Last updated: 05 July 2017
Recently we published our Connected Living 2025 report, which examined our survey of 1200 young people across the globe on their expectations of connected living in 2025. The results were interesting to say the least, revealing forward-thinking attitudes on subjects like mobile authentication, connected cars and wearable healthcare devices.
To discuss the findings, we hosted a social media Crowdchat, which we called #CL2025. Our panel was made up of the futurist Tom Cheesewright, tech expert Dan Kaplan, as well as the Gemalto team, Xavier Larduinat, Marketing and Communications Manager for Innovation, Manfred Kube, Head of M2M Marketing, and Frederic Martinent, Head of Product Marketing. We were very lucky to be joined by some great participants, and special thanks to GadgetsBoy, Helen Keegan, Pierre Metivier, John Furrier and @4R1U5 for their excellent contributions. The chat certainly led to a lot of interest, and resulted in over 2 million Twitter impressions!
So what were the key discussion points? Read on for a summary and let us know your perspective in the comments, or by tweeting @Gemalto using the #CL2025 hashtag.
Will cash still be used in 2025?
With mobile payments flourishing in the UK and the US, as we discussed recently on the blog, people are beginning to question whether there’s a place for cash in the hyper-connected society of 2025.
A range of views were expressed. Fabio Virgi felt that the days of cash and coins were ‘numbered’, although he felt that ‘it would take a little longer than 2025’. Leading mobile influencer, Helen Keegan, pointed out that cash is still important for older people, particularly those who can’t see and hear as well and need to ‘feel’ their money.
Pierre Metivier, meanwhile, felt that the innovations made by London transport in the UK, with cash being replaced by Oyster cards and contactless payments, served as a sign of what’s to come.
The impact on healthcare
With ageing populations and obesity crises gripping many countries, national health services are struggling to deal with the pressure. Many young people we surveyed saw IoT-enabled wearables, capable of tracking your body fat and heart rate, as a potential solution, thereby alleviating pressure on medical professionals. What did our experts think about the future of healthcare and the IoT revolution?
Bloggger GadgetsBoy, felt that the IoT would ‘speed up a lot of processes’. Tom Cheesewright agreed, suggesting ‘it will be enforced bottom up’ and pointing to the ‘low-cost collection of useful data’ as a trend likely to affect healthcare in 2025.
Helen Keegan argued that there was a ‘trend towards wellness which is less regulated’ and that ‘the medical stuff will come. Too important not to’.
Of course, a potential obstacle to IoT innovation in healthcare is security and privacy, which is why organizations must develop effective strategies for ‘securing the breach’. Dan Kaplan pointed out that young people gave ‘little consideration…to the risks of persistent monitoring’, which had the potential to open ‘the doors to abuse’. Clearly, with huge amounts of data being collected, we have to get the security and privacy right.
What features do people want in connected cars?
Our survey revealed widespread enthusiasm for the connected car, with 63% expecting driverless vehicles by 2025. Manfred Kube asked the panel what features they wanted from their futuristic cars – and the responses were interesting to say the least.
Dan Kaplan pointed out that there will be a lower tolerance for driverless car mistakes – ‘even if autonomous vehicles reduce fatalities by 80%, the moment a robot kills someone…’ he warned.
Frederic Martinent felt that people will always want to own and drive their own car, since it’s ‘a means of self-expression’.
Tom Cheesewright agreed with Manfred Kube’s suggestion that ‘evolutionary security’ will be needed to properly secure the connected car – otherwise, we could find cars being victims of cyber-attacks, and accidents deliberately caused by criminals!
Once again, then, the underlying theme was security. We must explore robust solutions, otherwise connected life could be stopped in its tracks.
Should we fear AI?
Fueled by Hollywood films and media reporting, as well as the concerns of some well-respected technologists, many people are concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence and robotics. Is there any truth in the claim that AI will render large proportions of the population unemployed?
Dan Kaplan felt that certain jobs would be more resistant than others, writing that ‘creative knowledge work that requires independent thought is more likely to be augmented by robots’. However, ‘routine jobs may be in trouble’, he warned. Tom Cheesewright pointed to an Oxford University study which predicted that 30% of the workforce could be replaced by technology. He suggested that the ‘solution likely comes in social change’ and ‘not new job creation’.
Helen Keegan suggested that there will be new jobs created, but that these could be more specialist roles. She also believes that the ‘dynamic of our workplace’ will be transformed, while work will be ‘redefined’.
Our #CL2025 discussion didn’t end with the chat – we’re inviting people to present their ‘six second predictions’ for 2025 at the Gemalto stand at Mobile World Congress. You can find us at Hall 5, Stand 5A80.
If you want to read the entire Twitter chat, you can view it here. We’d also recommend reading the report, which is available on our website. Let us know what you think by tweeting at @Gemalto, or by posting a comment below.
