Emerging Tech
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How to Stay Current on Emerging Tech An introductory guide to staying ahead of technology trends in your industry Table of Contents Introduction Chapter One: Why It’s Hard to Keep Up With Emerging Tech Chapter Two: 5 Tips & Systems for Keeping Up With Emerging Tech Chapter Three: Our Collection of Recommended Emerging Tech Resources Conclusion Introduction When it comes to emerging technology — artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reali- ty (AR), virtual reality (VR), blockchain, cryptocurrency, and the internet of things (IoT) — people tend to fall into a few different camps. There are the folks that can’t get enough. They are fascinated, consumed, and per- haps most importantly, ready to adopt. And then there are the wary ones — the ones that, despite countless real-world applications of these technologies, can’t shake their lack of belief. It’s the latter that tend to argue they won’t ever work with any of these technologies in their lifetime. They speculate on whether their investment in learning about them is worth it if it won’t end up impacting their day-to-day. Unfortunately, failing to seize what’s starting won’t shield them from experiencing the impact that things like block- chain and AR will inevitably have on them -- regardless of their personal usage. You see, we’ve got ourselves a bit of a revolution on our hands. Emerging technology is changing more than just the way we work. It’s changing the way we shop. It’s changing the way we care for ourselves. It’s changing the way we travel. It’s changing the way we meet our soulmates. It’s much bigger than us and whether or not we have an obvious business need for it. Thanks in large part to emerging technology, it’s no longer “business as usual.” And it’s up to us to figure out exactly what that means for our strategies, our structures, and the future of our businesses. Where do we begin? Quite simply: It’s time to tune in. Consider this your formal invitation to join the conversation around what’s next for business and technology. Don’t worry, though, we’ll show you exactly how to get started ... You’re Invited! 1 Why It’s Hard to Keep Up With Emerging Tech We’ve all been there ... You get caught up in a project, neglect your Twitter feed or that tech newsletter you love for a couple of weeks, and suddenly you’re out of touch. You turn to Google in a desperate attempt to check the pulse of what’s going on across your industry, only to find that a search for the term “emerging tech” leaves you with a mind-boggling 238,000,000 results in .43 seconds flat. If that’s not a sign of the times, we don’t know what is. Unsurprisingly, more is not always better. However, in the eyes and algorithms of Google, more is often necessary: 15% of Google searches are new — they’ve never been searched before, according to VP of Engineering Ben Gomes. This means that there are constantly gaps to fill with more information, more results, and ultimately more choices for us as the searcher. This influx of choice has presented a new and interesting challenge when it comes to expanding our understanding of, well, anything. And the immediacy of such informa- tion begs the question, “where do I start?” Which often leads to, “how do I keep up once I start?” Aware of the engine its created, Google is admittedly on a mission to organize all of this information to make it “universally accessible and useful.” But with more choices than ever before, it can still be really overwhelming to find the right resource, suited to your proficiency level, in a format that makes sense for your learning style. Luckily, we’ve compiled a neat selection of resources aimed at keeping you in-the- know when it comes to emerging tech – and we’ll reveal those later in this guide. But for now, let’s start with a few tips and systems for better managing all of this informa- tion coming in. 2 5 Tips & Systems for Keeping Up With Emerging Tech #1 Share the responsibility. Depending on your role, it’s likely that you approach handling and managing this level of tech information overload differently. While many businesses opt to take a top-down approach, placing the accountability on one person or a small group of people can create a level of pressure that ends up stifling comprehension. Instead of expanding their depth in one area or technology, they struggle to gain a breadth of knowledge across all verticals, which leads to weakened opportunity eval- uation and subsequent action plan. If you’ve hired correctly, you can and should trust the experts within your organiza- tion to do their due diligence. But remember: we’re talking about brand new, ad- vanced technologies here. This is uncharted