Agile project management, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation as driving forces of the IT market in 2020. Just in time for the new year, market research institutes such as IDC and Forrester Research provide information about general developments in the IT industry and predict which areas will be of great relevance in the coming year. We summarized the most important 2020 trends for you.

Artificial intelligence improves, streamlines and accelerates the IT industry

IDC predicts that by 2024, AI-powered user interfaces will replace a third of today’s screen-based applications. As in the past two years, artificial intelligence will remain one of the most important technology trends. This year, the industry is focusing on the question of how user interfaces and their apps can benefit from artificial intelligence and machine learning with the goal of further process automation.

What hardly anyone can imagine today is that AI will be important even within the IT organization. Combined with big data, there are many opportunities for working faster and more cost-effectively. For CIOs, this means already beginning to think about the areas and the purpose for which AI can be used. According to IDC, the use of artificial intelligence will improve, streamline, and accelerate IT operations. According to the US-based analyst, 60 percent of companies are already working on how AI will be integrated.

Digital transformation thanks to hyper-automation

In addition to AI, other modern technologies will be used to advance the digitalization of business processes. IDC predicts that by 2023, about 75 percent of total IT spending will be invested in technologies such as cloud, robotics, next-gen security, augmented reality, and big data. In addition, systems are merging more and more, so that processes are becoming increasingly automated. This is referred to as hyper-automation. IDC even assumes that by 2022, more than 60 percent of global value creation will be digitized. However, this also means that there will be sharp drops in many other markets. The experts assume about a third of today’s volume.

More than half of the CIOs rely on agility

Agile project management has already been integrated into many modern IT companies and departments, but too many specialist departments still rely on outdated methods. Fortunately, the trend is different: As early as 2021, 65 percent of CIOs will use agile and DevOps methods, according to IDC. This is necessary in order to achieve the necessary speed and agility to change the corporate structure. If this is successful, IT and specialist departments will enjoy more transparent and faster collaboration. Especially when working with low-code platforms like SCOPELAND, it turned out that applications with agile methods are developed significantly faster, more efficiently, and thus more cost-effectively.

Millions of jobs will be lost through new technologies

What do all these trends and developments mean for the job market? The US analyst Forrester Research makes a bold forecast: Through the use of new technologies in general, 1.06 million jobs will be lost this year. This will also affect the IT industry of course. It is also predicted that ten percent of IT tasks will be automated. In return, the quality of the IT staff should be increased, said Forrester.

However, IDC also says that the current job market can in no way meet all needs. In the next two years, the number of skilled workers won’t even meet a third of the global demand.

So what does the future look like in concrete terms? Modern technologies such as AI are driving the digital transformation, which is and remains the central driver of all progress. However, this also means that numerous processes will be automated, which means that many a job will no longer be necessary. The biggest challenge for 2020 is to use agility to optimize corporate structures so that employees can meet changing quality standards.  Low-Code technology plays an important role in this because, due to the resulting increases in efficiency, it is another engine of digital transformation.

Sources:

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS45616519

https://www.channelpartner.de/a/die-it-trends-bis-2024-von-idc,3592203

https://www.seguetech.com/difference-between-no-code-and-low-code-platforms/

https://www.computerweekly.com/de/feature/IT-Trends-2020-Das-prognostizieren-Gartner-IDC-und-Co