The “virtualization” of our world has greatly accelerated. Work from home, telemedicine, virtual shopping, distance learning, socializing, exercise: this trend alone will impact every sector of the economy.  But of course there is much more.

Consumers will emerge with a new desire for security and control, yet lagging incomes will change what they can afford. 

The public will continue to seek authoritative information sources, with a new focus on wellness. 

Never before has management’s life been so…interesting.  Business, government and society are all creating a vast new digital infrastructure, from smart sensors and cognitive computing to wearable computers, extended social networks and virtual workplaces.

Cognitive computing is the latest and most potent expression of artificial intelligence.   Software and robots can now learn from experience and then reason and act upon information–often coming up with insights that humans might not reach. 

Because they are “cloud-based”, these powerful thinking tools will be accessible even to small organizations and individuals from Michael Rogers.

For this popular speech, Michael Rogers who is also a best-selling science fiction writer does an interview to learn more about your business, practice or discipline.

He then creates a realistic scenario of what your profession or business may be like in the late Twenties. 

Sometimes it seems as if society has fast-forwarded five years in the last five months: far more of our shopping, work and schooling now happens online, and post-COVID, not everything will go back.  In addition, after so much uncertainty, consumers will seek security, safety, trusted relationships and reliable information.

The future is bright for medicine: telemedicine, wellness monitors, personal genomics, electronic health records, and more.

Plus: “big data” and smart computers will choose the best and most efficient treatment options based on actual outcomes. 

All this progress will come with caveats, of course: how do we keep the human element in healthcare?  What are the privacy implications of personal genomic data? 

Over the next decade, more and more of our work, what we care about and how we interact with others will involve the Internet, intelligent computers and the Internet of Things.

If you think that’s already happened…just listen to what Michael Rogers predicts is next.

We’re all educators either as professional teachers, or as managers, team leaders, mentors, or parents. In the future Michael Rogers believes we will be permanent students as well.

The online world represents a powerful opportunity for education to reach a wider, more diverse audience.  But it’s also a challenge to the future of both teachers and campuses.