Category: technology

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Exploring the Concept of Virtual Identity: A Technical Analysis

Virtual Identity Explained

With the increasing use of technology, the concept of virtual identity has become a popular topic of discussion. Virtual identity refers to the digital representation of an individual, which includes personal information, behavior, and interactions in the online world. This article explores the technical aspects of virtual identity and its role in various digital platforms.

The Technical Aspects of Virtual Identity

Virtual identity is a complex concept that involves technical aspects such as data encryption, user authentication, and digital signatures. Data encryption is used to ensure that personal information is kept secure during transmission across networks. User authentication is the process of confirming the identity of an individual using a username and password, biometric verification, or other identification methods. Digital signatures are used to verify the authenticity of electronic documents and transactions.

Virtual Identity: The Role of Authentication

Authentication is a critical component of virtual identity, as it ensures that only authorized individuals have access to personal information and digital resources. In addition to usernames and passwords, modern authentication methods include multi-factor authentication, biometric verification, and behavioral analysis. Multi-factor authentication involves using more than one form of identification, such as a password and a security token. Biometric verification uses physical characteristics, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, to identify individuals. Behavioral analysis uses machine learning algorithms to analyze user behavior and detect anomalies that may indicate fraudulent activity.

Virtual Identity vs. Real Identity: A Comparison

Virtual identity differs from real identity in several ways. Real identity refers to an individual’s physical characteristics and personal information, such as name, date of birth, and address. Virtual identity includes this information, as well as online behavior, interactions, and preferences. Virtual identity can be more fluid than real identity, as individuals can create multiple virtual identities or change their online persona to fit different contexts.

Privacy Concerns in Virtual Identity

Privacy is a major concern in virtual identity, as personal information can be easily accessed and exploited in the online world. Individuals must be aware of the risks associated with sharing personal information online and take steps to protect their virtual identity. This includes using strong passwords, limiting the amount of personal information shared online, and being cautious when interacting with unknown individuals or sites.

Digital Footprint: Building Virtual Identity

A digital footprint is the trail of data left behind by an individual’s online activity. This includes social media posts, search engine queries, and website visits. A digital footprint can be used to build a virtual identity, as it provides insight into an individual’s behavior and interests. It is important for individuals to manage their digital footprint and ensure that it accurately represents their values and beliefs.

The Importance of Virtual Identity Management

Virtual identity management involves controlling and maintaining an individual’s online presence. This includes monitoring online behavior, managing privacy settings, and responding to negative content or reviews. Virtual identity management is important for individuals, businesses, and organizations to maintain a positive image and protect against reputation damage.

Virtual Identity and Cybersecurity

Virtual identity is closely tied to cybersecurity, as the protection of personal information and digital resources is essential to maintaining virtual identity. Cybersecurity involves protecting against unauthorized access, cyber-attacks, and data breaches. Individuals and businesses must implement strong security measures, such as firewalls, encryption, and intrusion detection systems, to protect against cyber threats.

Virtual Identity in Social Media

Social media platforms are a major component of virtual identity, as they provide a space for individuals to express themselves and interact with others online. Social media profiles can be used to build a virtual identity, showcase skills and accomplishments, and connect with others in a professional or personal capacity. It is important for individuals to be mindful of their social media activity and ensure that it aligns with their desired virtual identity.

Virtual Identities in Gaming: A Technical Discussion

Virtual identities are also prevalent in the gaming world, where individuals can create avatars and interact with others in virtual environments. Gaming platforms must implement strong security measures to protect against hacking, cheating, and other forms of abuse. Virtual identities can be used to enhance the gaming experience, as players can customize their avatars and build relationships with other players.

Virtual Reality and Virtual Identity

Virtual reality technology allows individuals to immerse themselves in virtual environments and interact with others in a more realistic way. Virtual reality can enhance virtual identity by allowing individuals to create more realistic avatars and interact with others in a more natural way. It is important for individuals to be aware of the privacy risks associated with virtual reality and take steps to protect their personal information.

