, exercise or psychological well-being)

Act as a personal shopping assistant

Act as a financial advisor

Help with office-specific tasks, such as calendar management, email handling and
external information monitoring

Intelligent apps constitute a long-term trend that will evolve and expand the use of AI and
machine learning in apps and services during the next 20 years. Establish a process to
continually evaluate where your organization can apply AI today and over time. Use personabased analysis to determine the opportunities. Compare the roadmaps for AI exploitation across
your packaged app and service provider portfolio. Proceed with caution if your organization is
developing applications the underlying AI and machine-learning elements for creating
intelligent apps are not ready for most application development projects at scale. Ensure such
projects have a very high potential business value. Note that the competitive gaps and missed
opportunity costs for laggards could be significant.
Related research:
"Gartner's 2016 Hype Cycles Highlight Digital Business Ecosystems"
"Smart Machines Will Be the Catalyst for One of the Most Disruptive Eras in Retail"
"Competitive Landscape: Virtual Personal Assistants, 2016"
"IT Strategists Must Prepare for the Rise of Virtual Personal Assistants in the Workplace"
"Smart Agents Will Drive the Switch From Technology-Literate People, to People-Literate
Technology"
"Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2016"
"Using Algorithmic Retailing to Drive Competitive Advantage"

Trend No. 3: Intelligent Things

Intelligent things are physical things that go beyond the execution of rigid programming models to
exploit applied AI and machine learning. This enables them to deliver advanced behaviors and
interact more naturally with their surroundings and with people. Like intelligent apps, new
intelligent things (such as autonomous vehicles) can't exist without AI and machine learning.
Meanwhile, we can enhance existing things by embedding AI and machine learning invisibly into
their normal operation. For example, we can turn a camera into a smart camera.

New intelligent things fit loosely into three broad categories:

Robots

Drones

Autonomous vehicles

Currently, the use of autonomous vehicles in controlled settings (for example, farming, mining
and warehousing) is the most mature application of intelligent things. In industrial settings,
vehicles can be fully autonomous. However, in more general use, autonomous automobiles must
have a person in the driver's seat in case the technology should unexpectedly fail several U.S.
states have passed laws stipulating this. In the near term, high-technology and traditional
automotive manufacturers, such as Ford, Uber, Alphabet's Google, Volkswagen, MercedesBenz, Tesla, Nissan, BMW and Honda, will all be testing their autonomous vehicles. For at least
the next five years, we expect that semiautonomous scenarios requiring a driver will dominate.
During this time, manufacturers will test the technology more rigorously, and the nontechnology
issues will be addressed, such as regulations, legal issues and cultural acceptance.

Autonomous drones and robots will undergo significant technical evolution powered by new AI
and machine-learning models and algorithms. They will be used mainly in narrowly defined
scenarios and controlled environments. Advances in one domain such as more sophisticated
algorithms that enable a robot to learn from its environment will often have an application in
another domain.
AI and machine learning will increasingly be embedded into everyday things, such as appliances,
speakers and hospital equipment. This phenomenon is closely aligned with the emergence of
conversational systems, the expansion of the IoT and the trend toward digital twins. Amazon
Echo is an example of an intelligent thing it is a simple speaker connected wirelessly to an
assistant powered by AI and machine learning. As conversational interfaces are delivered
through other devices with a speaker or text input option, all these objects will become intelligent
things.

Other markets have similar potential for embedded intelligence. For example, today's digital
stethoscope can record and store heartbeat and respiratory sounds. Collecting a massive
database of such data, relating the data to diagnostic and treatment information, and building an
AI-powered doctor assistance app would enable doctors to receive diagnostic support in real
time. However, in the more advanced scenarios, significant issues such as liability and patient
privacy must be considered. We expect that these nontechnical issues and the complexity of
creating highly specialized assistants will slow embedded intelligence in industrial IoT and other

business scenarios. Organizations that can address these barriers have the potential for
significant competitive advantage.

Projects such as the U.S. National Robotics Initiative are pushing automation to the next level.
Planning algorithms enable robots to operate autonomously on farms. Drones operating with
human scouts study solutions for farmers of specialty crops. Other intelligent systems enable the
design, optimization, prototyping and field-testing of mechanized harvesting systems.
As intelligent things proliferate, we expect a shift from stand-alone intelligent things to a
collaborative intelligent things model. In this model, multiple devices will work together, either
independently of people or with human input. For example, if a drone examined a large field and
found that it was ready for harvesting, it could dispatch an "autonomous harvester." Researchers
have demonstrated a group of drones working together to construct a rope bridge, 1 while the
military is studying the use of drone swarms to attack or defend military targets. 2 In the delivery
market, the most effective solution may be to use an autonomous vehicle to move packages to
the target area. Robots and drones on board the vehicle could then effect final delivery of the
package.

