Ivy T.

Balmes
BSCpE 5-2

What are the different trends and issues in:

A. Computer Industry

1. Deep learning (DL). Machine learning (ML) and more specifically DL are already on the cusp of
revolution. They are widely adopted in datacenters (Amazon making graphical processing units
[GPUs] available for DL, Google running DL on tensor processing units [TPUs], Microsoft using
field programmable gate arrays [FPGAs], etc.), and DL is being explored at the edge of the
network to reduce the amount of data propagated back to datacenters. Applications such as
image, video, and audio recognition are already being deployed for a variety of verticals. DL
heavily depends on accelerators (see #9 below) and is used for a variety of assistive functions (#s
6, 7, and 10).

2. Digital currencies. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and newcomers Litecoin, Dash, and Ripple have become
commonly traded currencies. They will continue to become a more widely adopted means of
trading. This will trigger improved cybersecurity (see #10) because the stakes will be ever higher
as their values rise. In addition, digital currencies will continue to enable and be enabled by
other technologies, such as storage (see #3), cloud computing (see B in the list of already
adopted technologies), the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, and more.

3. Blockchain. The use of Bitcoin and the revitalization of peer-to-peer computing have been
essential for the adoption of blockchain technology in a broader sense. We predict increased
expansion of companies delivering blockchain products and even IT heavyweights entering the
market and consolidating the products.

4. Industrial IoT. Empowered by DL at the edge, industrial IoT continues to be the most widely
adopted use case for edge computing. It is driven by real needs and requirements. We
anticipate that it will continue to be adopted with a broader set of technical offerings enabled
by DL, as well as other uses of IoT (see C and E).

5. Robotics. Even though robotics research has been performed for many decades, robotics
adoption has not flourished. However, the past few years have seen increased market
availability of consumer robots, as well as more sophisticated military and industrial robots. We
predict that this will trigger wider adoption of robotics in the medical space for caregiving and
other healthcare uses. Combined with DL (#1) and AI (#10), robotics will further advance in
2018. Robotics will also motivate further evolution of ethics (see #8).

6. Assisted transportation. While the promise of fully autonomous vehicles has slowed down due
to numerous obstacles, a limited use of automated assistance has continued to grow, such as
parking assistance, video recognition, and alerts for leaving the lane or identifying sudden
obstacles. We anticipate that vehicle assistance will develop further as automation and ML/DL
are deployed in the automotive industry.
 7. Assisted reality and virtual reality (AR/VR). Gaming and AR/VR gadgets have grown in adoption
in the past year. We anticipate that this trend will grow with modern user interfaces such as 3D
projections and movement detection. This will allow for associating individuals with metadata
that can be viewed subject to privacy configurations, which will continue to drive international
policies for cybersecurity and privacy (see #10).

8. Ethics, laws, and policies for privacy, security, and liability. With the increasing advancement of
DL (#1), robotics (#5), technological assistance (#s 6 and 7), and applications of AI (#10),
technology has moved beyond society's ability to control it easily. Mandatory guidance has
already been deeply analyzed and rolled out in various aspects of design (see the IEEE standards
association document), and it is further being applied to autonomous and intelligent systems
and in cybersecurity. But adoption of ethical considerations will speed up in many vertical
industries and horizontal technologies.

9. Accelerators and 3D. With the end of power scaling and Moore's law and the shift to 3D,
accelerators are emerging as a way to continue improving hardware performance and energy
efficiency and to reduce costs. There are a number of existing technologies (FPGAs and ASICs)
and new ones (such as memristor-based DPE) that hold a lot of promise for accelerating
application domains (such as matrix multiplication for the use of DL algorithms). We predict
wider diversity and broader applicability of accelerators, leading to more widespread use in
2018.

10. Cybersecurity and AI. Cybersecurity is becoming essential to everyday life and business, yet it is
increasingly hard to manage. Exploits have become extremely sophisticated and it is hard for IT
to keep up. Pure automation no longer suffices and AI is required to enhance data analytics and
automated scripts. It is expected that humans will still be in the loop of taking actions; hence,
the relationship to ethics (#8). But AI itself is not immune to cyberattacks. We will need to make
AI/DL techniques more robust in the presence of adversarial traffic in any application area.

B. Computer Literate and Personnel

1. Artificial intelligence and robotics
With the global robotics industry forecast to be worth US$38 billion by 2018, a large portion of this
growth is down to the strength of interest and investment in artificial intelligence (AI) – one of the most
controversial and intriguing areas of computer science research. The technology is still in its early stages,
but tech giants like Facebook, Google and IBM are investing huge amounts of money and resources into
AI research. There’s certainly no shortage of opportunities to develop real-world applications of the
technology, and there’s immense scope for break-through moments in this field.

