2019 has seen the rise of AI in every field, along with biometrics being increasingly used in security and of course, one of the biggest leaders in tech creating a cybertruck that is both bulletproof and electronic, the perfect combination for any car. But what will 2020 bring in terms of software testing? Here are the top expert predictions for the up and coming year:
Digitization will play a bigger role in real life.
Lukas Kinigadner, CEO of Anyline believes that this coming year will see growing technologies have a bigger impact on our daily lives.
“2019 was the year digital transformation went mainstream. In 2020, our world will continue to digitize and merge the physical into the digital. As it does, the need for technologies such as mobile optical character recognition (OCR) will become increasingly prevalent in all industries.”
“OCR allows makes life easier by letting anyone with a smartphone scan physical data such as barcodes, serial number, etc. It not only improves accuracy and security, but efficiency as well. With 2020 incoming, thanks to this technology no longer needing to be integrated directly into a standalone app, we expect to see the OCR experience brought to more people.”
Connected services will help grow sustainability initiatives
Intelligent technology will enable firms to reach sustainability goals, believes John Phillips, MD of EMEA Zuora.
“As consumer demand rises for more sustainable and environmentally friendly products, businesses in every sector are changing the way in which they design, create and sell products, from factory to field to our shop shelves. Smart technology such as Internet-connected devices and sensors have the ability to enable many industries to reduce waste and enhance productivity.”
“Manufacturers need to think about how they can make their offerings stickier, and show their value over their competitors offering stock standard products. Organizations have an opportunity to go beyond the one-off sale, and leverage their own technologies to offer value-added services that will create a long-term need for their services.”
Artificial intelligence: Augmentation will win out over displacement
AI will have the capability to dominate the transformation field and more firms will be using it to help with customer issues.
Jay Gurudevan, Principal Product Manager, AI/ML believes: “As enterprises embark on their transformation to become AI-first companies, a strategy focused on augmenting current systems and processes with AI vs. fully replacing them, will win.
We’ll see more enterprise and businesses leverage AI tools and automated communication to better understand the entire customer journey. As consumers become more comfortable interacting with AI agents, Natural Language Processing – the area of machine learning that allows humans and computers to communicate – will become more accurate and advanced and implementation will expand.”
The evolution of the inbox
A growing number of people will have access to and will be using the internet in 2020, which in turn means there will inevitably be more and more hackers. Len Shneyder, VP Industry Relations, Twilio SendGrid suggests that email will still be the most basic and foundational identifier on the internet due to its high level of global connectivity.
“Email authentication will become increasingly more important in maintaining the health of the inbox ecosystem, protecting brands from spoofing and phishing and preventing phishing attacks. However, the need to enable and align email authentication will present new branding opportunities for legitimate senders. As Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) moves from limited testing and development into general availability it will give senders the ability to publish logos in DNS and have them displayed in email clients around the world that validate their email authentication.”
“The interactive inbox will only be possible for brands that authenticate their email—creating more interactive experiences using things such as BIMI, Schema and Amp for Email require senders to differentiate their mail traffic from spammers. Since brands will want to take advantage of increased visibility in the inbox through BIMI, they will be one step closer to take advantage of AMP.”
Consumers will take control of their vulnerability to fraud
Following on from this, as data breaches continue to rise, Simon Marchand, Chief Fraud Prevention Officer – Security & Biometrics Business, Nuance Communications suggests that businesses will start to do be more about this issue.
“[They will] demand better protection from the companies with whom they do business, they will also start to take matters into their own hands. While using multi-factor authentication for all accounts (whether a mobile app, website, call center or other customer service channel) for secure authentication has long been a best practice, consumers will begin using a password in conjunction with another authentication technique to help protect their data and devices when available.”
“This will likely mean opting for biometrics—such as voice recognition, fingerprint, face scanning, etc.—when it is available. Facial recognition and fingerprint ID on smartphones and other devices have paved the way for making consumers comfortable and accustomed to biometric identification. Biometrics—from voice to behavior and other forms of biometrics technologies—are a natural extension, and convenient for companies to adopt because they don’t have to redesign physical systems or devices.”
The need for cybersecurity testing skills will grow
Furthermore, this will also lead to the growth of testers having to up their game on cybersecurity testing. Edge Testing Solutions says:
“We have seen an explosion of cyber security tenders on public and private frameworks this year. Stronger certification will be required including Crest, Check and CESG. Any security test experts with at least one of these certifications will be in great demand in 2020 and beyond. “
Bots will become a mainstream adoption
Again, as AI moves more towards the mainstream, robots will have deeper incorporation into all of our lives, Zachary Jarvinen, head of product marketing, AI and Analytics, OpenText, feels.
“In 2020, the average employee may just converse with a chatbot more than they speak with their coworkers, family members or even their spouse, as the demand for an instant response at any time continues to bubble up.
“Chatbots will prevail as one the next preferred digital interface with their advanced contextual capabilities that can personalize any professional, and personal, experience through deep learning.
“Next year, chatbots will dominate human interactions more than ever before, and in order to keep up, almost every consumer-facing business that wants to stay competitive will incorporate these human-like AI personas into their service.
“Additionally, chatbot implementation will also expand into the workplace in new ways to help with recruiting, training (via knowledge assistants), and overall efficiency (via virtual assistants), becoming more intertwined with all facets of life.”
All the latest technology won’t save you if you leave the front door unlocked
With all this in consideration, Malcolm Murphy, Technical Director, EMEA at Infoblox points out that as tech develops, people need to still be aware that it is important to protect themselves again breaches.
“When it comes to security, more isn’t always better. Even with state of the art security, hackers are still one step ahead. Old-fashioned ransomware still wreaked havoc in 2019, which old school protection could’ve prevented. For those using technology for good, it’s not necessarily the tech you deploy, it’s how you deploy it.
“Those that continue to be pre-occupied with the latest shiny and new technology in 2020 will put themselves in the firing line for security breaches. Before you look at purchasing the latest upgrade, think about getting the most out of what you’ve got and ensuring the basics are done right first.
“Threat hunting is a proactive way to help you get the most out of your existing systems and understand which areas are vulnerable. Looking at how you share and enrich this threat data and context across multiple technologies and how this data informs other security tools is also key. If you have two security tools working well, they will almost certainly work better if they are integrated and share data.”