territory for everyone. To solve for this, we have an entire Slack channel dedicated to discussing how hu- man behavior and technology change is impacting marketing, sales, and service. Within that channel, there are nearly 300 people that share a passion for keeping tabs on “what’s next” — even if it’s not their job to do so. That’s why we encourage businesses to hold their entire team accountable for keep- ing up with emerging tech news. By enabling and encouraging your team to remain ahead of tech trends and the potential of disruptive change, you not only eliminate bad surprises, but you also increase your mindshare. #2 Get hands on with tech. When I asked HubSpot’s resident tech writer Amanda Zantal-Wiener how she keeps up with certain emerging technologies, she explained the value in getting your hands dirty. “VR is a big one. To really understand its possible use cases, you have to take it for a spin yourself. I’d say the same about certain productivity and life management tools like smart speakers and voice assistants,” she explained. And she wasn’t kidding. Check out this recap of the time she put Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Apple HomePod to the test -- complete with video commentary. #3 Follow tech hashtags. Narrow your focus on Twitter by surfacing content that’s tagged with popular tech-re- lated hashtags. To make this easy: 1. Open Twitter and input a hashtag in the search box at the top right corner 2. On the results page, click the vertical “…” icon 3. Select “save this search” Now, anytime you click the search box, that hashtag will appear under your saved searches for easy access. (HubSpot customers: You can leverage Social Inbox to monitor hashtags, keywords, or Twitter users within your software. Here’s how.) Here are some recommendations for popular emerging tech hashtags to check out: #emergingtech #technology #techtrends #digitaltransformation #tech #ar #vr #ai #iot #blockchain #bitcoin #crypto #machinelearning #augmentedreality #ainews #virtualreality #robotics #artificialintelligence #robots #4 Set up Google Alerts. Stay up to date on any breaking news in the emerging tech space by setting up Goo- gle Alerts for popular influencers or keywords. Note: We suggest getting these alerts once a day to save your inbox. To get set up, all you have to do is type in your search term, select your frequency, and you are ready to go. PRO TIP: Cater your results to your own comfort level as a learner by being strategic about your alert inputs. For example, rather than simply selecting “emerging tech,” you might go for the phrase “what is blockchain technology” or “the beginner’s guide to artificial intelli- gence” to surface more introductory resources. #5 Curate on your own terms. A big part of sticking with something is finding a way to make it work for you. Lucki- ly, tools such as Zapier and IFTTT make it easy for you to connect all of the different apps and resources you use to curate tech news into one manageable location. For example, when you set up an Applet through IFTTT, you can save time by auto- matically having emerging tech news and updates served up to you according to your content consumption preferences. Here are a couple Applet ideas to get you started: • Receive notifications for new NPR Technology stories • Send popular NYT tech articles to Pocket for offline reading 3 Our Collection of Recommended Emerging Tech Resources Newsletters The Download The Download is a daily newsletter dedicated to helping you stay current on emerg- ing tech news. There are a few differentiating factors that help this particular newsletter rise above the competition, one being the “Ten Fascinating Things” section, which quite literally, outlines 10 articles or ideas worth discussing — like, “Should we trust Alex?” We also like the way they break larger stories by calling out the significance, caveats, conse- quences, and so on, as this helps to increase comprehension. MIT Technology Review also offers a handful of niche newsletters for specific emerg- ing technologies: • For a more granular take on AI, subscribe to The Algorithm • For a blockchain and crept focus, subscribe to Chain Letter • For a big picture take on tech in the workplace, subscribe to Clocking In Click Here to Subscribe Fortune Data Sheet Served up daily, Fortune’s Data Sheet newsletter is a great place to start for people looking for curated tech news. Each of the newsletter’s clever sections delivers an interesting take on where to place your focus for the day — from newsworthy articles to a food for thought section. Click Here to Subscribe AI Weekly Subscribe for the “Learning” section and stay for the rest of the great content curat- ed by Plume Labs founder David Lissmyr.