2. Big data analytics

Back in 2012, the Harvard Business Review branded data science the ‘sexiest job’ of the 21 century. Yes,
you read that correctly. There has been a surge in demand for experts in this field and doubled efforts
on the part of brands and agencies to boost salaries and attract data science talents. From banking to
healthcare, big data analytics is everywhere, as companies increasingly attempt to make better use of
the enormous datasets they have, in order to personalize and improve their services.

3. Computer-assisted education

The use of computers and software to assist education and/or training, computer-assisted education
brings many benefits and has many uses. For students with learning disabilities, for instance, it can
provide personalized instruction and enable students to learn at their own pace, freeing the teacher to
devote more time to each individual. The field is still growing but promising, with many educators
praising its ability to allow students to engage in active, independent and play-based learning.

4. Bioinformatics

A fascinating application of big data, bioinformatics, or the use of programming and software
development to build enormous datasets of biological information for research purposes, carries
enormous potential. Linking big pharma companies with software companies, bioinformatics is growing
in demand and offers good job prospects for computer science researchers and graduates interested in
biology, medical technology, pharmaceuticals and computer information science.

5. Cyber security

According to 2014 data from Burning Glass, cyber security jobs in the US grew by 74% between 2007
and 2013 – more than twice the rate of IT jobs overall, and raising concerns about the shortfall in
qualified graduates. In February 2015, President Barack Obama spoke of the need to “collaborate and
explore partnerships that will help develop the best ways to bolster our cyber security.” It’s not hard to
understand why he might think so. We live in a hyper-connected world, in which absolutely everything –
from banking to dating to governmental infrastructure – is done online. In today’s world, data
protection is no longer optional, for either individuals or nations, making this another growing strand of
computer science research.
-Frot, Mathilde, “5 Trends in Computer Science Research”, 2016

C. Government when it comes in IT

IDC Philippines announced its top predictions for the Philippine information and communications
technology (ICT) industry for this year and beyond.
In a statement on January 30, the local office of International Data Corp. (IDC) said it predicts 25 percent
of the country’s top 1,000 companies will see the majority of their businesses depend on their ability to
create digitally enhanced products, services and experiences by 2020.

“IDC expects digital transformation [DX] will attain macroeconomic scale over the next three to four
years, changing the way organizations operate and reshaping the global economy and calls this as the
dawn of the ‘DX Economy,’” IDC Philippines’s statement read.

“The rise of DX definitely has an incredible effect on the market,” IDC Philippines Business Operations
Head Jubert Alberto was quoted in the statement as saying. “It opens massive opportunities for
businesses as it helps strengthen relationships with end users, flattens organizational structures and
redefines traditional industries.”

IDC Philippines’s technology and industry analysts also revealed the strategic top predictions and major
technology trends that are set to present opportunities and challenges to IT leaders in 2017 and beyond.

DX economy. By 2020, 25 percent of top 1,000 companies in the Philippines will see the majority of their
businesses depend on their ability to create digitally enhanced products, services, and experiences.

The market dynamics are quickly changing, and the enterprise must continually improve productivity
and effectiveness, while lowering costs, in order to enable a transformation that will allow it to best
compete in the constantly evolving market environment.

“Year 2020 will see Filipino companies level up their DX journey to a macroeconomic scale, as their
ability to offer digitally transformed offerings and experiences becomes an important measure of
competitiveness and success in the market,” Karen Rondon, IDC Asia/Pacific research manager for
enterprise computing-networking, was quoted in the statement as saying.

Pinoy DX teams. By 2018, 25 percent of Philippine organizations will have dedicated digital
transformation/innovation teams.

“These specialized ‘PH DX teams’ will be in charge of formulating plans both for internal and external
applications of digital technology, Jan Edward Tañeca, IDC Philippines market analyst-imaging, printing,
document solutions (IPDS), was quoted as saying. “These include identifying and using new technologies
to improve operations, creating digital marketing strategies, developing their IT capabilities and other
related initiatives.”

More strategic ICT push. By 2021, the government will have a more strategic ICT push to enable
technology adoption among Philippine organizations.

Year 2016 has been a good year as far as the country’s ICT agenda is concerned. According to the latest
findings of the United Nations E-Government Survey, the Philippines went up 24 notches to rank
71st out of 193 countries in e-government development. With a dedicated, centralized agency at the
helm of the country’s ICT development, IDC sees that by 2021, the government will be able to lay the
much-needed groundwork that would enable robust technology adoption among Philippine
organizations and raise the nation’s standards to be on a par with other digital economies.

Cyber security. By 2018, cyber security will become a tier-1 business priority receiving fixed capital
spending for 30 percent of the top 1,000 companies in the Philippines.

Increasing security breaches and attacks has significantly raised interest in and awareness of the need to
modernize security infrastructure in the Philippines. “In the coming years enterprises will realize that
rather than reacting to global security trends, the best-run businesses try to anticipate them. Thus, they
will make cyber security a core part of their overall business strategy, taking into account the existing
security industry trends and evolving criminal tactics and couple those factors with the organization’s
risk tolerance, security program maturity, a holistic security strategy and, most important, business
targets,” said Jan Edward Tañeca, market analyst-IPDS, IDC Philippines.

