The longer you’ve been working in tech media, the easier it is to see what’s coming. Predicting the biggest tech trends for the coming year doesn’t involve consulting a crystal ball or a psychic. I prefer to go with my instincts, which are based not only on what happened in the previous 12 months, but during the 37 years before that in which I've been writing about tech.
Technology and innovation don’t simply spring out of the ether. Even with the advent of AI, which some might think would bring incredible, generative shortcuts, companies still have significant development cycles and they build based on signals from within their organization, and many others that come from the market and competition. Perhaps the biggest difference between the tech cycles of the early oughts and today is the transparency; companies develop products and services before our eyes, with open and public betas that make us part of the process.
