Disruptive Technologies Could Add $33 Trillion in 2025

We hear almost every day about disruptive technologies, and the list of the “next big thing” grows ever longer. In its May 2013 report McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) separates reality from hype. Starting with a list of 100 candidates, MGI identifies 12 disruptive technologies that matter; these are assessed to have significant potential to drive economic impact and disruption, and to transform life, business and the global economy by 2025. The 12 disruptive technologies are listed below.

1.  Mobile Internet: Impact of increasingly inexpensive and capable mobile computing devices and ubiquitous Internet connectivity.
2. Automation of knowledge work: Intelligent software systems that can perform knowledge work tasks involving unstructured commands and subtle judgments.
3. Internet of things: Network of low-cost sensors and actuators for data collection, monitoring, decision making and process optimization.
4. Cloud technology: Use of computer hardware and software resources delivered over a network of the Internet, often as a service.
5. Advanced robotics: Increasingly capable robots with enhanced sense, dexterity and intelligence used to automate tasks or augment humans.
6. Autonomous or near-autonomous vehicles: Vehicles that can navigate and operate with reduced or no human intervention.
7.  Next-generation genomics: Fast low-cost sequencing, advanced big data analytics, and synthetic biology (“writing” DNA).
8. Energy storage: Devices or systems that store energy for later use, including batteries.
9. 3D printing: Additive manufacturing techniques to create objects by printing layers of material based on digital models.
10. Advanced materials: Materials designed to have superior characteristics (e.g. strength, weight, conductivity) or functionality.
11. Advanced oil and gas exploration and recovery: Exploration and recovery techniques that make extraction of conventional oil and gas economical.
12. Renewable energy: Generation of electricity from renewable sources with reduced harmful climate impact.

Together, the applications of the 12 technologies could have an economic impact between $14 trillion and $33 trillion a year in 2025. These estimates are based on MGI’s in-depth analysis of key potential applications and the value they could create in a number of ways, including the consumer surplus that arises from better products, lower prices, a cleaner environment and better health. Leading the pack is Mobile Internet whose contribution to the global economy could be as high as $10.8 trillion in 2025.

In just a few years, Internet-enabled portable devices have gone from a luxury
for a few to a way of life for more than 1 billion people who own smartphones and tablets. In the United States, an estimated 30 percent of Web browsing and 40 percent of social media use is done on mobile devices; by 2015, wireless Web use is expected to exceed wired use. Ubiquitous connectivity and an explosive proliferation of apps are enabling users to go about their daily routines with new ways of knowing, perceiving, and even interacting with the physical world. The technology of the mobile Internet is evolving rapidly, with intuitive interfaces and new formats, including wearable devices. The mobile Internet also has applications across businesses and the public sector, enabling more efficient delivery of many services and creating opportunities to increase workforce productivity. In developing economies, the mobile Internet could bring billions of people into the connected world.

Those who think that these technologies are way off in the future should think again. They are already here with us today and their applications will gain accelerated momentum in the coming years. By 2025, a mere 11 years from now, the world as we know will have been transformed. Whether we like it or not, we are living through a tectonic transformation.

Article Source: EzineArticles by Author Barbara Meynert, an avid follower of disruptive technologies that are transforming our world. She is the founder and one of the contributing authors in http://www.sagevita.com. She has produced two books entitled: Sage Vita: the Art of Living Longer and Living Well and How to Live to be 100: Actively, Healthily, Vigorously.

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