Here we look at IBM’s top five technology predictions for 2019 and how they will impact all of our lives over the next five years. This year, their predictions include artificial intelligence, blockchains and digital twins, and how they can help feed the world.

1. 5 Big Technology Innovations Of
2019:
IBM Unveils How They Will Transform
All Our Lives

2. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
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IntroductionIntroduction
Each year researchers at IBM list “5 in 5” – five ways in which technology will
change the world in the next five years. This year, the overarching theme is on
feeding the world by using technology to reduce hunger and waste.
Within the next five years, the world’s population will hit the 8 billion mark, with
one billion of them not having adequate access to the food supplies necessary
for a healthy life.
5 Big Technology Innovations Of 2019:
IBM Unveils How They Will Transform All Our Lives

3. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Title
Text
IntroductionIntroduction
At the same time, some 45% of the world’s food supply is currently lost to waste.
So, does technology hold the key to solving the planet’s food crisis?
Here are five technological solutions being proposed, which will be discussed at
IBM Think conference in San Francisco, which starts today.
5 Big Technology Innovations Of 2019:
IBM Unveils How They Will Transform All Our Lives

4. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
From Tiny Seeds, Digital Twins Can Grow
The concept of building digital twins to enable us to learn from simulations has taken hold
in industry, and in agriculture too, it holds a great deal of promise.
Highly accurate sensors and data-gathering technology allow increasingly detailed and
close-to-reality simulations to be constructed digitally, to experiment with new methods
of food production and increase efficiency and crop yields.
At the same time, the ecological impact of farming can be monitored and minimized, by
allowing us to achieve a better understanding of the interactions between agriculture and
the natural environment.
Governments, growers, agricultural equipment providers and food distributors such as
supermarkets will all be involved in this process and will be able to gather and share data
with each other through their own digital twin simulations.
The seeds of this revolution can already be seen in action thanks to initiatives such as John
Deere’s FarmSight system which allows farmers to generate and share data-driven insights
to improve crop yields.

5. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
A Bountiful Blockchain Harvest
Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies allow those involved in the food supply
chain to closely monitor and track the journey of food, from seed to plate. With real-time
analytics enabling a deeper understanding of how food moves through the food chain,
and where wastage occurs, growers can make more informed decisions around what
quantities should be planted, and distributors will know with more certainty where there
are likely to be shortages and surpluses.
IBM’s own Food Trust is one initiative being rolled out in this field – building a secure,
tamper-proof and permanent record of transactions between growers, suppliers,
distributors, and retailers. One way to picture the end goal of such a system is a network
of sensor technology – beginning with capturing weights of food which is shipped from
farms, and ending with an accurate record of the amount of goods which is disposed of by
shops and supermarkets because it perishes before it can be sold. With this data, artificial
intelligence systems can be developed to manage the distribution of food resources to
wherever it is needed.

6. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Microbiomes –
Genetic Analysis of Bacteria and Microbes
Just as technology evolves, so do the microbes such as bacteria that enter the human food
chain. New advances in genetic analysis will make it possible to cost-effectively monitor
and track the spread of these microbes and understand the impact they will have on
human health worldwide.
Microbes including bacteria can enter the food chain at any point – in farms, factories, and
grocery stores – increasing the quantity of food while also posing a health risk.
Understanding how they travel and interact with the food chain will lead to further
reductions in food waste and lessen the human cost of illness due to contamination.
Breakthroughs which will be explored in this area are likely to include IBM's Consortium
for Sequencing the Food Supply Chain, which has spent the past ten years building the
world’s most complete microbial genome database, which it is now working on making
accessible to academic partners.

7. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
AI “Dinner Plate Detectives."
This is another technological initiative aimed at disrupting the damage that can be caused
by food-bourn pathogens. This involves deploying artificial intelligence enabled sensors –
perhaps in the home, through mobile devices – which can detect dangerous bacteria such
as e.coli or salmonella.
Already in development by IBM scientists, mobile bacteria sensors aim to reduce the time
taken for testing for the presence of dangerous pathogens from days to seconds.
These developments aim to reduce the human cost – particularly in areas of the
developing world where poor access to antibiotics and medical care mean outbreaks can
be disastrous.

8. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Taking In The Trash –
A Revolution In Recycling
Advances in recycling technology mean increasingly efficient ways of breaking up plastics
and man-made polymers are continually being developed.
Along with increasing public awareness about the pollution being caused by our reliance
on disposable plastic, advances in this field will cut the damage to the ecosphere as well as
reduce the environmental cost of the production of plastics.
Technological innovations here include new methods of catalytic polymer “digestion” such
as VolCat, which involve developing chemical processes to more effectively break down
plastic refuse into a state where it can be fed back into the manufacturing process.
This will mean a decrease in the fossil fuels used to create “new” plastic, as well as reduced
carbon emissions from the chemical processes.
IBM’s Think 2019 conference will take place from February 12 to 15, and you can watch all
these ideas being discussed live here.

9. © 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website
© 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website

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