Challenge the status quo on robotics. Create business scenarios and business outcome journey
maps to identify and explore the opportunities that will fulfill your organization's strategic plans.
Seek opportunities to incorporate the use of emerging intelligent things in traditional manual and
semiautomated tasks. For example, examine how distribution models shift as drones become
safer and more effective, helping to enhance overall business performance. Expect the indirect
impacts to be just as great as the direct impacts. Industry trends, such as autonomous vehicles,
usher in new business designs. These require you to create proactive and predictive risk models
that provide a clear view of how your organization will create value in digital ecosystems.
Related research:
"Toolkit: How to Create Business Scenarios That Drive Digital Disruption Innovation"
"Volvo, Autoliv Create Unique Approach for Autonomous Vehicle Software"
"Ford Autonomous Vehicle Plan Targets Mobility as a Service"
"Your IoT Future Is Visible in the Mining Industry Today"
"Market Trends: Personal Assistant Robots for the Home"
"The P&C Insurance Industry Nears a Tipping Point on Drones"

Trend No. 4: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Immersive technologies, such as VR and AR, are part of a new wave of computing devices that
transform the way individuals interact with one another and with software systems. Headmounted displays (HMDs) are small displays or projection technology integrated into devices
worn on the head, such as glasses and helmets. HMDs derive aspects of visual content from the
digital mesh. Contextual information translates the state of the wearer and the wearer's

environment into graphically rich visual cues. Many HMDs have come to market or become
available for use in pilot projects in 2016. Now that commercially viable HMDs are available, the
device-mesh-based apps and services that power them represent new forms of user interaction
that will enable new types of consumer and workplace behaviors.

One way of experiencing immersion is using smartphone AR. The device's screen becomes a
"magic window" that displays a virtual world. This virtual world combines digital information with
the physical world around the user, as captured by the device's camera. Smartphone AR
combines digital mesh data (such as wiring schematics) with the information from the
smartphone's sensors (such as its camera). It superimposes contextual information that blends
augmented data on top of real-world objects (such as hidden wiring superimposed on an image
of a wall). Although this approach has significant limitations compared with more robust HMDbased approaches, it represents a widely available low-cost entry point.

Smartphones can also be an effective platform for mobile VR. Google Cardboard and Samsung
Gear VR are great examples of low-cost devices that use a smartphone as their computing
platform. Snap your smartphone into one of these devices, hold it to your eyes, and see and
interact with compelling virtual worlds. Although these devices are considered to be at the low
end of quality, they still offer the flexibility of a mobile platform. Today's use cases are firmly
centered in the consumer domain, such as watching a 360-degree immersive video or playing an
immersive video game. But businesses can also use mobile VR, either for marketing (to deliver
personalized product experiences), or as a tool to communicate with employees.

Dedicated HMD devices, such as Oculus Rift (VR) and Microsoft HoloLens (AR), enable more
sophisticated immersive interactions. These devices allow businesses to use the power of virtual
worlds and augmented spaces to integrate more effectively with the human perceptual system
and have a greater impact. VR devices in this category are wired to PCs or game consoles and
require advanced graphics capabilities. Businesses can use these VR systems, initially intended
for the consumer market and game players, in many scenarios. Training is a great example, with
the virtual world simulating equipment or situations, and the sophisticated graphics capabilities
ensuring that equipment looks and behaves as though real. Using VR, employees can train for
many equipment use scenarios, including ones, such as catastrophic malfunction, that don't
happen often, but that need immediate attention. Businesses are also using VR for site
inspections. VisualSpection provides VR headgear that allows inspection teams in the field to
improve efficiency by 30%.

AR, which vendors are also marketing as mixed reality, is the best way to blend the real and
virtual worlds. Using see-through displays, an AR device can track and overlay graphics onto

real-world objects. Business provides the first use cases. They include DHL's use of wearables
and AR in a warehouse toachieve a 25% improvement in the picking process. 3 Our research has
found that 11% of organizations are already using AR, and 13% are piloting it. 4

The landscape of immersive consumer and business content and applications will evolve
dramatically through 2021. The market for HMDs will grow and evolve significantly in 2017 and
2018. Figure 4 shows our forecast for sales of HMDs through 2020. In the near term, consumers
will rapidly adopt HMDs, with video games being the first popular HMD app type. Morespecialized HMDs, and VR and AR content solutions, will become available for businesses.
Through 2021, HMD technology will improve drastically.

Figure 4. Forecast for Sales of Head-Mounted Displays, 2015-2020

SOURCE: GARTNER (OCTOBER 2016)

Integration of VR and AR with multiple mobile, wearable, IoT and sensor-rich environments and
conversational systems (the mesh) will extend immersive applications beyond isolated and
single-person experiences. Rooms and spaces will become active with things, and their
connection through the mesh will appear and work in conjunction with immersive virtual worlds.
Imagine a warehouse that can not only recognize the presence of workers, but also help them
understand the state of its equipment, and can visually point out areas needing attention.
Although the potential of VR and AR is impressive, there will be many challenges and
roadblocks.
Identify key target personas and explore digital mesh scenarios. For example, explore the needs
of, and business value for, a target user in different settings, such as at home, in a car, at work,
with a customer or traveling.