The Future of Virtual Identity

As technology continues to evolve, the concept of virtual identity will become increasingly important. It is up to individuals, businesses, and organizations to manage virtual identity effectively and protect against cyber threats. By understanding the technical aspects of virtual identity and implementing strong security measures, individuals can build a positive online presence and protect their personal information in the digital world.

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Top 5 Real-World Applications for Natural Language Processing

Emerging technologies have greatly facilitated our daily lives. For instance, when you are making yourself dinner but want to call your Mom for the secret recipe, you don’t have to stop what you are doing and dial the number to make the phone call. Instead, all you need to do is to simply speak out — “Hey Siri, call Mom.” And your iPhone automatically makes the call for you.

The application is simple enough, but the technology behind it could be sophisticated. The magic that makes the aforementioned scenario possible is natural language processing (NLP). NLP is far more than a pillar for building Siri. It can also empower many other AI-infused applications in the real world.

This article first explains what NLP is and later moves on to introduce five real-world applications of NLP.

What is NLP?

From chatbots to Siri, from virtual support agents to knowledge graphs, the application and usage of NLP are ubiquitous in our daily life. NLP stands for “Natural Language Processing”. Simply put, NLP is the ability of a machine to understand human language. It is the bridge that enables humans to directly interact and communicate with machines. NLP is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) and in Bill Gates's words, “NLP is the pearl in the crown of AI.”

With the ever-expanding market size of NLP, countless companies are investing heavily in this industry, and their product lines vary. Many different but specific systems for various tasks and needs can be built by leveraging the power of NLP.

The Five Real World NLP Applications

The most popular exciting and flourishing real-world applications of NLP include: Conversational user interface, AI-powered call quality assessment, Intelligent outbound calls, AI-powered call operators, and knowledge graphs, to name a few.

Chatbots in E-commerce

Over five years ago, Amazon already realized the potential benefit of applying NLP to their customer service channels. Back then, when customers had issues with their product orderings, the only way they could resort was by calling the customer service agents. However, what they could get from the other side of the phone was “Your call is important to us. Please hold, we’re currently experiencing a high call load. “ most of the time. Thankfully, Amazon immediately realized the damaging effect this could have on their brand image and tried to build chatbots.

Nowadays, when you want to quickly get, for example, a refund online, there’s a much more convenient way! All you need to do is to activate the Amazon customer service chatbot and type in your ordering information and make a refund request. The chatbot interacts and replies the same way a real human does. Apart from the chatbots that deal with post-sales customer experience, chatbots also offer pre-sales consulting. If you have any questions about the product you are going to buy, you can simply chat with a bot and get the answers.

E-commerce chatbots.
E-commerce chatbots.

With the emergence of new concepts like metaverse, NLP can do more than power AI chatbots. Avatars for customer support in the metaverse rely on the NLP technology. Giving customers more realistic chatting experiences.

Customer support avatar in metaverse.
Customer support avatar in the metaverse.

Conversational User Interface

Another more trendy and promising application is interactive systems. Many well-recognized companies are betting big on CUI ( Conversational user interface). CUI is the general term to describe those user interfaces for computers that can simulate conversations with real human beings.

The most common CUIs in our everyday life are Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google’s Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, etc.

Apple’s Siri is a common example of conversational user interface.
Apple’s Siri is a common example of a conversational user interface.

In addition, CUIs can also be embedded into cars, especially EVs (electric vehicles). NIO, an automobile manufacturer dedicated to designing and developing EVs, launched its own set of CUI named NOMI in 2018. Visually, the CUIs in cars can work in the same way as Siri. Drivers can focus on steering the car while asking the CUI to adjust A/C temperature, play a song, lock windows/doors, navigate drivers to the nearest gas station, etc.

Conversational user interface in cars.
The conversational user interface in cars.

