Dive Brief:
- Gartner released its annual top 10 list of strategic predictions at its Symposium ITxpo in Orlando yesterday.
- This year’s list includes a significant focus on robots, robotic systems and automation. The firm predicts robotic systems will take over a number of tasks and duties in the near future.
- Among other things, the firm predicts millions of employees will be required to wear health and fitness tracking devices as a condition of employment by 2018.
Dive Insight:
Gartner predicts that by 2018, six billion connected things will be requesting support, more than three million workers globally will be supervised by a roboboss, and 50% of the fastest-growing companies will have more smart machines than employees.
A few years further down the road, by 2020, the firm predicts smart agents similar to Siri will facilitate 40% of mobile interactions.
Gartner also predicts that by 2018, two million employees will be required to wear health and fitness tracking devices as a condition of employment.
"We're all being monitored by something," said Daryl Plummer, a Gartner analyst. But he adds that the use of these devices in the future might not only reduce a company’s health insurance rates, they might also determine whether or not an employee keeps his or her job if they fail to keep themselves healthy.