Related research:
"Market Guide for Augmented Reality"
"Forecast Snapshot: Wearable Gesture Devices, Worldwide, 2016 Update"
"Top 10 Wearable Technologies and Capabilities in 2017 and 2018"
"Virtual Reality: What Marketers Need to Know Now"
"What's Hot in Digital Commerce Marketing, 2016"
"The First Three Steps in Evaluating the Role of Head-Mounted Displays for Field
Service"

Trend No. 5: Digital Twins

A digital twin is a dynamic software model of a physical thing or system that relies on sensor data
to understand the state of the thing or system, respond to changes, improve operations, and add
value. Digital twins include a combination of:

Metadata (for example, classification, composition and structure)

Condition or state (for example, location and temperature)

Event data (for example, time series)

Analytics (for example, algorithms and rules)

By 2020, we estimate there will be more than 21 billion connected sensors and endpoints, and
digital twins will exist for potentially billions of things. Benefits will include asset optimization and
improved user experience in nearly all industries. Initially, businesses will use digital twins for
more complex, high-value assets, but eventually, they will use them for lower-value assets based
on the use model. They will use digital twins to:

Repair equipment and plan for its service

Predict equipment failure or increase operational efficiency

Plan manufacturing processes

Operate factories

Perform enhanced product development (by simulating the behavior of new products
based on digital-twin insight from previous products, taking into account their cost,
environment and performance)

Industries with high-value assets (for example, transportation and manufacturing) and industries
with mission-critical remits (for example, aerospace and defense) instrument and model complex
things (for example, cars, aircraft, spacecraft, machines and pumps). However, the degree of
integration between the digital model and the operation of the physical thing varies greatly.
These industries can use digital twins to evolve from a traditional preventive maintenance
schedule to predictive, condition-based asset maintenance.
The idea of modeling the much larger number of common things cars, buildings and consumer
products from virtual models, with functional behavior embedded to make day-to-day

decisions about the physical world, is only just emerging. Today, digital twins are used by only a
few professional communities, such as product engineers and data scientists, in select
industries, such as manufacturing and utilities. During the next five to 10 years, operations
managers will also use them for a broader set of assets where the cost-benefit analysis of risks
in operations makes the case for digital twins compelling.

If your organization has high-value assets, consider using digital twins to help increase their
manageability, flexibility, reliability and efficiency. The shift from preventive to predictive
(condition-based) maintenance is a particularly well-established, high-value use of digital twins.
Ideally, a digital twin implements one-for-one monitoring and control for each distinct physical
asset. Authorized parties can query or control the digital-twin counterpart.

If your organization has lower-value assets, consider whether you can use simpler digital twins
economically to improve the reliability and user experience of those assets. Digital twins don't
have to be comprehensive. You might be able to achieve a substantial benefit by instrumenting
and modeling only one critical component of a device for example, only the high-value, critical
compressor in an air conditioner. Beware of overengineering a digital twin at the risk of adding
unnecessary cost (for sensors, data collection and analysis, for example) when simpler models
are as effective. However, you'll probably require more sophisticated digital models when
building intelligent things.
Digital twins are proxies for a combination of skilled individuals (such as technicians) and
traditional monitoring devices and controls (for example, pressure gauges and pressure valves).
Organizations that perform sophisticated work, such as NASA and the military, have been
building complex models of their assets for years. However, most organizations will implement
simple digital-twin models or link digital services to data feeds from the physical asset at first.
They will then evolve the models and services, improving their ability to collect and visualize the
right data, apply the right analytics and rules, and respond more effectively to the changing
condition of things. Increasingly, digital services and digital-twin models will provide the digital
capabilities that the physical asset needs in order to operate (see Figure 5). This will require a
culture change. Technicians, engineers and operations personnel who understand the operation
and maintenance of real-world things must collaborate with data scientists and other IT
professionals who use digital twins and have an expanding role in improving safety, reliability and
performance.

Figure 5. Digital-Twin Models Are Digital-Entity Models for Assets

SOURCE: GARTNER (OCTOBER 2016)

Approach digital twins incrementally, concentrating on immediate business value. If your

organization is on the leading edge, focused on disruptive innovation or in an industry with
complex assets, be more aggressive in exploiting digital twins, despite the emerging status of the
trend. If your organization is more mainstream, with more-modest innovation needs and less
complex assets, take a slower approach. Create simple digital twins that monitor and control
crucial aspects of things, then expand your digital twins over time to represent things more
comprehensively. Seek IoT solutions either IoT devices or IoT software that provide digitaltwin templates that you can use to create digital twins for your particular requirements and
assets.
Related research:
"Use the IoT Platform Reference Model to Plan Your IoT Business Solutions"
"Digital Business Is Transforming New Product Development Priorities"
"Reframing Your Mindset to Match Digital-Era Reality"
"Hype Cycle for the Internet of Things, 2016"
"Envision the IoT-Enabled R&D Digital Laboratory of the Future"
"Market Guide: MPM and MbM Software Enable Digital Manufacturing"
"Industry Vision: Life Science R&D as a Digital Innovation Orchestration Engine"

Trend No. 6: Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers

A distributed ledger is an expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable transactional
records shared by all participants in a network. Each record contains a time stamp and reference
links to the previous transactions. With this information, anyone with access rights can trace back
a transactional event, at any point in its history, belonging to any participant.

