Technology continues to disrupt almost every business sector with constant advancements and amazing new use cases. No industry is wholly immune from the impact of technology; however, some are more ready for major change than others.
The experts of Forbes Technology Council are often ahead of the curve when it comes to tech trends. Below, nine members share their insider perspectives on the industries and services that are on the cusp of tech disruption in the near future.
1. Doctor’s Office Visits
Because of the aging population, reimbursement changes, and uncertainty about payers and their stability, healthcare providers are now looking for ways to create more opportunities for self care and preventive care. The traditional office visit is ripe for disruption. - Amy Czuchlewski, Bottle Rocket
2. Financial And Legal Services
The financial and legal services industries are ripe for disruption in 2019. The signs include increasingly intelligent chatbots for customer service, machine learning for fraud detection and contract analysis, blockchain for moving money through the system, and cognitive search and analytics for providing key stakeholders with relevant information and insights in context. - Alexandre Bilger, Sinequa
3. Healthcare Diagnostics
Internet of Things, mobile devices and artificial intelligence (AI) are combining to drive improvements in the collection and analysis of healthcare data. They’re moving diagnostics from hospitals to our homes, leveraging AI to screen cancer with a mobile app and discover health anomalies from data collected by wearable devices. This disruption will only hasten as technology improvements revolutionize preventive care. - Artem Petrov, Reinvently
4. Education
The mass approach to education is not serving our kids. I think the trend in education will be towards personalization—finding out the unique interests of the child and letting them explore that curiosity in other subjects. AI can help by making lessons more personalized and interesting to the individual. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
5. Data Protection
Data protection and privacy have been headlines for years without any significant pushback from cybersecurity vendors. Solutions were based on endpoints or networks. 2019 will see the adoption of data-centric solutions protecting data in all forms, across all devices, including the cloud. IT will have full visibility, security and control of data, just as if the data was on a central file server. - Jeff Capone, SecureCircle
6. Customer Service
Today, people interact visually and contextually, flexibly leveraging a combo of traditional voice and digital communications. The customer service industry is ripe for disruption as it does not require a behavior change, as most other disruptions do. With the right technology, it can respond to the smartphone and on-demand behavior change that has already taken place over the past five years. - Anand Janefalkar, UJET
7. Insurance
There is more opportunity than ever for the insurance industry to introduce customer value with mobile solutions. Insurers should look to banking institutions that have entered the FinTech space as inspiration for digitization. With FinTech partnerships, insurers can operate at lower costs, alleviate reliance on legacy systems and improve the customer experience with user-centric mobile products. - Sanjay Malhotra, Clearbridge Mobile
8. Automotive Industry
The automotive industry is ripe for disruption. We’ve already seen huge strides in recent years, largely due to autonomous vehicles, but we’re also starting to see traditional manufacturing companies morph into tech organizations. Like every other sector, the auto industry is learning to use the latest innovations to streamline processes. - Tammy Cohen, InfoMart Inc.
9. Security
2019 will be the year of security analytics and machine learning. Next year the innovators in this field will begin to dominate and grow. Expect acquisitions as those who don’t have their footing attempt to gain relevance in the space. This is the year to invest in machine learning security startups, especially those that solve for expensive, time-consuming security questions in moments. - Stephen Moore, Exabeam
10. ‘Paper Pushers’
Keep an eye on all industries with heavy paper pushing or phone call based processes, such as real estate or roadside assistance. Seeing startups such as Brokerage Engine and Mach1 Services shows tangible signs that 2019 may be the year for mainstream adoption and transformation in one or both of those markets. - Bret Piatt, Jungle Disk
