What we can expect to see in technology

As 2018 gets underway, it’s time to take a look at what the year ahead holds for us. There are many areas we could focus on but the one that seems to be on many peoples’ minds is technology.

Whatever happens, 2018 is certain to be the 20th anniversary of Google – and also of China’s Tencent and Alibaba. We’re likely to hear a lot more about all three companies, but especially the Chinese pair. Even more than Apple and its compatriots, Tencent and Alibaba act as powerful finance houses. Their payments networks, WeChat Pay and Alipay, boast more than a billion users between them, and their European operations will be more prominent.

Worldwide sales of industrial robots may pass 350,000; of professional services robots (logistics, defence, milking and general farming, medical, construction and demolition, PR of various sorts, exoskeletons), perhaps 100,000. Other kinds of service robots? Sales of personal, vacuum cleaning, lawnmowing and housework machines may reach 8 million, while entertainment robots may top 3 million.

These figures might sound impressive; but in fact the penetration of all kinds of robots will, in 2018, remain very modest. World unemployment could this year reach 203 million – much, much more than the total number of robots installed on the planet.

2018 will likely see a continuation in the trend for poor business investment, and growing corporate cash hoards. That’s why the UK is likely only to see a few driverless taxis, and only a few trials of driverless cars (beginning with exercises on closed roads in Oxfordshire). Platoons of just three “driverless” lorries may also be visible – but each lorry will still have a human driver in place.

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