A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger in which value-exchange transactions (in bitcoin or

another token) are sequentially grouped into blocks (see Figure 6). Each block is chained to the
previous block and immutably recorded across a peer-to-peer network, using cryptographic trust
and assurance mechanisms. Depending on the implementation, transactions can include
programmable behavior. The term "blockchain" is also used to refer to a loosely combined set of
technologies and processes that span middleware, database, security, analytics/AI, monetary
and identity management concepts. Blockchain is also becoming the common shorthand for a
diverse collection of distributed-ledger products, with more than 20 offerings in the market.

Figure 6. Key Elements of Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers

SOURCE: GARTNER (OCTOBER 2016)

Blockchain and distributed-ledger concepts are gaining attention, because they hold the promise
to transform industry operating models. Multiple business use cases are yet to be proven, but
52% of those we surveyed believe that blockchains will affect their business. 5 Although the hype
surrounding blockchains concerns their use in the financial services industry, they have many
potential applications beyond financial services, including music distribution, identity verification,
title registry and supply chain. Smart contracts enabled by blockchain technology will drive the
programmable economy. It is likely that blockchain technology will evolve and be rapidly
accepted by the manufacturing, government, healthcare and education sectors.
Today, bitcoin is the only proven blockchain. Its permissionless architecture not only supports
bitcoin transactions, but also enables authoritative recording of events, immutable snippets of
data and simple programmable scripts. These features are exciting, but come at a cost,
including:

Lack of scalability

Lack of complete transparency

Limitations concerning consumption of resources

Operational risk from unintended centralization of resources (mining)

Lack of alignment to, and accommodation of, existing legal and accounting frameworks

Other blockchain technologies bring further adoption challenges, including a lack of:

Standards

Robust platforms

Scalable distributed consensus systems

Interoperability mechanisms

There are three types of ledgers:

Permissionless public ledgers: Operate for any (unknown/untrusted) user. Users can
access the ledger and contribute transactions or new sets of data. Examples: The bitcoin
blockchain or Ethereum.

Permissioned private ledgers: Operate exclusively within a defined community of

known/trusted participants, such as financial institutions and government agencies. The
community (or designated authority) controls access and contribution to the
ledger. Examples: Chain, Bankchain, SETL and Domus Tower.

Permissioned public ledgers: Operate on behalf of a community of interest. The access

controls are owned/managed by rules. Example: Ripple.

A critical aspect of blockchain technology today is the unregulated, ungoverned creation and
transfer of funds, exemplified by bitcoin. It is this capability that funds much of blockchain
development, but also concerns regulators and governments. The debates about permissioned,
permissionless, hybrid and private ecosystems and governance will force a more-robust analysis
of distributed ledgers. As these analyses are completed, workable solutions will evolve.

Blockchains and distributed ledgers make transactions simpler. Using a public blockchain can
potentially remove the need for central authorities in arbitrating transactions. This is because
trust is built into the model through immutable records on a distributed ledger. The potential of
this technology to radically transform economic interactions should raise critical questions for
society, governments and enterprises, for which there are no clear answers today. Begin
evaluating blockchains and distributed ledgers, even if you don't aggressively adopt the
technologies in the next few years.
Most distributed-ledger initiatives are still in the early alpha or beta testing stage. Recent versions
incorporate assets, data and executable programs allowing for customized applications. These
ecosystems have value, but concerns remain about, for example, the viability of the
technologies, startups, security (software and hardware), scalability, legality and interoperability.

It is likely that development will continue in parallel for the immediate future, and it is probable
that two or more ledger models will operate together.

Develop clear language and definitions for internal discussions about the nature of the
technology. Recognize that the terminology surrounding blockchains is in flux. This uncertainty
masks the potential suitability of technology solutions to meet business use cases.
Consequently, use extreme caution when interacting with vendors that have illdefined/nonexistent blockchain offerings. Ensure you are clearly identifying how the term
"blockchain" is being used and applied, both internally and by providers. Closely monitor
distributed-ledger developments, including related initiatives, such as consensus mechanism
development, sidechains and blockchains. Resources permitting, consider distributed ledger as
proof-of-concept development. But, before embarking on a distributed-ledger project, ensure
your team has the cryptographic skills to understand what is and isn't possible. Identify the
integration points with existing infrastructures to determine the necessary future investments, and
monitor the platform evolution and maturation.

