Tech trends 2021: An overview

The events of 2020 toppled the carefully laid plans of many organisations, but some are adapting to become more resilient than ever. Deloitte’s 12th annual Tech Trends report explores how organisations are using technology to thrive in the face of change.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation across enterprises in ways that few could have anticipated a year ago. Not only are many organisations making their operations nimbler and more efficient but they are also adapting to dramatic fluctuations in demand and customer expectations, among other sudden shifts. In this environment, C-suite executives have little time to waste – they must solve for the needs of the here and now while also confidently laying the groundwork needed to create opportunities for future transformation.

As such, resilience is the theme of Deloitte’s 12th annual Tech Trends report, which explores nine trends that will drive new plans during the next 18 to 24 months and beyond.

Heart of the Enterprise

Three of this year’s trends focus on alignment of organisational and tech strategies, along with the technologies that support them:

• Strategy, engineered. Corporate strategy development is changing from an infrequent, labour-intensive process to one that is continuous and dynamic as more organisations use advanced technology platforms to help them think more expansively about where to play and how to win. In doing so, strategists are turning to platforms equipped with advanced analytics, automation, and AI to continually identify internal and external forces, inform their organisations’ strategic decisions, and monitor outcomes.

• Core revival. As the C-suite increasingly views technology modernisation as an imperative, some pioneering IT leaders are embracing new approaches, technologies, and business cases to reengineer traditional business cases for core modernisation. Likewise, others are exploring opportunities to shift core assets to increasingly powerful platforms, including low-code options. Many are also advancing platform-first strategies by addressing technical debt in ERP systems and migrating nonessential capabilities to other platforms.

• Supply unchained. Future-focused manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and others are exploring ways to transform the supply chain cost centre into a customer-focused driver of value. They are extracting more value from the data they collect, analyse, and share across their supply networks. Finally, some organisations are exploring opportunities to use collaborative robots, drones, and advanced image recognition to make physical supply chain interactions more efficient, effective, and safe for employees.

Data: The Art of the Possible

Enterprises can realise more value through industrialisation and automation, as demonstrated by these trends:

• MLOps: Industrialised AI. Enterprises are realising the need to shift from personal heroics to engineered performance to efficiently move machine learning (ML) models from development through to production and management. However, many are hamstrung in their efforts by clunky, brittle development and deployment processes. As AI and ML mature, the era of artisanal AI is giving way to MLOps – the application of engineering discipline to automate ML model development, maintenance, and delivery – to shorten development life cycles and industrialise AI.

• Machine data revolution: Feeding the machine. To achieve the benefits and scale of AI and MLOps, data must be tuned for native machine consumption, not humans, leading organisations to rethink data management practices. In response, some are deploying new technologies and approaches including advanced data capture and structuring capabilities, analytics to identify connections among random data, and nextgeneration cloud-based data stores to support complex modelling.

• Zero trust: Never trust, always verify.

There’s no longer a defined perimeter inside which every user, workload, device, and network is inherently trusted. As such, modern enterprise environments necessitate a different approach to cybersecurity. A zero trust architecture – in which every access request should be validated based on all available data points – provides the opportunity to create a more robust and resilient security posture, simplify security management, improve end-user experience, and enable modern IT practices and more nuanced, risk-based decisions.

A Better Experience, Inside and Out

These three trends, meanwhile, outline innovative ways technology is being used to drive more satisfying and equitable human experiences for customers, employees, and stakeholders:

• Rebooting the digital workplace. The digital workplace represents a fundamental shift in the way work gets done. Companies may be able to overcome deficits and ambiguities by more intentionally embracing its positive aspects, including the data generated by workers’ tools and platforms. This may help organisations optimise individual and team productivity, improve collaboration, and customise the employee experience at large through personalised recommendations – enabling remote work to be far more than a diminished proxy for the traditional office.

• Bespoke for billions: Digital meets physical. 2020 will likely be the turning point when most of the population adapted to digital interactions to conduct their everyday lives. No longer satisfied with distinct physical or digital brand experiences, consumers going forward may expect a blend of the best of both, with organisations recognising the vitalness of promoting human experiences that balance the convenience of digital with the personalised warmth and understanding of physical, in-person interactions.

• DEI tech: Tools for equity. Many organisations are embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as business imperatives, with a growing number adopting holistic, organisationwide workforce strategies that address biases and inequities to enhance enterprise and employee performance. Technology leaders, in collaboration with HR and other organisational leaders, play a critical role in designing, developing, and executing increasingly sophisticated tech-enabled and data-driven tools to support DEI initiatives across the talent life cycle.

Prepare for macro-technology forces.

Exploring technology trends individually is no longer enough to stay ahead – organisations are deploying them in concert to create a foundation for innovation that can propel their business into the future.

For organisations dealing with the seismic shifts of 2020, this year’s Tech Trends suggest there is a more hopeful dimension to the turbulent events of this past year. New technology and business plans already being executed will allow organisations to confidently navigate a tech-enabled future. C-suite executives who have proven they can confront change and get back on their feet will play a critical role in charting this journey.