The Algorithm Behind

Despite all the fancy algorithms the technical media have boasted about, one of the most fundamental ways to build a chatbot is to construct and organize FAQ pairs(or more straightforwardly, question-answer pairs) and use NLP algorithms to figure out if the user query matches anyone of your FAQ knowledge base. A simple FAQ example would be like this:

Q: Can I have some coffee?

A: No, I’d rather have some ribs.

Now that this FAQ pair is already stored in your NLP system, the user can now simply ask a similar question for example: “coffee, please!”. If your algorithm is smart enough, it will figure out that “coffee, please” has a great resemblance to “Can I have some coffee?” and will output the corresponding answer “No, I’d rather have some ribs.” And that’s how things are done.

For a very long time, FAQ search algorithms are solely based on inverted indexing. In this case, you first do tokenization on the original sentence and put tokens and documents into systems like ElasticSearch, which uses inverted-index for indexing and algorithms like TF-IDF or BM25 for scoring.

This algorithm works just as fine until the deep learning era arrives. One of the most substantial problems with the algorithm above is that neither tokenization nor inverted indexing takes into account the semantics of the sentences. For instance, in the example above, users could say “ Can I have a cup of Cappuccino” instead. Now with tokenization and inverted-indexing, there’s a very big chance that the system won’t recognize “coffee” and “a cup of Cappuccino” as the same thing and would thus fail to understand the sentence. AI engineers have to do a lot of workarounds for these kinds of issues.

But things got much better with deep learning. With pre-trained models like BERT and pipelines like Towhee, we can easily encode all sentences into vectors and store them in a vector database, for example, Milvus, and simply calculate vector distance to figure out the semantic resembles of sentences.

The algorithm behind conversational user interfaces.

AI-powered Call Quality Control

Call centers are indispensable for many large companies that care about customer experience. To better spot issues and improve call quality, assessment is necessary. However, the problem is that call centers of large multi-national companies receive tremendous amounts of inbound calls per day. Therefore, it is impractical to listen to each of the millions of calls and make the evaluation. Most of the time, when you hear “in order to improve our service, this call could be recorded.” from the other end of the phone, it doesn’t necessarily mean your call would be checked for quality of service. In fact, even in big organizations, only 2%-3% of the calls would be replayed and checked manually by quality control people.

A call center. Image source: Pexels by Tima Miroshnichenko.

This is where NLP can help. An AI-powered call quality control engine powered by NLP can automatically spot the issues incalls and can handle massive volumes of calls in a relatively short period of time. The engine helps detect if the call operator uses the proper opening and ending sentences, and avoids that banned slang and taboo words in the call. This would easily increase the check rate from 2%-3% to 100%, with even less manpower and other costs.

With a typical AI-powered call quality control service, users need to first upload the call recordings to the service. Then the technology of Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is used to transcribe the audio files into texts. All the texts are subsequently vectorized using deep learning models and subsequently stored in a vector database. The service compares the similarity between the text vectors and vectors generated from a certain set of criteria such as taboo word vectors and vectors of desired opening and closing sentences. With efficient vector similarity search, handling great volumes of call recordings can be much more accurate and less time-consuming.

Intelligent outbound calls

Believe it or not, some of the phone calls you receive are not from humans! Chances are that it is a robot talking from the other side of the call. To reduce operation costs, some companies might leverage AI phone calls for marketing purposes and much more. Google launched Google Duplex back in 2018, a system that can conduct human-computer conversations and accomplish real-world tasks over the phone. The mechanism behind AI phone calls is pretty much the same as that behind chatbots.

Google assistant.
A user asks the Google Assistant for an appointment, which the Assistant then schedules by having Duplex call the business. Image source: Google AI blog.

In other cases, you might have also heard something like this on the phone:

“Thank you for calling. To set up a new account, press 1. To modify your password to an existing account, press 2. To speak to our customer service agent, press 0.”,

or in recent years, something like (with a strong robot accent):

“Please tell me what I can help you with. For example, You can ask me ‘check the balance of my account’.”

