Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Dakota Berg

I like to keep up on industry trends and technology. For this post, I have compiled a list of 8 growing industries either with technology at it’s core or that are being revolutionized by technology that have caught my eye over the last couple of years. I think these industries have the potential to make a massive impact on society as a whole. These are definitely industries that we are interested in at DKTB Design & Black Hatchet. If you are an entrepreneur, investor, advisor, employee or anything in between, these are the industries that I would invest my time and energy into. Part Two coming November 1st.

Autonomous Vehicles Can Help Reduce or Eliminate Traffic Jams

1) Transportation

This point could easily split into an entire post in itself. Our means of transportation are evolving quicker than ever before. Everybody has watched Uber and Lyft have completely overhauled the cab industry. Some people I know have even made the change to sell their personal vehicle and use only services like Uber and Lyft.

Electric and autonomous vehicles are coming. Almost all of the largest automobile companies are investing heavily into automated and / or electric vehicles. Tesla has helped bring high quality electric vehicles to the forefront of the industry. With the rise of any technology comes the need for more advanced security, research & development, product design, legal protection and a myriad of other opportunities.

Outside of the automobile industry, Elon Musk and Richard Branson have both invested millions in Hyperloop, a proposed mode of transportation where a pressurized capsule rides on air bearings within a reduced-pressure tube. Space X (also founded by Elon Musk) was founded to revolutionize space technology and travel, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets, specifically Mars, according to their website and various press releases.

Go Live Studio, SportsCastr App

2) Live Streaming Video

The most influential content on Facebook is video. According to Cisco, video will make up 82 percent of all internet traffic in 2021. Thanks to trailblazing live streaming services like Periscope, Twitch and SportsCastr, creating high quality content and distributing it in real-time has never been easier. Also, there is something to be said about the raw-ness of live video. The occasional mistakes, the occasional awkward down-times and the unique ability to chat and interact with live viewers make it stand out from the crowd. Keep an eye on live streaming video.

Augmented Reality Map, Pokemon Go App

3) AR: Augmented Reality

Augmented reality has started to take the world by storm over the last few years. During the summer of 2016, many people got their first introduction to AR through Pokemon GO. This was a very simple use case that showed how games could begin to implement and overlay digital game elements into the real world. There are hundreds of real world use cases for augmented reality that we have yet to even discover. Whatever you’ve seen AR used for so far is just scratching the surface. I believe that with the advancement of wearables over the next decade, augmented reality could quickly become a staple to our day-to-day lives.

Gear VR Oculus Headset

4) VR: Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is generally delivered through a headset like the one in the image above. What’s the difference between virtual & augmented reality? Virtual reality is meant to create an immersive experience that is supposed to trick you into thinking it’s real, while augmented reality is built around the concept of enhancing the real world with digital elements. As long as virtual reality is limited to wearing a chunky headset over your eyes, I think it will remain a fringe technology. When virtual reality can be delivered through simple eyeglasses or smart contacts is when I think VR will truly be allowed to spread its wings. Statista predicts that the virtual reality market will grow to $24.5 billion by 2020.

Mysterious Glowing Macbook

5) AI: Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence will likely play the largest part in economic change over the next decade or two. Robots & programmers will be able to automate many of the tasks we spend enormous amounts of time doing. It can help quickly find the answer to a lingering question, it can be used to learn your preferences so it can tailor an experience for you or it can be used to organize and process vast amounts of data that human beings never could. AI is implemented into the latest smart phone cameras, which allows it to recognize certain people, pets and things and optimize to focus on the parts that matter the most.

Will some menial jobs be replaced with automation? Yeah, certainly. But that means there are new jobs to develop, build, sell, repair and maintain those machines. This is how change works. We no longer spend hours on end spinning silk by hand, there are machines that can do it thousands of times faster than we can. Let me be clear… this is a good thing.

Broadcast Stats, SportsCastr App

6) Data

Although generally a by-product of other industries, data in itself has become an industry. There are thousands of companies tracking, aggregating, storing, analyzing, interpreting, visualizing and distributing relevant data to other companies that can use that data to better serve their customers or gain new ones. Organizations can also use their own internal data to better their products or services. I’ve heard the saying “data is the new oil” before and as the years go by, I believe it more and more. Data can help make a good product great. It can help when making important business decisions. It can help when trying to figure out how to position a marketing campaign. There are many aspects of your business or business idea that could probably benefit from the use of data.

Visiting a Licensed Tier 3 Cannabis Producer in Washington State in 2013

7) Medical & Recreational Cannabis

Anybody that knows me very well would guess that cannabis would make the list. I’ve been in the industry myself with a few cannabis-related tech startups as far back as 2012, when Washington State first got I-502 on the ballot. After doing heavy research, I came to the conclusion that the plant itself is essentially harmless. Not only that, but I know plenty of people that use cannabis regularly to treat a myriad of illnesses like Crohn’s disease, anxiety, depression, loss of appetite, PTSD and even cancer.

The industry has always been massive, but nobody never truly knew how large it was until it was legalized recreationally in Washington and Colorado. Multiple states (including California) have followed suit and over half of the states have legalized medicinal use in some form. Tens of millions of dollars has been generated in tax revenue for the states with recreational systems in place. It’s only a matter of time now before it’s legalized federally and when that happens, the cannabis industry will quickly balloon into one of the largest industries in the world. Arcview Market Research, the cannabis industry’s leading market research firm, estimates that the cannabis industry will be worth $20.6 billion in 2020. There are many opportunities to infuse tech into the industry and I think this is where the potential truly is.

Hey kids, these are called books

8) Education

Education probably has the biggest impact on society as a whole out of any industry. An educated and skilled workforce is at the heart of any thriving economy. I value my education and the skills I picked up throughout my time in K-12 and at college, but I, like many Americans, don’t believe our traditional education system is working. We may have a skilled workforce, but most people aren’t equipped with the skills needed to succeed in 2017 and beyond. A cookie-cutter, watered-down, general education isn’t helping anyone. A 4-year university degree isn’t an “extra” anymore, it’s mandatory.

Look, I did it. I got some great things out of my college experience, I met some great friends, mentors and most importantly, I learned how to learn. But I know people that either dropped out or didn’t go to college and are harder workers and smarter than anyone else I know. America was built on entrepreneurship and innovation, yet our current education system teaches how to be a good employee and color between the lines. We are taught that answers are always binary, that there is always a right and a wrong. This isn’t how life is. I have learned more valuable skills outside of school through trial and error than I ever did in a classroom.

A friend told me the other day that everybody at the high school I graduated from is now using iPads exclusively for notes, research, creating documents, taking tests, submitting papers and everything else. This is probably a step in the right direction, but I don’t think just replacing physical tools with digital ones and keeping the same tired curriculum is going to do any good. What we need is personalized educational experiences that allow students to find what interests them and dive as deep as they want to. Go build that.

About the author

Dakota is an entrepreneur & designer from the Pacific Northwest. Founder of DKTB Design, Partner at Black Hatchet & Lead Designer at SportsCastr.

8 Growing Industries With The Greatest Potential was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

8 Growing Industries With The Greatest Potential

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