I like preaching to the converted as much as the next person though nothing beats the intellectual stimulation of a healthy adversarial debate. The thing is, very few remain to be convinced about the essential nature of further building governance into the online world, excluding the dark web aficionados perhaps.
The research firm Gartner recently released their "Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2025." Their headline recommendation to their target audience of chief information officers and information technology leaders was crystal clear: use the 2025 strategic technology trends to "shape the future with responsible innovation." The research highlights several technology trends: disinformation security, ambient visible intelligence, post-quantum cryptography, spatial computing and artificial intelligence governance platforms.
Reading the business benefits Gartner highlights with most of these trends, it becomes apparent that many hold tremendous promise of advancements and innovation: improving efficiency and sustainability, supporting upskilling and education, and increasing trust and security online. The flip side will be challenges pertaining to the need for new technologies, new skills, increased budgets, integration, standardization and many others.
Technologists may be the only people who will be able to discuss these concepts intelligibly. Reading the challenges, it is also apparent that our community will be ― should be ― even more strongly solicited in the months and years to come. This illustrates yet again the imperious need for multidisciplinary understanding and approaches to data and technology governance, common taxonomy to help dialogue and understanding between professional groups that operated in silos for decades, appropriate processes and organizational schemes.
I will admit my depiction is somewhat one-sided and self-serving towards our community. The trust and ethics, regulatory and legal trends, and to some extent social and cultural trends are typically where we tend to default. Yet, they are only a few of the trends that CIOs, IT and broader business leaders consider when approaching these concepts, alongside technological, political, economic and environmental considerations.
Gartner forecasts that worldwide IT spending will grow 9.3% in 2025 across data centers systems, software, devices, IT services and communication services. That represents a USD500 billion increase in spending, totaling USD5.74 trillion forecasted for 2025.
Drawing a direct connection between this spending increase and its impact on digital responsibility is absolutely empirical and I have no scientific reasoning to back it up. But instinctively, it is not a leap to imagine that such a vibrant market, that enables the economy at large, will further draw the growth of digital responsibility.
So as the recommendation is to "use the 2025 strategic technology trends to shape the future with responsible innovation," our community will need to be among those that shape the future.
Elsewhere:
We are four weeks away from the 13th IAPP Europe Data Protection Congress. Last year's agenda and hallway conversations saw a plethora of topics and concerns. The 2024 edition will be no different as digital governance is as complex as ever. If you are planning to attend, make sure you peruse the conference agenda for sessions and networking activities.
Isabelle Roccia, CIPP/E, is the managing director, Europe, for the IAPP.