This is known as interactive voice response (IVR). It is an automated phone system that interacts with callers and performs based on the answers and actions of the callers. The callers are usually offered some choices via a menu. And then their choice will decide how the phone call system acts. If the user request is too complex, the system can route callers to a human agent. This can greatly reduce labor costs and save time for companies.

Intents are usually very helpful when dealing with calls like these. An intent is a group of sentences or dialects representing a certain user intention. For example, “weather forecast” can be intent, and this intent can be triggered with different sentences. See the picture of a Google Dialogflow example below. Intents can be organized together to accomplish complicated interactive human-computer conversations. Like booking a restaurant, ordering a flight ticket, etc.

Google Dialogflow.
Google Dialogflow.

AI-powered call operators

By adopting the technology of NLP, companies can carry call operation services to the next level. Conventionally, call operators need to look up a hundred page-long professional manual to deal with each call from customers and solve each of the user problems case by case. This process is extremely time-consuming and for most of the time cannot satisfy callers with desirable solutions. However, with an AI-powered call center, dealing with customer calls can be both cozy and efficient.

AI-aided call operators with greater efficiency.
AI-aided call operators with greater efficiency. Image source: Pexels by MART PRODUCTION.

When a customer dials in, the system immediately searches for the customer and their ordering information in the database so that the call operator can have a general idea of the case, like how old the customer is, their marriage status, things they have purchased in the past, etc. During the conversation, the whole chat will be recorded with a live chat log shown on the screen (thanks to living Automatic Speech Recognition). Moreover, when a customer asks a hard question or starts complaining, the machine will catch it automatically, look into the AI database, and tell you what is the best way to respond. With a decent deep learning model, your service could always give your customer >99% correct answers to their questions and can always handle customers’ complaints with the most proper words.

Knowledge graph

A knowledge graph is an information-based graph that consists of nodes, edges, and labels. Where a node (or a vertex) usually represents an entity. It could be a person, a place, an item, or an event. Edges are the lines connecting the nodes. There are also labels that signify the connection or relationship between a pair of nodes. A typical knowledge graph example is shown below:

A sample knowledge graph. Source: A guide to Knowledge Graphs.

The raw data for constructing a knowledge graph may come from various sources — unstructured docs, semi-structured data, and structured knowledge. Various algorithms must be applied to these data so as to extract entities (nodes) and the relationship between entities (edges). To name a few, one needs to do entity recognition, relations extracting, label mining, entity linking. To build a knowledge graph with data in docs, for instance, we need to first use deep learning pipelines to generate embeddings and store them in a vector database.

Once the knowledge graph is constructed, you can see it as the underlying pillar for many more specific applications like smart search engines, question-answering systems, recommending systems, advertisements, and more.

Endnote

This article introduces the top five real-world NLP applications. Leveraging NLP in your business can greatly reduce operational costs and improve user experience. Of course, apart from the five applications introduced in this article, NLP can facilitate more business scenarios including social media analytics, translation, sentiment analysis, meeting summarizing, and more.

There are also a bunch of NLP+, or more generally, AI+ concepts that are getting more and more popular these few years. For example, with AI + RPA (Robotic process automation). You can easily build smart pipelines that complete workflows automatically for you, such as an expense reimbursement workflow where you just need to upload your receipt, and AI + RPA will do all the rest for you. There’s also AI + OCR, where you just need to take a picture of, say, a contract, and AI will tell you if there’s a mistake in your contract, say, the telephone number of a company doesn’t match the number shown in Google search.

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How Fast Is Technology Advancing in 2022?

Almost everything we do today has an atom of technology in it. From our smart devices to advanced computers, and sophisticated engineering equipment - technology is all around us.

But this question remains - How fast is technology advancing?