Related research:
"Hype Cycle for Blockchain Technologies and the Programmable Economy, 2016"
"Experiment With Blockchains for Data Management Innovation"
"The Bitcoin Blockchain: The Magic and the Myths"
"Innovation Insight for Blockchain Security"
"Toolkit: Overview of Blockchain Use Cases"
"What Insurance CIOs Need to Know About Blockchain"
"How to Evolve Your Trade Finance Strategy With Smart Assets and Blockchain"

Trend No. 7: Conversational Systems

A conversational UI is a high-level design model in which user and machine interactions occur
mainly in the user's spoken or written natural language. Interactions are typically informal and
bidirectional. The interaction may be a simple request or question (such as "Stop!" or "What time
is it?") with a simple result or answer. However, the interaction can also be extremely complex
(such as collecting oral testimony from crime witnesses), resulting in highly complex results (the
creation of a suspect's image based on witness testimony, for example).

NLP will rapidly replace rule-based synonym and phrase substitution approaches. Dynamic
natural-language ontologies or knowledge graphs at multiple levels of specificity will be needed
to support NLP capabilities, such as disambiguation, concept identification and relationship
extraction.

A conversational system uses a conversational UI as its main interface mode. People and
machines communicate across a wide range of mesh devices (such as sensors, appliances and
IoT systems). Immersive, continuous and contextual user experience elements enable this
communication using a range of input/output modalities (such as sight, sound, touch, smell, taste
and radar). The "conversation" between the human and the machine uses all these modalities to
create a comprehensive conversational experience.
The conversational technology from major technology providers such as Apple (Siri), Google
(Google Now), Amazon (Alexa) and Microsoft (Cortana) will deliver an increasingly intelligent
contextual experience. This will act as an intermediary service between users and the rapidly
growing set of apps and content on their mobile devices and in the cloud.

User experiences with general-purpose VPAs are often unsatisfying, because the systems try to
address a very broad set of question and action scenarios. Amazon has shown that a narrower
focus increases usability. Amazon's Echo appliance and Alexa assistant have a more narrowly
targeted set of question and action domains with a focus on developing related "skills" that are
simple and intuitive. VPA experiences will improve as the AI back end for VPA systems
continues to evolve and providers open up their systems for developers to provide tighter links to
their applications for targeted scenarios. In addition, the evolving models for delivering voiceenabled solutions will expand conversational systems well beyond speaker appliances and
mobile devices.
The current conversational interface method focuses on devices with microphones and speakers,
but not necessarily devices with screens. However, the device mesh one of our top 10
strategic technology trends for 2016 encompasses an expanding set of endpoints that people
use to access applications and information, or to interact with people, social communities,
governments and businesses. The device mesh moves beyond the traditional desktop computer
and mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) to cover the full range of endpoints with which
people might interact. We expect significant innovation in new types of devices during the next
five years. User experience and app design are shifting with this expanding set of endpoints.

As the device mesh evolves, we expect that connection and interface models will expand, and
greater cooperative interaction between devices will develop. This will provide an immersive and
continuous conversational experience. New input/output mechanisms will emerge using audio,
video, touch, taste, smell and other sensory channels, such as radar, that extend beyond human
senses. This will enable people to communicate with systems, and systems to communicate with
people, in rich conversations that include more than text and voice (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Conversational Systems Include New User Experience Design Elements

I/O = input/output
SOURCE: GARTNER (OCTOBER 2016)

Apps will target an orchestrated collection of devices being used together, rather than an
individual device used in isolation. This will preserve continuity of user experience across
traditional boundaries of devices, time and space. Users will be able to interact with an
application in a dynamic multistep sequence that may last for an extended period. The
experience will flow seamlessly across multiple devices and interaction channels. It will blend
physical, virtual and electronic environments. And it will use real-time contextual information as
the ambient environment changes, or as the user moves from one place to another.

The shifting user experience will create many new digital business opportunities, but will also
pose significant IT security and management challenges. The realization of the continuous,
immersive and conversational user experience will require a profoundly better appreciation of
privacy and permission. Missteps by some organizations will probably lead to regulation that will
affect everyone.
Related research:
"Smart Agents Will Drive the Switch From Technology-Literate People, to People-Literate
Technology"
"Hype Cycle for Human-Machine Interface, 2016"
"How User Experience Can Make or Break Your Customer Experience"
"Conversational AI to Shake Up Your Technical and Business Worlds"
"Forecast Snapshot: VPA-Enabled Wireless Speakers, Worldwide, 2016"
"Smartphones, Tablets and Things It's Time to Integrate Your Mobile and IoT
Strategies"

Trend No. 8: Mesh App and Service Architecture

Exploiting the opportunities and dealing with the dynamism of the intelligent digital mesh require
changes to the architecture, technologies and tools used to design, develop and deliver
solutions. The mesh app and service architecture (MASA) is a multichannel solution architecture
that supports multiple users in multiple roles using multiple devices and communicating over
multiple networks to access application functions. The architecture encapsulates services and
exposes APIs at multiple levels and across organizational boundaries. It balances the demand
for agility and scalability of services with their composition and reuse. The MASA enables users
to have an optimized solution for targeted endpoints (such as desktops, smartphones and
automobiles), as well as a continuous experience as they shift across these different channels.

