8 Things That Will (Probably) Happen in 2019
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1. Machine Learning, Meet Personal Health Data
Now that Apple Watch, Fitbit, and other health trackers have been around for a while, I think 2019 will be the year that we really start putting all that data to use with machine learning to help people live healthier and longer lives.
“Software as a medical device” will be a phrase folks throw around casually (and possibly misuse), and we’ll see more companies push legislative boundaries to ease prescription delivery, facilitate telemedicine, manage medications, and monitor treatments — all the while gathering more and more data to use in the future to predict what users need to maintain or improve their health.
Joana Kelly, Executive Producer
2. Mobile Wallets Go To The Next Level
We’ve had mobile wallets on our devices for a few years now, but adoption in the US to services like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay has lagged way behind Korea and China.
As more and more of us gain some comfort using digital wallets, we’ll see the US catch on, and usage will rocket up in 2019.
This will naturally extend beyond payments to all the other ways that wallets can make our lives easier, like handling conference passes, event ticketing, air and train travel, hotel check-in, membership cards, etc. The growing confidence in conducting financial transactions on phones may lead to an acceleration in growth for mobile retail.
Gavin Fraser, CEO
3. Sustainability Gets Smart
Recent reports such as the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have fueled a steady and growing realization of the complexity, scale, and acute urgency of environmental issues facing us all. We’re realizing what our insatiable desire for avocados (#brunchgoals) is doing to the planet.
Issues such as carbon dioxide emissions and plastic pollution are global, intertwined, and systemic; which makes them particularly tricky to resolve. The effects are felt unequally around the globe, which reduces the potential for governments and organizations to be held accountable.
In 2019 we’ll see more ways in which mobile technology and blockchain can respond to these challenges and move towards a smarter definition of environmental sustainability. There are huge opportunities to expand. For example, the Chinese payment app Alipayis gamifying carbon footprint tracking. Over 200 million enrolled users collect points through environmental lifestyle choices they make (e.g. opting for digital receipts, which are translated into carbon points). Once a user has collected enough points, real trees are planted by the company.
We’ll also see more practical thinking about blockchain’s potential to revolutionize supply chain traceability, enabling governments and consumers to accurately and efficiently trace clothing, food, payments, and more. Blockchain can push people to make more informed choices about their lifestyles, and help with green certifications, carbon pricing, and renewable energy certifications.
Victoria Carter, Producer
4. More AI-Generated Art
I’m hoping that 2019 will be the year that AI-generated art really takes off and becomes popularized.
Folks have been using AI to create some really weird, beautiful, and often unsettling stuff for a couple of years, but maybe 2019 will be the year that AI-generated art goes mainstream.
Joana Kelly, Executive Producer
5. Giants Will (Still) Rule The Earth
The major players in US technology will not be going away anytime soon, and it will continue to be very difficult for any new US companies to break through and challenge Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix. The giant carriers-turned-media companies (AT&T, Verizon) will stay in the mix and put pressure on.
Even if you are a wildly-successful startup your exit opportunities seem to be skewing increasingly towards acquisition by one of this bunch, versus building anything that can compete with them toe to toe. I don’t see that changing much in the next five years.
Gavin Fraser, CEO
6. A Mobile Voice Assistant We Actually Use
While smart speakers have succeeded in using voice interfaces to simplify at-home task management, mobile apps have largely struggled to find tasks that are naturally solved through voice.
As AI-powered voice assistants continue to evolve, they will be able to handle tasks that are increasingly more complex, and thus begin to provide substantive value in our lives. There will be a breakthrough in this area in 2019, and we’ll hear a voice that will prove itself to be an indispensable feature of mobile UX.
But, can we please finally have voice modes that offer different personalities? AI is already struggling mightily with issues related to gender, inclusion, and bias, so I know this can be tricky. Maybe if there’s a way to give complete customization of voice, tone, and content to the user?
Mike Seidler, Executive Producer
7. Wearables: Technologically Chic
Even though Google Glass didn’t exactly take off four years ago (valuable lessons were learned), wearables have been steadily on the climb in the years since. We’ve had watches, wristbands, rings, helmets, goggles, clothing, clothing attachments, breast pumps, more glasses … the list goes on, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 2019 looks like it will be another big year for wearables, especially with regard to health and training.
Athlete-focused wearables are nothing new, but apart from consumer-friendly products like the Fitbit, we haven’t seen a wave of advanced health-monitoring wearables trickle down from the upper echelons of sports. In 2019, more wearables will make their way onto the court or field in your neighborhood.
With computing power becoming more compact the capabilities of the wearable are truly amazing. Imagine a compression sleeve for a knee or elbow that could analyze a player’s fatigue or even predict the likelihood of an injury based on the way a player was moving, or how their blood was flowing. Startups are already hawking wearables that monitor everything from jump height to core body temperature, and promise predictive analysis.
There’s a massive financial incentive to market these products beyond the coaching/training staffs for pro and college teams. Athletes at any level are constantly looking for ways to make training more efficient and productive, so it’s a natural fit.
Taylor Plimpton, Senior Developer
8. Crowd-Sourced Medical Research
The proliferation of wearables and health-related applications, combined with cloud-based warehousing of personal health data, presents medical researchers with new opportunities not available in the past.
Combine this access to personal data with new machine learning and AI models and techniques, and we are on the brink of transforming research and medical investigation.
Gavin Fraser, CEO