Statistics that illustrate how fast technology is growing over the years have shown breakthrough technologies from all aspects of life. Experts predict that there is more to come. 

We compiled some of the most groundbreaking stats to enlighten you more on how far technology is progressing. In addition to this, we will shed more light on some of the upcoming trends, sure to leave you stunned!

Fascinating Technology Growth Statistics

The following are some eye-opening stats handpicked from the most reliable sources:

  • Globally, there are about 1.35 million tech startups around the world.
  • The number of smart devices collecting, analyzing, and sharing data should hit 50 billion by 2030.
  • The Internet adoption rate sits at 59% in 2021.
  • The computing and processing capacity of computers hits double figures every 18 months.
  • The world has produced 90% of its Big Data in the past two years.
  • Every second, 127 new devices are connected to the internet.
  • In Q1 of 2021, 4.66 billion people are using the internet.

Sounds amazing right? That’s just the tip of the iceberg - we have more in store for you. Read on to find out!

General Technology Growth Statistics

The following are some generalized statistics about how the growth of technology is influencing every sector.

1. The internet penetration rate in the world is at 59% as of January 2021.

(Source: Data Reportal)

In the last few decades, there has been a growing telecommunications implementation. This has led to an ongoing internet usage rise. 

According to technology adoption statistics, the rate stands at almost 60% as of January 2021. Compared to Q1 of 2020, the rate has gone up by 7%. 

2. $183.18 billion - that is how much the web hosting services marketplace is expected to have generated by 2026.

(Source: Fortune Business Insight)

In 2017, the global web hosting market had a value of $32.12 billion, and in 2018 that figure rose to $60.90 billion. By Maintaining a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.1%, experts predict that the web hosting industry will be worth more than $100 billion in a few years as a result of global tech market growth. That's why there's such a fierce battle between the best hosting providers on the market. 

3. There are 4.88 billion phone users in the world as of January 2021.

(Source: Bank My Cell)

According to technology growth statistics, 62% of the world’s population owns a mobile phone. Compared to 2020, the number of phone owners has gone up by 0.1 billion. 

That includes both smart and feature phones. 

Breaking down the number even further:

Smartphone owners are the majority here, amounting to 3.8 billion. On the other hand, feature phone owners are 1.08 billion. 

4. By 2025, there will be 75 billion connected devices in the world. 

(Source: Statista, MTA)

In 2025, the number of Internet of Things (IoT) will be thrice that of 2019. Think slow cookers, wearable technology like smartwatches, smart meters, smartphones, etc. 

The technology has become so popular that industry experts predict that every consumer will own about 15 IoT devices by 2030!

5. Google got 2.5 trillion searches in 2020.

(Source: Backlinko)

As you may know, Google continues to dominate the search engine space. 

When it comes to how fast technology is growing statistics, Google got more than two trillion searches in 2020 alone. 

Let’s have a closer look at the numbers:

There were 81,000 searches every second in 2020. That translates to about seven billion probes per month.

6. The need to reach new customers is the primary factor pioneering technological growth in the last few years (46%).

(Source: Finance Online)

Technology adoption statistics reveal that factors such as selling new business lines (38%), overall improvement of business operations (41%), improving sales and marketing (35%), improving standard internal processes (33%), are the main drivers for tech growth.

7. By 2040, 95% of purchases will be online.

(Source: Nasdaq)

Buying over the internet is so convenient because you can get whatever you need from the comfort of your home regardless of time or location. According to technology growth stats, ecommerce will have grown so much that buyers will conduct almost all of their purchases online in the next two decades.

8. There are 3.96 billion social media users in the globe as of 2021.

(Source: Backlinko)

Social media allows people to connect regardless of their geographical location and at negligible costs if you have to buy data bundles. 

Lucky for you if you’re using your office or public wifi.

You’ll only have to part with $0.

According to technology statistics, for 2021, there are almost four billion social media users globally. That’s almost twice the number in 2015.

