Gartner's top strategic predictions for 2016 and beyond examine how digital technologies will transform business and society. Key predictions include: 1. The relationship between people and machines will evolve from cooperative to co-dependent to competitive as machines perform more tasks. 2. "Smartness" will be applied across work environments through technologies like machine learning, autonomous agents, and adaptive security architectures. 3. The "nexus of forces" driving digital transformation will create new scenarios requiring advanced systems architecture and new IT approaches.

1. Top 10 Strategic Predictions
for 2016 and Beyond:
The Future Is a Digital Thing
Daryl Plummer

2. Smart-StartEvolving Nexus"Robos" Rising

3. Device mesh Information of everything
Adaptive security architecture
New IT Reality
Mesh app and service architecture
IoT architecture and platformsAdvanced systems architecture
Digital Mesh Smart Machines
Continuous and ambient experience
3D printing materials
Machine learning
Autonomous agents and things

4. Three Things to Consider …
The relationship between people and machines will go
from cooperative, to co-dependent, to competitive1
"Smartness" is being applied across the fabric
of the work environment2
The Nexus of Forces is evolving into a new set
of scenarios3

5. It's said that, given enough time, an infinite number of
monkeys could write the entire works of Shakespeare
Could robowriters
do it in a matter
of hours?

6. By 2018, 20% of all business content
will be authored by machines1
CIO:
Identify opportunities to adopt automated
content generation services now
Near-Term Flag:
Next year, watch for a hiring freeze on
copywriters in favor of robowriting solutions
Analysis by: Karen A. Hobert, Martin Kihn

7. The "Robos" Have Already Begun to Rise
Machines will create significant
amounts of business content
Have you ever
wondered how
narrative science
could be used
to enhance
your job?

8. But how much
help can we
afford to give?
A Co-Dependent Relationship Can Be Beneficial
1 Million
New IoT devices
will be purchased
every hour of every
day in 2021

9. By 2018, 6 billion connected things
will be requesting support2
IT Leaders:
Start viewing "things" as
customers of services
and learn to market to
them and to satisfy their
nonhuman requests
Analysis by: Jenny Sussin, Jim Tully, Kristin Moyer and Don
Scheibenreif

10. By 2020, autonomous software agents
outside of human control will participate
in 5% of all economic transactions
3
CIOs: Study technologies
based on crypto-currencies to
become familiar with the
predominant decentralized
value-exchange platforms
Use pattern matching
algorithms to detect
robothieves
Analysis by: Magnus Revang, Ray Valdes, and David
Furlonger

11. If you found out
your dog was an android,
would you still love it?
If you found out
your boss
was a robot,
would you obey
its directives?

12. By 2018, more than 3 million workers
globally will be supervised by a "roboboss"4
IT Leaders:
Train managers to focus on
"human" issues such as creative
leadership, worker relations and
strategic planning
Analysis by: Whit Andrews, Frances Karamouzis, Ken Brant,
Helen Poitevin, Tom Austin and Diane Morello

13. Students hacking the school system
Connected Systems Offer More Openings to Attack
Cars remotely hijacked

14. Smart Systems Exacerbate the Problem
Smart buildings offer multiple
interconnected attack
surfaces

15. By YE18, 20% of smart buildings will
have suffered from digital vandalism5
Digital Officers:
Commission algorithms to
detect and avoid obscenities
introduced from outside
the business
Technology managers:
Establish firewalls for
HVAC controls
Analysis by: Richard Marshall and Rob Smith

16. $10 billion
By 2018, smart machine
technology
revenues will surpass
Talent
is the next smart
machine battleground
NO
POACHING

17. By 2018, 50% of the fastest-growing
companies will have fewer employees
than instances of smart machines
6
IT leaders: Establish a role for
governance and management of
a hybrid ecosystem consisting of
employees and smart machines
CIOs: Promote the use of smart
machine technology for higher
leverage as a supplement to
hiring people
Analysis by: Frances Karamouzis and Magnus Revang

18. Active biometrics
are scary
Our faces and voices
are our signatures
Passwords
are annoying

19. By YE18, customer digital assistants will
recognize individuals by face and voice
across channels and partners
7
CIOs:
Enable customer-led
rules of engagement
with an opt-in "pull
approach" to avoid
perceived privacy
threats
Analysis by: Adam Sarner

20. Worries about system
data will be dwarfed by
concerns over personal
behavioral and health data
Monitoring the Employee
Another Step Toward Quantifying the "self"

21. By 2018, 2 million employees will be
required to wear health and fitness tracking
devices as a condition of employment
8
IT leaders:
Establish policies for
gaining employee
permission to share
fitness data with
wellness providers
Analysis by: Angela McIntyre, Sylvain Fabre, and Adrian Leow

22. From Single
Task Apps …
To Complex
Human
Interactions …
The Post-Mobile/Post-App Era is Coming

23. By 2020, smart agents will facilitate 40%
of mobile interactions, and the post-app
era will begin to dominate
9
IT leaders:
Evaluate virtual personal assistants
(VPAs) for workforce productivity
Develop cloud services with open
VPA APIs
Assess security and privacy
concerns for potential data leakage
Analysis by: Richard Marshall, Van Baker, Adrian Leow, Charles
Smulders, Ray Valdes and Jason Wong

24. Today:
Stop Blaming Cloud
Security
Cloud service providers
are more secure than
the average enterprise
data center
Tomorrow:
Start Growing Your
Cloud Security
Responsibility
Customer errors
and security gaps
have always been
THE key vulnerability

25. Through 2020, 95% of cloud security
failures will be the customer's fault10
IT leaders:
Use cloud access security brokers to
discover if your SaaS is exposing
sensitive data internally or externally
Security Leaders:
Do not assume that the security of small
or regional cloud providers is as good as
large or global cloud providers
Analysis by: Jay Heiser

26. The Future Is Ours
#GartnerSYM
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27.  Top Strategic Predictions for 2016 and Beyond: The Future is a Digital Thing
Daryl C. Plummer and others (G00291252)
 Gartner's Top Strategic Predictions for 2015 and Beyond: Digital Business Is
Driving 'Big Change'
Daryl C. Plummer and others (G00269904)
 Smart Machines Demand a Smart Approach to IT Asset Management
Victoria Barber and Hank Marquis (G00274396)
 Smart Machines See Major Breakthroughs After Decades of Failure
Tom Austin (G00291251)
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