The stupendous growth of technology in the past couple of decades or so is just unbelievable. In the way up to this level of development the older technologies have been routinely flushed out and new ideas which disrupt the technological and the business world have constantly evolved and made peace with. In the modern world ‘tech’ seems to be the buzz word both in the media and our lives at large. Its role as a serial disruptor too has to be contended with. New ways of thinking, new paradigms, innovative inventions and newer ways to look at ourselves in all this are continuously being explored and expanded. In lieu of all this we are going to take you through some of the sectors in which this tremor is being felt deeply at the core and is thus rising with this technological tide. They have gained generously from the technological brew and also have technological research through their financial handouts. The advent of the Internet in the late 90’s and its associated services in the early 2000’s set the stage for something fabulous and a lot to be ultimately profited from. Mammoth amounts of investment flowed unperturbed to capitalise on the development and very rightly so. The effect, therefore, was of a technological upsurge unseen in the history of mankind. No industry was left untouched, a completely new way of life emerged. Social media, the android revolution, the rise of the Big Tech, films, television, and Research and Development received quantum boosts from that period alone. Here is a write-up that presents the portrayal of the same.
Artificial intelligence- Dynamic usability and an almost universal application of this technology has made it into an immensely important thing these days. From use in the high tech arena to the simplest of the things in our lives it is destined to come into the larger picture. AI applications include advanced web search engines, recommendation systems, understanding human speech, self driving and a myriad different things.
Faster computers, algorithmic improvements and access to large amounts of data enabled advances in machine learning and perception, data hungry deep learning methods started to dominate accuracy benchmarks around 2012. The number of software projects that use within Google increased from a sporadic usage to more than 2,700 projects. Well this still is the start. Additionally there has been a 14X increase in the number of active AI startups since 2000. Investment into AI startups by Venture Capitalists has increased 6X since 2000. Moreover the global revenues from AI for enterprise application was projected to grow from $1 62 billion in 2018 to $31.2 billion in 2025 attaining a 52.59% CAGR in the forecast period. AI is being used in various other sectors too. It has its applicability in the healthcare industry and even in the news and media services. Reduction in cost seems to be the prime mover for this development. Now let’s focus our attention towards two rising companies in this field.
Nvidia Corp- The most valuable semiconductor company perhaps, in the US. It reported an increase of 46% in Total revenue year over year this past quarter. The company’s gaming and data centre divisions both posted record revenue this past quarter, as well, coming in at $3.62 billion and $3.75 billion respectively. Its technology is being used in about 355 of the top500 supercomputers and in all major cloud computing services.
Alphabet Inc.– It is the parent company that holds Google. It uses Artificial intelligence in nearly every facet of its business. From driverless car offerings, building and maintaining strong AI systems is at the heart of the company’s business model. Alphabet is one of the largest companies in the world by market capitalisation, worth over $1.5 trillion, and has a price-earnings ratio around 21.
Blockchain Technology- It is a type of digital ledger technology that consists of a growing list of records called blocks, that are surely linked together using cryptography. It guarantees the fidelity and security of a record of data and generates trust without the need for a trusted third party. In August 2014, the bitcoin file size, containing records of all the transactions that have occured on the network, reached 20GB. In Jan 2015 the size grew to almost 30GB and from January 2016 to January 2017 it grew from 50GB to 100GB. Till July 2022 the value of blockchain technology is estimated to be $4.9 billion. It is projected to reach $67 billion by 2026 at a CAGR of 68.4% during the forecast period. It has seen a stupendous growth especially during the pandemic period. The need for privacy and a general distrust for a central organisation to look after the transactions could be the reason for this trend. The top companies in this field are mentioned here.
Coinbase– It is a digital portfolio that lets users buy and sell cryptocurrency. The company’s technology makes buying and managing cryptos easy with features like recurring buys and protection. Since 2012, coinbase has seen over $300 billion exchanged by more than 98 million people.
IBM – It is a cloud platform and cognitive solutions company. It has helped more than 220 businesses develop applications and data governance tools that run on blockchain.
The challenges for this sector are development of eco-friendly blockchain and getting assimilated in Central Bank Digital Lending and so on.
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) –
Virtual reality is a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world. Currently standard VR systems use either VR headsets or multi-projected environments to generate realistic images, sounds and other sensations that simulate a user’s physical presence in a virtual environment.
Augmented Reality on the other hand seeks to create an interactive experience of a real world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer generated perceptual information. Both of these systems operate differently though the motive remains the same and that to create a visual experience like no other. In the year 2020 the industry was worth $12 billion up 50% from 2019. It is expected to reach $2094.08 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 68.5%. Major industries that it works in are Education and Retail. The top company in this field could be EON reality. It is a multinational VR and AR software developer headquartered in California. Its clients include Boeing, Microsoft, Lexus and Cornell University. The company released the EON AR Knowledge Injection in April 2017, the update to its AVR platform relies on AI , the IoT (Internet of things) and geolocation to create AR annotation tied to objects in the real world. It has various associated technologies too.
Healthtech- Healthcare technology is any technology including medical devices, IT systems, algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and blockchain, designed to support healthcare organisations. Previously people suffered from inefficient and faulty clinical systems, processes, and conditions. Many medical errors happened in the past due to undeveloped health technologies. These things have lessened considerably as a result of the usage of technology in the healthcare sector. It is a growing industry with a value of up to $2 trillion. In India alone approximately 3,225 startups focused on health tech. One related technology is Medtech which is being used to treat quite a lot of chronic diseases, especially the rare ones.
The problems associated with it are data sharing and issues of transparency. The company which is spearheading this growing tide here in India is Pharmeasy. A pharmacy ordering platform that lets users order diagnostic tests and medicines. It also provides supplements and other healthcare products to its users. In FY21 its revenue was about 2360 crores. It is not looking back from here and only expected to grow.
So here was a long list of emergent technologies that one could look to invest into, by analysing their sales and much more. The entrepreneurial mind now has to work smartly through all this stuff to make a headlong growth in the future and with that the growth of the country too. Tech geeks have to work in newer ways in which people’s problems could be addressed directly. Solutions do exist but a way to reach out to people in the cheapest possible way seems to be the problem. So the economics if all this has to be dealt astutely in this regard. In addition to all this there has to be this mindset of revolutionising the existing situation through the display of masterclass in these ventures. Associated risks have to be embraced wholeheartedly too only then can a prosperous, intelligent, New Man emerge.