We’re entering the world of invisible tech; can we keep up?

It’s a wellproven fact in the tech world that timing is everything.

Indeed, the history of the tech industry is littered with examples of companies who had great ideas but brought them to market too early or without enough context for them to really register with the buying public.

Apple Newton anyone? Or how about Microsoft’s first Windows XP-based Tablet PC?

At the midpoint of 2017, we’re about to enter an era of technological development in which some of the most interesting innovations aren’t likely to be as visible as many of our high-tech gadgets and friendly apps have been. The real magic of many of these new tech advances will be nearly invisible.

Artificial intelligence, voice and gesture-driven computing and autonomous driving all provide different ways to interact with many of the devices and products we already know. In some cases, they’ll lead to new products — such as Amazon’s popular Echo line of smart speak- ers equipped with the Alexa digital assistant — but in others, there likely won’t be much or any physical manifestations of these developments. Instead, if these techs work as intended, they’ll start to disappear into the workings of the world and devices already around us.

Ironically, while it might seem easier to adapt to these new technologies because of their more invisible nature, I think it’s going to be a lot harder. As a result, timing for tech products and services is going to be more challenging than ever.

An easy example: autonomous driving. Cars that feature assisted and autonomous driving capabilities is an exciting development many people are looking forward to, but a large percentage are concerned about this tech advancement.

Most of this fear is of the unknown, and a few studies have started to show that once people get some experience in cars that include these autonomous or assisted-driving features, those concerns often get replaced with enthusiasm.

We’re also going to see a lot of software and services that use artificial intelligence or deep learning to improve the usefulness of existing experiences — making better recommendations for music, movies, restaurants and even friends.

At the end of the day, it’s a question of trust. Once people come to trust a technology, they’re much more likely to use it. But when much of that technology is essentially invisible, it’s going to be a lot harder to earn that trust.

Tech companies would be foolish to ignore the fact that people don’t always progress or evolve as fast as technology does. Yes, there are some incredibly exciting developments just over the horizon, but unless enough people are ready for them, their success is far from guaranteed.

O’Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, a market research and consulting firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community.

Tech companies would be foolish to ignore the fact that people don’t always progress or evolve as fast as technology does.