AI and Machine Learning Statistics

Technology stats and facts show that AI remains one of the most sought-after technological advancements pioneering technological growth around the world. Read on to find out some amazing stats on how AI and machine learning are impacting society.

9. Google Translate algorithm has increased its efficiency from 55% to 85% following the implementation of machine learning into its translation services.

(Source: Finance Online)

Google Translate is a service developed by Google to help customers translate text and websites to any desired language. Before the introduction of AI, it would typically take more time to translate a series of words in a foreign language, as the process is done one text at a time. However, with the application of deep learning (a sub-function of AI), the Google Translate service is now able to interpret a whole sentence or website at once.

10. The global machine learning market is expected to reach $20.83 billion in 2024. 

(Source: Finance Online, Forbes)

Tech growth stats indicate that machine learning is currently one of the most popular and most successful sub-functions of AI.

It should come as no surprise that the market is growing in value. Worth around $1.58B in 2017, it is expected to reach $20.83B in 2024, growing at a CAGR of 44.06%.

11. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for AI will be 42.2% by 2027.

(Source: Grand View Research)

Stats on how fast technology is advancing reveal that the artificial intelligence market was worth $10.1 billion in 2018. In 2019, that value increased to $39.9.

As you can see, there has been positive growth over the years, which is likely to continue.

Giant tech firms have been pouring big bucks into research and development, the reason why technology keeps advancing every day. Examples of big names investing heavily in this sector include Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple. 

Industry players predict a CAGR of 42% between the period 2020 to 2027.  

12. AI will replace around 85 million jobs in the US by 2025.

(Source: Forbes)

Does automation benefit the ordinary citizen?

You be the judge.

The pandemic led to massive job losses, leaving one in every four adults in serious financial difficulty. They had issues footing their bills.

That led to 33% of Americans using their life savings to cater for their expenses. Others had to borrow loans and now have huge debts.

And it looks like the labor market hasn't seen anything yet. 

AI statistics show that its adoption will lead to job losses to the tune of 85 million by the end of 2025.

However, it's not all bad:

Experts predict that there will be 95 million job openings because of artificial intelligence. By 2025, humans and machines will strike a balance of 50-50 when it comes to working.

13. Worldwide, only 37% of organizations have incorporated AI into their business.

(Source: Gartner)

Although the figure may not be high enough, it is still a significant rise from what we had in 2015 (about 270% increase).

14. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) has a 50% chance of rising to 90% by 2075.

(Source: Zdnet) 

AGI mimics human intellect. Think cooking or styling hair with precision.

Experts predict that there are high chances that in most work environments in 2075, nine out of 10 companies will use AGI technology.

15. IT hiring was 7% lower than usual in Q3 of 2020. 

(Source: Dice)

IT job posting between August and September 2020 was virtually nonexistent. However, experts forecasted that it was only a small hitch that would go away in the coming months. 

Technology adoption stats show that 68% of large organizations created more positions than they had in the second quarter of 2020. Therefore, it appears that smaller firms were struggling and didn't have hiring budgets.

16. The fully and semi-automatic car market will be worth $26 billion by 2030.

(Source: Electronic Design)

Experts estimate that the number of connected cars in Europe, China, and the US will be about 470 million by 2025. Technology statistics show that the vehicles will generate data worth $750 billion.

While that sounds impressive, we should think about the security aspect. The information that the technology will derive could land in hackers’ hands instead of genuine parties like manufacturers or vendors. 

So:

It will be paramount for developers to come up with top-of-the-range security programs to keep cybercriminals at bay.

17. 71% of executives believe that artificial intelligence and machine learning are game-changers for businesses.

(Source: AMC Laboratories)

The world is beginning to wake up to the fact that robotics and automation powered by AI could be the future of work. However, some are more prepared than others. Those that fail to prepare may be left behind when the changes start to take effect.

