The software development domain is a dynamic one, with trends coming and going at a deafening pace. Every passing day brings transformative new opportunities for developers as well as businesses looking to build and leverage game-changing IT solutions. 2018 has been an eventful year too as the tech trends such as AI, blockchain, chatbots, and DevOps have witnessed considerable advancement in the first half itself. While following these trends is of great importance, businesses need to look for solutions that are delivered swiftly, yet adhere to the highest standards in terms of quality, performance, and security. Here, it becomes vital to be aware of all the trending technologies so that you can demand them as a part of the IT solutions you avail for your business. Let us elucidate the technology trends that are transforming the industry in 2018:

AI is the new UI

Artificial Intelligence has been around for some time now but this year has been transformative for it. AI has literally replaced the user interface of applications as the user today is keen on interacting with intelligent systems that can understand what they exactly want and respond accordingly. For instance, app analytics are capable of uncovering the behavior patterns and preferences of the users to get rich insights that can be applied for boosting the marketing strategies. Similarly, the new generation virtual personal assistants use AI to understand the user’s expectations and queries and deliver relevant answers to them.

Chatbots are driving conversations

With the phenomenal growth of natural language processing and AI, chatbots have become an essential element for every single application. These bots are capable of driving conversations, a feature that benefits consumer mobile apps and enterprise applications alike. They are capable of understanding the customer’s intent, maintaining a conversational state with them, and responding intelligently while ensuring seamless integration with back-end systems correspondingly. Employee-facing bots, on the other hand, help the employees for everyday operational tasks such as filing a help desk ticket, calculating their vacation days, and ordering a replacement laptop.

Blockchain grows bigger than ever

Blockchain is a technology that brings the unmatched benefits of security, reliability, immutability, and efficiency. It facilitates cost-effectiveness, seamlessness, and trust in transactions amongst organizations as intermediaries are eliminated. As businesses have become to comprehend that value of blockchain-enabled transactions, they are more than keen to invest in solutions that integrate this technology. Blockchain use cases are being implemented across diverse industries including banking, healthcare, manufacturing, supply chain, real estate, education, and more.

Data privacy and security become a norm

With the implementation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for businesses dealing with the personal data of EU citizens, data privacy has become a norm. The regulation took effect on May 25th this year and has made it compulsory for business organizations to ensure compliance for their software and systems. Even the companies that are located outside Europe need to comply if they have European clients. Compliance is concerned with user consent while collection, processing, or using their personal data. Data breaches have to be reported to the regulatory authorities while the business may be subjected to fines for non-compliance.

DevOps reaches the next level

Over the years, DevOps has emerged as a vital strategic process to expedite development of new IT applications, while adhering to the highest standards of quality and performance. The challenge that developers have been facing with DevOps relates to continuous integration and continuous delivery (CICD) tools that need to be constantly updated to give effective results. In 2018, they have found the solution in the adoption of cloud services to drive automation in the DevOps process to take it to the next level. Moreover, organizations are focusing on improving the speed of delivery and the end product quality as well. For this, they are giving an increased emphasis on QA testing before deployment of the solutions.

Conclusion

As we are well into the midway of 2018, it is high time that you consider the adoption of these innovative trends as a part of your business systems. Not doing so may keep you behind the competitors and may even result in compliance issues for your business. Joining hands with a skilled and resourceful application development partner is the best way to get innovative technology solutions for your business. At OrangeMantra, we understand the diverse needs of businesses and come up with solutions that leverage the latest trends and technologies to bring effective results for businesses.