Miniservices and microservices are highly complementary service models in the MASA.
Monolithic applications are refactored into shared, reusable miniservices that reduce the scope of
a service down to an individual capability. Miniservices are designed to support composition and
reuse. These services publish APIs that can be accessed from client apps and from other
services, and they enable integration and interoperability across application systems.
Microservices reduce the scope of a service down to an individual feature or function optimized
for agility and scalability at a detailed feature level. Typically, a microservice doesn't publish its
API for access outside its immediate application scope.

Teams often build a miniservice to publish an API that encapsulates a set of microservices that
together implement a capability. The miniservice surfaces the capability (to mobile apps, for
example), while the microservices implement the individual features within the capability.
Applications themselves may expose a higher-level set of APIs that don't expose all the
underlying miniservice APIs.

Abstraction via APIs is a core MASA principle. OS containers represent an approach providing a
higher level of abstraction above the virtual machine. Serverless computing is another
abstraction model building on these concepts and gaining ground. In this cloud computing model,
the provider fully manages the infrastructure (for example, virtual machines) to serve application
requests so that the developer doesn't have to think about the server resources. This is why it is
called "serverless," although the provider still owns and operates servers behind the scenes.
MASA exploits both containers and serverless computing, in addition to APIs and events
connecting services, to support a more agile, flexible and rapid-change environment.

Digital twins, IoT solutions and conversational AI platforms (such as Microsoft's Cortana, Google
Now, Apple's Siri and Amazon Echo/Alexa) require an event-driven approach. However, most

production systems are designed for web APIs and request-driven synchronous application
architectures, including most service-oriented architecture (SOA) implementations and RESTbased design. MASA approaches will shift to an "events first, response second" approach during
the next five years. Both models are essential to modern business, but in the intelligent digital
mesh, the main focus will shift toward the event-driven model (see Figure 8). For example,
responding in real time to a distress signal from a home device, changing trucking itineraries in
response to new road or weather information, and providing "live" purchase order support can
empower customers and create a differentiating business advantage.

Figure 8. The Shift to a Central Role for Event Processing in Digital Business

SOURCE: GARTNER (OCTOBER 2016)

The event-driven model is particularly suitable to web-scale application design, where

microservices seek to maximize autonomy and agility, and where autonomy enables parallelism
for extreme scale. Event-driven architecture optimizes for agility, resiliency, lower cost for change
and extension, open-ended design, and web scale. The request-driven and event-driven
application design models are complementary. Both can be useful and appropriate, depending
on the type of business process being implemented. However, most organizations use event
processing for narrow purposes in isolated application contexts they don't consider it a
prevailing application design model equal to the common request-driven SOA. This must change
to accommodate the push to digital business and enable organizations to choose the most
appropriate design model for the task at hand.

As adoption of event processing as a mainstream model of application design increases, the

complementary use of service-oriented and event-driven architectures will transform the MASA
into a mesh of apps, events and services.
Related research:
"Mediated APIs: An Essential Application Architecture for Digital Business"
"Articulating the Business Value of APIs"
"Assessing Microservices for Cloud-Native Application Architecture and Delivery"
"Orchestrating Docker Container-Based Cloud and Microservices Applications"
"Use Agile and DevOps to Implement Lean IT and Improve Software Delivery"
"CTO Alert: Master Event-Driven IT to Master Digital Business"
"Add Event-Stream Processing to Your Business Analytics Repertoire"

Trend No. 9: Digital Technology Platforms

A digital technology platform is a symbiotic collection of technology capabilities and components.
These provide an interoperable set of services that can be brought together to create
applications, apps and services. Digital technology platforms provide the basic building blocks
for, and are a critical enabler of, digital business. The platform viewpoint gives you a technology
anchor model to guide technology vision, reducing complexity and redundancy.

We have identified five major digital technology platform types to enable the new capabilities and
business models of digital business:

Information system platform Supports the back office, operations such as ERP, core
systems, and associated middleware and development capabilities to deliver solutions.

Customer experience platform Contains the main customer-facing elements, such

as customer and citizen portals, multichannel commerce, and customer apps.

Analytics and intelligence platform Contains information management and

analytical capabilities. Data management programs and analytical applications fuel datadriven decision making, and algorithms automate discovery and action.

IoT platform Connects physical assets for monitoring, optimization, control and
monetization. Capabilities include connectivity, analytics, and integration with core and
operational technology systems.

Business ecosystem platform Supports the creation of, and connection to, external
ecosystems, marketplaces and communities. API management, control and security are
the main elements.

The MASA highlights key platform elements for the information system and business ecosystem
platforms. These include the move to modular API and event-driven services, as well as the
associated tools (such as API management) to operate these next-generation systems. Two

other elements are emerging to deliver customer experience, advanced analytics and
intelligence, and the IoT: IoT platforms and conversational AI platforms (CAPs).