18. 16% of companies in Europe believe that AI would help them counter the adverse effects of COVID-19 on labor.

(Source: IDC)

Emerging technologies and automation will be at the forefront of cushioning businesses from the effects of the pandemic. Nearly 20% of organizations say that AI will be the only solution to the current shortage of workers.

19. AI is the most significant portion of the data strategy of any business, according to 61% of marketers.

(Source: Finance Online)

Data strategy is a set of informed decisions taken from a position of insight (after careful study of available data) on how best to move a business forward. It is the job of AI to study the set of available data, and help to draw insights as to existing flaws and what needs to improve. 

20. The AI market will be worth over $15 trillion by 2030.

(Source: PWC)

AI technology is progressing, and the industry is growing pretty fast. Businesses and individuals alike love its efficiency. Logically, demand will continue to rise in the coming years. By 2030, its value will be $15+ trillion. More than ¾ of emerging technologies already planned to own foundations as early as 2021. 

Big Data Statistics

Data that has become so large and complicated for the traditional computer system to make sense of is referred to as Big Data. However, Big Data impact statistics have shown that it can become a goldmine to whoever understands its capacity. Check out the statistics that follow to discover the impact of Big Data on technology and internet growth.

21. Organizations that are data-driven are 23x more likely to acquire new leads than those without a data-driven strategy.

(Source: McKinsey)

Big Data can be a source of insight for those that care to put in the work, understand patterns in its data, and relate them to their various businesses. Facebook is an exemplary example of a company that is effectively utilizing both Big Data and AI to understand its audience better.

22. 91.6% of Fortune 1000 companies are investing more in Big Data and AI.

(Source: ZD Net)

Big Data is like the new gold for businesses. Coupled with AI, a good deal of information can be extracted from both structured and unstructured data. The Fortune 1000 companies know this. The most successful entrepreneurs also know this. For this reason, technology growth statistics tell us that these companies always have a specified budget put in place for data analytics.

23. Two-thirds of organizations that have utilized Big Data effectively have reportedly seen a decrease in operational expenses.

(Source: Datamation)

Big Data impact statistics reveal that for businesses that can do away with the junk of unuseful data, Big Data can provide direct and specific information about what works for such businesses and what does not. That way, these businesses can avoid the trouble of wasting time, effort, and resources on strategies that don't give results. Instead, it enables them to focus all of those energy and resources on what works.

24. We generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data daily.

(Source: Forbes)

According to tech growth statistics, we now produce data in trillions and quintillions daily. This number has been on the rise over the last few years, meaning that we should expect to produce more in the next 2-3 years.

25. Analytics and big data will bring in an income of $274 billion by 2024.

(Source: Statista)

Revenue from big data and analytics has been on an upward rise over the last few years. By Q4 of 2021, data center Internet Protocol (IP) traffic reached 19.5 zettabytes. Business Intelligence (BI) analytics will be worth $14.5 billion in 2022.

26. By increasing their effectiveness at utilizing Big Data, Fortune 1,000 companies can increase their net income by up to $65 million.

(Source: Forbes)

According to Big Data impact statistics, the ability to extract, understand, and utilize Big Data has a direct impact on both sales and revenue. With Big Data, businesses can better understand their customers, thereby channeling their efforts towards what works and increasing conversion rates.

27. 71% of companies find it difficult to protect and manage unstructured data.

(Source: Forbes)

As enticing as the idea of Big Data analytics may seem, it still requires a lot of technical and specialized kind of skillset to make sense of the large chunk of available data. Thankfully, the best data visualization software can transform huge amounts of raw data into easy-to-digest visuals. These can provide decision-makers with valuable insights quickly and easily. 

28. 83% of organizations worldwide are currently investing in various Big Data projects.

(Source: Forbes)

Given how rapidly technology is growing, and the millions of data being generated daily, top company executives are beginning to realize the usefulness of Big Data. Some even argue that failure to invest in Big Data for any business is like walking your way towards bankruptcy.

