Tech Experts Predict What 2025 Will Look Like
Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock.com
Nearly everyone surveyed was hopeful about the life-changing prospects of the Internet of Things.
In ten years time, you may well be answering a call on your implanted iPhone 43S about your blockchain tax audit as you are driven along in a self-driving car en route to the robot-run pharmacy.
At least, that’s what a group of over 800 IT executives and scientists surveyed by the World Economic Forum believe. A recent report, entitled Technological Tipping Points and Societal Impact, asked industry leaders what technological advancements they believed we would have by 2025.
Nearly everyone surveyed was bullish on the life-changing prospects of the Internet of Things. About 91% of respondents said they thought at least 10% of people will be wearing web-connected clothes in 2025—which Google is currently working on—and 89% believed we’ll have 1 trillion IoT sensors deployed across the world.
3D printing—a technology that still hasn’t revolutionized any industry—will apparently upend multiple industries in the near future. Over 84% of respondents believe the first 3D-printed car will roll off the printing bed in 2025, and over three-quarters of respondents believe a 3D-printed liver will be inside someone around the same time, which given the current state of medical 3D printing, may not be too hard to believe. But consumer goods—things for your and my daily life—is still likely to be untouched by 3D printing—about 81% of respondents believed that only 5% of consumer products will be 3D-printed in the next decade.
Here’s the full list of the tipping points the group of experts believe we’ll reach in the next ten years:
| Tipping points in 2025 | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 10% of people wearing clothes connected to the internet | 91.2% |
| 90% of people having unlimited and free (advertising-supported) storage | 91 |
| 1 trillion sensors connected to the internet | 89.2 |
| The first robotic pharmacist in the US | 86.5 |
| 10% of reading glasses connected to the internet | 85.5 |
| 80% of people with a digital presence on the internet | 84.4 |
| The first 3D-printed car in production | 84.1 |
| The first government to replace its census with big-data sources | 82.9 |
| The first implantable mobile phone available commercially | 81.7 |
| 5% of consumer products printed in 3D | 81.1 |
| 90% of the population using smartphones | 80.7 |
| 90% of the population with regular access to the internet | 78.8 |
| Driverless cars equalling 10% of all cars on US roads | 78.2 |
| The first transplant of a 3D-printed liver | 76.4 |
| 30% of corporate audits performed by AI | 75.4 |
| Tax collected for the first time by a government via a blockchain | 73.1 |
| Over 50% of internet traffic to homes for appliances and devices | 69.9 |
| Globally more trips/journeys via car sharing than in private cars | 67.2 |
| The first city with more than 50,000 people and no traffic lights | 63.7 |
| 10% of global gross domestic product stored on blockchain technology | 57.9 |
| The first AI machine on a corporate board of directors | 45.2 |
(Image via Sergey Nivens/ Shutterstock.com)