One of the most important things you can do if you are trying to assess your business, industry, carer, or profession, is to make sure you keep a close eye on ALL the trends that impact your future - not just the current 'hot' new ones. That's become a key issue for me as the AI topic juggernaut continues to drive the trends-agenda for so many people around me.
And my own trends analysis tools tell me that while so many are focused on AI, there are many others who continue to look at all the other trends around us that matter.
When you run your own business, you are often responsible for every aspect of its operations. With that being the case, I do a lot of work on the public-facing parts of my operation - my Web sites and servers, content and marketing, research and interview, and other activities, while my wife and business partner of 30 years takes care of the finances, contracting and accounting duties, as well as organization, editing and content management. There's a lot that goes on in this tiny operation.
With that being the case, I've long been involved in using various analytical insights and research tools to understand what is happening with all of the different aspects of the strange industry in which I work - the global speaking industry. This includes keeping track of the analytical side of my Web site - where are people coming from, how are they finding me, what search engines are they using, and what are they looking for.
And so while I've been fascinated by how quickly the AI topic has become dominant as a topic that people are looking for, I also know that others are also laser-focused on all the other disruptive trends which are reshaping industries.
Just moments ago, for example, one of my web traffic analysis tools told me someone from New Zealand was in looking at my "20 Trends into 2030" page.
Similarly, just before that, someone was busy looking at my '23 Trends for 2023' page:
These two deep sources of trends insight remain some of the most popular resources (beyond the AI topic) on my website through the year so far, and the 2030 trends overview has been consistently popular since I put it together a number of years ago.
Both give a broad and thoughtful overview of a vast range of different trends impacting our future and provide people guidance on how to align with what's next. The level of traffic tells me that while many people are relentlessly focused on AI - it's this year's 'shiny new toy,' many others remain focused on the many other disruptive, long-term trends which are reshaping our world.
Both information sources take a different approach.
The 2030 trends page examines the deep, transformative trends impacting many different industries; for example, urbanization:
Cities and towns: Massive urbanization has taken hold, with 70% of the earths population now scattered into about 40 megacities in 2030. This has driven the arrival of all kinds of fascinating new trends and industries that are based on people living in close proximity.
A good example is vertical farming, or in-city farming: it’s everywhere, and involves 100 story skyscrapers that are used to grow food. Water is recycled, plants grow 24 hours a day under lights, and self-contained resource reuse drives down the cost of food production.
Mega-city innovations continually drive forward new trends, concepts and ideas in all other parts of the world, and become a key source for innovative, transformative ideas.
or food trends:
Food: We used to eat the same food that everyone else ate. Now, by 2030, we are eating a lot of food that is grown specifically for our particular DNA, and matched to our particular metabolic profile, based upon real time insight from monitoring technology built into our smart phone and clothing.
A world of continuous body and health monitoring has appeared, driven by the idea that the glycemic index of an apple for one person is entirely different from that for someone else. We’ve gone from from food manufactured for mass consumption to food that is personalized based on the ideas of mass customization!
Many consumers have a one-to-one relationship with distant and local food production companies and the agricultural community based on hyperconnected plants and animals. 3D printed food is found within most homes, leading to a renaissance and explosion in new menu concepts and taste sensations. The explosion of vertical farming in agriculture has also led to the mass addition of in-home food production technology.
The "23 Trends for 2023" series takes a different approach and draws a lot of leadership attention. It covers everything from the 'return to work' issue to peak carbon, digital transformation to techno-skepticism, and rapid product reinvention to the rise of robots.
What all of this tells me is that while so many are focused on AI, many more strategy-oriented leadership teams continue to look beyond the current hot-future-topic, and continue to be focused on all the other trends which are reshaping their world.
And so while I continue to undertake a lot of up-to-the-moment research on AI to supplement my already deep well of insight, I continue to relentlessly chase the so-many other trends which are shaping our world - because that's where my clients continue to take me. The future is out there! Just make sure you keep looking in all the right places, beyond AI, and don't get caught in the trap of 'all-AI-all-the-time!"
Because there continues to be more to the future than you think!
Futurist Jim Carroll spends a lot of time thinking about the future. It goes with the job.
Thank you for reading Jim Carroll's Daily Inspiration. This post is public so feel free to share it.