IoT platforms are a collection of technologies and standards that form a base set of capabilities
for communicating, controlling, managing and securing elements of the IoT. Flexible and stable
IoT platform services are needed for building IoT solutions and connecting them to business
solutions. Leading organizations with multiple IoT initiatives create IoT centers of excellence to
aid the cross-disciplinary collaboration required for success. Although IoT platforms are
essential, they remain fragmented and immature, requiring complex integration efforts. Entrants
to the IoT platform market are driving rapid change from specialized IoT platforms toward more
comprehensive offerings.

CAPs are general-purpose platforms that deliver a new paradigm supporting AI-rich, pervasive,
proactive and conversational applications (see Figure 9). A range of focused AI services are
needed, including NLP, deep learning, sentiment analysis, personality profiling, conceptrelationship extraction, and other methods for inferring intent from content and context.

Figure 9. Abstract System Model for Conversational Artificial Intelligence Platform

SOURCE: GARTNER (OCTOBER 2016)

The conversational aspect of the CAP supports the development of conversational systems, with
NLP rapidly replacing rule-based synonym and phrase substitution to interpret user input.
Dynamic natural-language ontologies or knowledge graphs at multiple levels of specificity will be
needed to support NLP capabilities, such as disambiguation, concept identification and
relationship extraction.

Tools and services to support immersive, continuous and contextual experience that goes
beyond the voice-/text-powered conversational interface deliver the pervasive aspect of the CAP.

The CAP's proactive aspect offers nondisruptive simplification for the user, with the system
adapting to the user rather than the user having to adapt to the system. The platform detects
patterns in the user's behavior, asks questions to clarify the user's requests, provides unsolicited
and meaningful suggestions, and autonomously takes action on the user's behalf. CAP-enabled
applications move away from fixed commands for communications between people, bots,
agents, assistants, applications and other services. Many vendors are speeding to market with
new CAPs that will host a broad range of solutions.
The IoT platform benefits from the CAP in many ways. The CAP's conversational nature
removes the need for the user to recall specific commands, syntax or parameters for remotecontrol IoT use cases. By its nature, an IoT system can consist of a myriad of protocols up and
down the stack (see "IoT Communications Architecture Demystified" ). The CAP's NLP
capabilities provide an abstraction that can potentially ease cross-protocol communication
issues. The CAP's AI capabilities enable it to learn from data ingested from individual objects
over time. This provides more value to the overall IoT system and can accelerate digital-twin
efforts.

Similarly, the CAP benefits from the IoT platform in several ways. The IoT platform provides the
underlying infrastructure that facilitates communication and action among users, objects and
applications. The IoT platform enables the CAP to reach out not only to apps, but also to
individual objects and systems (and their associated data and analytics). The IoT provides data
from more sources (input), as well as potential actions that affect the physical world (output). This
allows for a richer CAP experience for the user, with more opportunities for automation and
efficiency.

Technology providers are already starting to experiment with the symbiotic relationship between
the CAP and IoT-related platform services. In its August 2016 update, Microsoft's Skype division
added the "If This Then That" (IFTTT) bot to its bot directory. 6 It can interact with more than 50
different types of IoT devices, ranging from cars to wearables to connected home devices.

Related research:
"Building a Digital Business Technology Platform"
"The Platform Architect's Guide to Designing IoT Solutions"
"Market Guide for IoT Platforms"
"Cool Vendors in the Internet of Things, 2016"
"Use the IoT Platform Reference Model to Plan Your IoT Business Solutions"
"Conversational AI to Shake Up Your Technical and Business Worlds"

Trend No. 10: Adaptive Security Architecture

The intelligent digital mesh and related digital technology platforms and application architectures
create an ever-more-complex world for security. The continuing evolution of the "hacker industry"
and its use of increasingly sophisticated tools including the same advanced technologies
available to enterprises significantly increase the threat potential. Relying on perimeter
defense and rule-based security is inadequate and outdated, especially as organizations exploit
more cloud-based services and open APIs for customers and partners to create business
ecosystems. IT leaders must focus on detecting and responding to threats, as well as more
traditional measures, such as blocking, to prevent attacks and other abuses. Organizations will
need security-aware application design, application self-protection, user and entity behavior
analytics, API protection, and specific tools and techniques to address IoT and intelligent
app/thing vulnerabilities.

Security architecture starts with network security and access control, vulnerability management,
endpoint protection and basic monitoring. However, these controls alone are insufficient. Hackers
target applications and content sources, as well as individual services that have intentionally
been opened to the outside world to promote the development of business ecosystems, and
digital-twin models that can monitor and control physical assets. Applications, services and
models are a critical element in the security equation, and a security mindset is vital when
designing, developing and testing these applications.
Organizations must overcome the barriers between security teams and application teams, much
as DevOps tools and processes overcome the divide between development and operations.
Security teams can't afford to wait until the end of the build-and-release pipeline to offer
meaningful feedback. Security requirements must be clearly communicated and easily integrated
into work processes. Security teams must work with application, solution and enterprise
architects to build security into the overall DevOps process, resulting in a DevSecOps model.

