As a tech marketer and product person, I am interested in everything. I read about different industries to understand what the future might hold for our customers. I keep up with several market intelligence and industry analyst reports. Their takes are sometimes helpful, but the content isn't very forward-looking, and advice tends to be pretty safe.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I would call the Tech Trends Report by the Future Today Institute an “anti-analyst” report, and it’s become a favourite source of inspiration. Headed by Amy Webb, the focus is on the effect of trends across industries. The writing is thoughtful and creative, with a hint of futurism. I feel optimistic about the future when I read it. It’s less about avoiding risk and more about embracing it.
It includes many topics that touch the Open-Source CMS world.
- The likelihood of both niche and commoditised Large Language Model-based AI engines emerging.
- How the tech layoffs we see now will become the new tech companies tomorrow, and AI will be the foundational tool that the cloud was ten years ago.
- It’s not going to be only about consumers using AI directly; it’s about products that use AI to provide derived services.
The future looks to be a wild west of cool new tools and ethical questions. The edge (and the fun) goes to those who pay attention and have a strategy that weighs emerging tech.
A clear example is content marketing – it’s officially disrupted. New content workflows are becoming faster, with automated first drafts simultaneously being published across audio, video, and written platforms. If we aren’t consuming media differently in the next few years, we will undoubtedly be creating and delivering it ways we won't recognise today.
Last year, we demonstrated how Morpht uses (the now practically venerable) GPT3 in content production and we have been building it into our core personalisation offering with Convivial. This is just the start, and we are excited to harness it for our customers.
Trends alone can't predict the future. But by watching what's happening in the world and hearing different perspectives on where technology is moving, we can make informed decisions and jump on new opportunities faster. Boring is nice and cool for your competitors; you should embrace the unknown.
