Tech and Data: Trends to Watch in 2022

2021 has been a year of digital transformation, to the point where transforming your business has been imperative to stay afloat.

Companies have become more flexible and resilient off the back of the pandemic, thanks to the digital tools and technologies that have made adaption to more efficient business models possible.  

In this blog, we look at 5 of the key digital trends across tech and data in 2021 and what we expect to see in 2022. 

1. Cyber security

A major transformation for businesses and consumers in the past 18 months has been our reliance on the internet to work, access services and communicate. 2021 saw tightened measures to accommodate WFH trends and a sharp rise in scams and phishing attempts.  

Despite businesses having security measures in place, the past year has demonstrated the severity of data theft and has created demand for more secure technologies and processes. More specifically, in Australia over 67,500 cybercrime reports were made in the last financial year, equating to 1 every 8 minutes.  

2. Understanding the 360-degree view of the customer 

As the pandemic hit the world, it sharply limited the ability of businesses, regardless of size, to sell their product in person to their customers. As a result, we were hit with an e-commerce boom.  

Coupled with an increase in site users and conversions, there has been an explosion in the amount of data available to companies. Web tracking can monitor individuals to a far greater extent than in- store purchasers. However, the build-up of mid-large companies analytics systems is often unable to fully utilise the information that they now have access to. 

The good news is this can be changed when companies realise the shift to e-commerce is here to stay and that the third party tracking they historically relied upon is coming to an end. We expect to see Customer Data Platforms (CDP’S) such as Segment, Tealium and Totango being utilised across the bulk of industries, as companies are forced to rely upon first party data to learn about their customers. This will also lead to a far more comprehensive understanding of the customer than we have ever had access to. 

3. Privacy and Compliance 

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy act (CCPA) regulations are largely geographically locked, but some businesses who don’t have a presence in those regions are incorporating similar regulations into their own policies and processes.  

Consumers desires to have their privacy protected, and the assumption that  more stringent regulations will eventually make their way to Australia, has led to us increasingly seeing GDPR-lite privacy implementations on many websites.  

This is a trend that is likely to continue in 2022 as the number of marketers and data analysts familiar with privacy requirements grows. In turn, we expect these experts to begin implementing these standards simply as best practice rather than requested as a specific requirement. 

4. Coding  

For a while, the AI and Machine Learning (ML) space has been buzzing when it comes to coding, with tools like GitHub Co Pilot simplifying the process dramatically. Understanding programming and human language, GitHub Co Pilot uses OpenAI Codex to synthesise and suggest both whole functions and individual lines.  

AI/ML is not going to make developers obsolete but we expect it will become very smart very quickly and will be able to find better and more creative efficiencies in code than humans currently can. 

5. New wave of digital transformation  

A key player in the anticipated new wave of digital transformation is Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT’s). NFT’s are similar to a digital currency, however they can be any sort of digital file such as music, art or even a tweet. A key driving force of NFT growth is Gen Z and Gen Alpha tying NFT’s to digital ‘swag’, which means we can expect to see them gain more and more momentum in 2022.  

From a sales and marketing perspective, this suggests we will see opportunities for current and emerging creators to own the content they’ve created for a brand with NFT’s by receiving a recurring payment each time the asset is utilised.  

Similarly, for brands it means opportunities exist to sell assets to consumers in the form of NFT’s. The NBA in the US are already doing this, selling fans virtual moments in a basketball game and virtual merchandise.  

In summary 

Despite a big year of digital advancements in 2021, things are not slowing down for the year ahead. From changes in data compliance, to the rise of NFT’s, we’re seeing growth in many aspects of the digital world that brands can’t afford to ignore in 2022.  

At Revium, we keep on top of the current and emerging trends, regulations and predictions to support businesses in the ever-changing digital environment. Chat to us to see how you can improve your digital strategy in 2022.