User and entity behavior analytics are an important emerging category of security (see Figure
10). They profile and baseline the activity of users, peer groups and other entities, such as
endpoints, applications and networks. They correlate user and other entity activities and
behaviors, and detect anomalous behavior and patterns using advanced machine learning and
statistical models that compare activity to profiles. User and entity behavior analytics show, for
example, whether individuals are visiting sites they haven't visited before or are downloading
things they don't normally download. Unusual behavior triggers alarms or an automated
response. Much venture capital exists in this area, along with new tools and technologies.

Figure 10. User and Entity Behavior Analytics

DAP = database audit and protection; DLP = data loss prevention; SIEM = security information
and event management
SOURCE: GARTNER (OCTOBER 2016)

Traditional infrastructure and perimeter protection technologies can't ensure accurate detection
of application vulnerabilities and protection against application-level attacks. Moreover, they can't
protect against behind-the-perimeter insider attacks, which are as devastating as outsider
attacks. Therefore, technologies are emerging that enable application security self-testing, selfdiagnostics and self-protection. Still, application-layer controls that are external to the application
play an important role in defending against distributed denial-of-service and automated attacks,
as well as providing security capabilities on behalf of a group of protected applications.

The scale and diversity of the intelligent digital mesh poses a significant security challenge. This
is driving the need for robust IoT security architecture and practices with a particular focus on
endpoint devices. The IoT elements are diverse and use much non-IT hardware and many
protocols, creating additional challenges. Moreover, the bridging of the divide between IT and
operational technology sees a disconnection between traditional IT security technologies and
practices, with engineers more familiar with, and focused on, reliability and safety practices.

Resilience and security need to be designed into digital business solutions. Business
stakeholders must include privacy, safety and reliability objectives, and consider protection as
well as recovery. Organizations that embrace the DevSecOps model emphasizing security-aware
app/service/model design are best placed to accomplish this goal. As demonstrations of
automobile hacking have shown, 7 design considerations must include levels of isolation between
solution components. Different levels of security must be applied based on the risk exposure of
different systems.

Digital twins consolidate massive amounts of information on individual assets and groups of
assets, often providing control of those assets. As the digital-twin trend evolves, twins will
communicate with one another to create "digital factory" models of multiple linked digital twins.
Digital twins of assets will be linked to other digital entities for people (digital personas),
processes (law enforcement) and spaces (digital cities). Understanding the links across these
digital entities, isolating elements where needed and tracking interactions will be vital to support
a secure digital environment.
A number of factors can help secure the IoT environment. Ensure that device hardware and
software are resistant to attacks and are secure (for example, by implementing secure software
updates). Secure all access and communication channels with appropriate access control,
authentication or encryption, and closely monitor API access to systems, particularly where these
APIs are intentionally opened for outside entities. Use established security technologies as a
baseline to secure IoT platforms. Monitor user and entity behavior, particularly in IoT scenarios.
Implement sufficient security monitoring and management practices for edge devices, including
secure updates. However, the IoT edge is a new frontier for many IT security professionals,
creating new vulnerability areas. It often requires new remediation tools and processes that must
be factored into IoT platform efforts.

Related research:
"The Fast-Evolving State of Security Analytics, 2016"
"CISOs Need to Understand the Components of Their Information Security Programs"
"Market Guide for User and Entity Behavior Analytics"
"Best Practices and Success Stories for User Behavior Analytics"
"Hype Cycle for Application Security, 2016"
"A Primer for Building Resilience and Security Into Internet of Things Solution
Architecture"
"DevSecOps: How to Seamlessly Integrate Security Into DevOps"

Gartner Recommended Reading

Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.
"Smart Agents Will Drive the Switch From Technology-Literate People, to People-Literate
Technology"
"Hype Cycle for the Internet of Things, 2016"
"Hype Cycle for Application Architecture, 2016"
"Five Steps for Event-Triggered Multichannel Marketing"

Evidence
N. Lavars, "Drones Autonomously Build a Walkable Rope Bridge," New Atlas, 22 September
2015.
2
L. Seligman, "How Swarming Drones Could Change the Face of Air Warfare," DefenseNews, 17
May 2016.
1

"DHL Successfully Tests Augmented Reality Application in Warehouse," DHL, 26 January 2015.
Gartner conducted a survey about digital technologies and transformation. We asked
representatives from 208 organizations about subjects, including their use of AR. We found that:
Eleven percent are already using AR.
Thirteen percent are piloting AR.
Thirteen percent plan to implement AR in the next year.
Seventeen percent expect to implement AR within two to three years.
5
Gartner surveyed 208 organizations about digital business transformation.
6
Pradeep, "Microsoft Introduces New Bots Into the Skype Bot Directory," MSPoweruser, 3
August 2016.
7
A. Greenberg, "The Jeep Hackers Are Back to Prove Car Hacking Can Get Much
Worse," Wired, 1 August 2016.
3
4

2016 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this

publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained

herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as

to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Although Gartners research may

discuss legal issues related to the information technology business, Gartner does not provide legal

advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner shall have

no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for

interpretations thereof. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.