The three technologies I'm most excited about in 2018 (aka my favorite buzzwords)

I've always been excited about how technology can change our lives, and there's been a lot of new, almost Star-Trekky changes recently. But I'm most excited about the future of these three technologies and how they'll gain widespread adoption in 2018.

Artificial intelligence

AI and machine learning were huge buzzwords the past few years, almost to the point of annoyance.

Every startup said that they were an AI company in some way.

Google identified that the world was transforming from mobile-first to AI-first, and they're doing everything they can to usher in this world (Note: I believe Google more than the other startups).

Sales of the Amazon Echo broke records. 

AI products are getting better and smarter everyday. And in 2018, I think we as consumers will get more comfortable with AI handling more important aspects of our lives such as our calendars, emails, and shopping lists. I think we'll get over the privacy concerns and the notion that AI robots will take over the world (they'll just do backflips).

AI will be extremely prevalent in the enterprise, too, which will be evident in the ways we interact with these companies.

Enterprises will continue to use machine learning to have a deeper understanding of our habits, and thus the messages they send us will be more relevant (as creepy as that may be). Bots will automate many of our conversations, and they'll be so accurate that we'll think it's a real person while accusing them that it's a bot. There may be other times when AI is used and you won't even know it.

AI has been hot, but I think it's only going to get hotter and more widespread.

Voice recognition

As AI improves, voice recognition is going to get better in lockstep.

Siri sucks, but Alexa and Google's voice assistant (who really needs a proper name) are pretty amazing. These are just previews of how voice will change how we interact with our devices.

I believe the existence of remote controls for our TVs, speakers, and ceiling fans is trending toward 0.

I think typing, like I'm doing now, will eventually go the way of the dodo.

I think we'll interact with our devices with our voices so often that humans in the room will be confused whether we're talking to them.

The enterprise will certainly be impacted as well. AWS recently announced Alexa for Business, where companies can build Alexa skills to pull up lead information, turn off conference room lights, or schedule a meeting.

We're going to use our voices way more often in 2018.

Blockchain

I can feel your eyes rolling already. Bitcoin this, blockchain that. Blockchain was going to be the first section of this blog post, but I thought that many of you would get sick of hearing about it and stop reading.

Yes, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the hundreds of other cryptocurrencies are overhyped. Yes, it's very early in the life cycle of the technology, and lot of it is speculative. Yes, you might have fomo for not buying Bitcoin earlier (half kidding).

All that Bitcoin stuff aside, the actual blockchain technology is going to change the way the internet and the entire world runs.

I won't get too deep into the details of the technology; you can read this article for a great overview of how blockchain works.

Just imagine not having to trust Equifax with all of your credit history. That trust was breached. Instead, your credit history will be distributed across thousands of nodes all over the world, encrypted and immutable.

Blockchain can be used to track the source of every resource in the supply chain, so you can find out where your T-shirt was sourced from and feel better that some 9-year old Vietnamese kid didn't produce your shirt in a sweatshop.

While it might take a while to pan out, blockchain is going to be one of the most transformative technologies we've ever seen.

Conclusion

Buzzwords, buzzwords, buzzwords. I'm not breaking any ground here, as these technologies have been hyped and touted as the next big thing for a little while now. But these are the three tech developments that I'll be tracking closely in 2018, and I think they'll dramatically alter the way we live.