It’s that time of the year again, budget season. A time when organizations set priorities on how to strategically spend their money in 2018. In the information technology (IT) world this can be a daunting task for any CIO.

According to Gartner, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and tools such as conversational platforms, digital twins and blockchain should be at the top of the list.

1. AI Foundation: AI will be a battleground for technology vendors as well as investment area companies. Investment areas include data prep, algorithms and training, models and tying data scientist, developers and business leads together.
2. Intelligent apps and analytics: Look for companies to use machine learning to automate things like data prep and sharing insight.
3. Intelligent things or loT: Autonomous vehicles in controlled settings such as farming and mining will be increasingly adopted. Robotics, drones and loT will connect consumers, systems and industries.
4. Digital twins will be used in loT and will enhance decision-making: Digital twins will proliferate well beyond industrial settings popularized by GE.
5. Cloud computing at the edge: Endpoints will become more distributed and more intelligent to eliminate latency.
6. Conversational platforms: Conversational interfaces will show up everywhere in corporate systems as well as every level of software.
7. Blockchain: This has the potential in multiple applications in government, healthcare, manufacturing, media distribution, supply chain and identity verification.
8. Digital business events: Companies will move toward event-driven business models. loT, cloud, blockchain, in-memory data and AI will be enablers.
9. Adaptive risk and trust: Security will be a common theme as infrastructure will have to adapt on the fly and manage risk. Automating security will be a big theme in 2018.
10. Immersive experiences, AR and VR: These experiences will appear in more enterprises for productivity, visualization, design and training.

Gartner’s top 10 strategic technology trends all speak to digital transformation at some level. One thing is for sure, AI is poised to take the cake in 2018.

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