Information-based products.By 2020, revenue growth from information-based products will be double
that of the rest of the product/service portfolio for a quarter of the top 1,000 Philippine companies.

“In the Philippines companies in the telecommunications, retail and banking industries, among others,
have unlocked new opportunities in creating revenue through analyzing and making sense of the
aggregated customer information. Some organizations that have explored these options benefited in the
form of penetrating new markets and generating new revenue streams, as the information may vary
from customer data to consumer buying patterns,” said Nicolo Santos, market analyst-IPDS, IDC
Philippines. “This opportunity requires a constant effort for organizations to address data privacy and
security issues, and government regulations that surround the collection, storage, use and sale of
consumer data.”
Hyperdisruptive marketplaces. By 2019, 40 percent of customer-facing top 1,000 companies will
experiment with augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) as part of their marketing efforts.

The potential impact of AR/VR across industries will become so big that by 2019, IDC sees 40 percent of
the Philippines’s top 1,000 companies experimenting with these technologies to create their own unique
experiential marketing strategies. “Consumer brands will be compelled to think out of the box and
reinvent their marketing approaches—incorporating more AR/VR elements and placing emphasis on
gamification—in a bid to gain the patronage and loyalty of consumers, especially young and tech-savvy
millennials,” said Sean Agapito, market analyst-Client Devices, IDC Philippines.

Customer-ecosystem-facing digital services. By 2019, 65 percent of Philippine IT organizations will

create new customer-facing and ecosystem-facing services to meet the business DX needs.

Customer-experience initiatives are on the rise across organizations, and as they increase the level of
control customers and business-to-business (B2B) organizations have over their own experience, the
scale of interactions will concurrently explode. “Failure to scale up the number of direct and indirect
customers with whom an organization does business will lead to revenue shortfalls and uncompetitive
cost structures,” Alon Anthony Rejano, IDC Philippines market analyst-IT Services, was quoted in the
statement as saying. “Improve profitability, we expect organizations to increase their use of virtual
agents or digital assistants. Intelligent assistants will use artificial intelligence (AI)/cognitive technology
to automatically adjust experiences to the users’ preferences and context.”

Digitalized customer support interaction. By 2018, 60 percent of customer support interactions will be
digitalized and occur in online communities.

With an increasing proportion of the Filipino population—reaching nearly half of the country’s total
population in 2016—actively using social media, IDC expects more organizations to interact with
customers through social and online communities. Online customer support not only help solve
customer problems, it also improves brand image. Additionally, a successful community will create
brand champions or advocates and will not only recommend the product or the service to customers
but will help solve customer problems in behalf of the brand. “This will make the theme of customer
reciprocity strong moving forward. Also in the near future, more organizations will use IT to integrate
existing customer services and support systems, like integrating pre-built connectors, mining the
community for insight into customers’ behavior and proactively solve any emerging issues,” said Jerome
Dominguez, market analyst-Client Devices, IDC Philippines.
Next-wave sari-sari store. By 2020, 30 percent of Philippine sari-sari stores will evolve to become
another channel for one-stop payments and remittance centers.

Something unique in the Philippine retail scene will be the presence of sari-sari stores in different
localities. IDC foresees a future where sari-sari stores, a Pinoy cultural phenomenon, can offer services,
such as payment of utility bills, e-loading, and buying of travel tickets can also be done through these
neighborhood stores. Serving as complimentary touchpoints especially in the rural areas, sari-sari stores
play a pivotal role in filling the “unbanked” gap in the countryside. Organizations looking to engage
more in the rural areas will have a viable channel, as in alternative to building brick-and-mortar
branches, which may be cost-prohibitive to most companies.

ICT and BPO disruption. By 2020, ICT and business-process outsourcing (BPO) markets will be disrupted
by the pivot and policy changes from the administrations of Philippine President Duterte and US
President Trump, if the industry does not take critical steps safeguarding the country’s inherent growth
drivers.

The BPO industry is one of the great contributors to the total ICT spending in the country. IDC maintains
that the burgeoning and evolving to higher-value services around contact centers, medical transcription,
software development, animation and game development, and global captive operations centers will
still be very much viable in the short term, given the country’s inherent strengths.

“In the longer-term view, however, this may change due to the shift in pivot and policy changes from the
administrations of Mr. Duterte and Mr. Trump,” Alberto said. “This may lead to an impression of the
country’s volatility and, together with issues on manpower and availability of skillsets, it may result in
the industry stagnating in the near future due to lack of new investments and expansionary plans from
incumbents. Far-reaching measures to address key issues are of paramount importance this year.”

-Samson, Oliver, “IDC Philippines unveils its top I.C.T. predictions for 2017 and beyond”, February 4, 2017