Mobile Technology Statistics

Internet traffic growth statistics tell that over the last decade, mobile usage has been on the rise, even surpassing desktop web traffic for the very first time in late 2015. Almost anything can now be achieved on mobile. Check out some of these mobile tech statistics to discover how vital technological advancements on mobile have become.

29. Over half the traffic comes from mobile phones as of Q1 Of 2021. 

(Source: Oberlo)

If you’re wondering how fast technology is growing - statistics for 2022 show phone traffic has increased by 49.47% since 2011. 

Back then, 93% of visitors came from the desktop, while mobile brought in a meager 6%. 

However, the two went head to head in 2016, when the difference was about 1%, i.e., 48.25% for mobile and 46.93% via computers. As of 2021, cell phone browsing had surpassed that of other internet-connected devices.

30. 91% of internet users in 2020 were mobile phone owners. 

(Source: Statista)

According to internet traffic growth statistics, more than half the world population was actively browsing the internet as of 2020. That translates to around four billion people. It is indeed a global village with billions of people who might have otherwise never met connecting.

31. People check their mobile phones about 150 times daily.

(Source: Business Services Week)

Call it an addiction!

The fact remains that mobile phones have become a massive part of how most of us function daily. We check our phones almost all the time for messages, notifications, time, etc.

32. Total mobile connections in 2021 amount to 10.24 billion.

(Source: Bank My Cell)

So, how's that, yet ownership is only about four billion?

Isn’t the world population 7.84 billion?

Well, there are people with dual SIM cards. Then there are those with more than one device, not forgetting integrated devices like security systems or cars. 

33. 80% of smartphone users make use of their phones during physical shopping.

(Source: Business Services Week)

This could be either to read up reviews of a particular product that they are about to purchase or to locate an alternative store where they can compare products and prices. Either way, this goes to show the impact of technology on how we live our daily lives. Smart business owners who understand this fact can begin to make adjustments towards mobile to boost their traffic and improve conversion rates.

34. 95.1% of the Facebook audience access the platform through their mobile phone.

(Source: Business Services Week)

Platforms like Google and LinkedIn have already implemented a mobile-first standard for their websites, and the reason for such a move is not far-fetched. Internet access growth statistics reveal that mobile drives the majority of the traffic on Google and other social media platforms.

35. Google Play and the Apple App Store have a combined 4.4 million mobile apps for download in 2020.

(Source: Statista)

90% of the mobile apps on Google Play and the Apple App Store are free to download. Notwithstanding, more businesses are beginning to understand the power of mobile apps and the amount of time consumers spend on various apps daily. Technology adoption stats show that mobile apps can help develop a brand image and improve customer loyalty when done right.

36. About 56% of parents who have kids aged between 8 and 12 years have purchased mobile phones for them.

(Source: NCL Net)

Statistics about how fast technology is growing show that kids are growing up in a technologically advanced society. Back in the '80s and '90s, who would have ever thought that a 12-year-old would own a mobile phone, let alone an 8-year-old. However, that is the reality of today's economy. 

That's why solutions like parental control software are becoming more and more popular.

37. 98% of Generation Z have a mobile phone.

(Source: Global Web Index)

Technology advancement rate statistics go further to reveal that Generation X has a mobile penetration of 92%, Generation Z with 52%, and Baby Boomers with 42%.

38. Mobile advertising will reach $247 billion by 2022.

(Source: Statista)

Technology adoption stats show that advertising through mobile will reach almost $300 billion by the end of 2022. That will be a $244 billion increase from 2011 figures. 

39. There were 490 million new social media users in 2020.

Source: (Data Reportal)

Social media is getting more and more engaging by the day. The number of new users almost hit the five hundred million mark in 2020. 

40. Increasing usage of mobile banking technologies could generate up to 95 million jobs.

(Source: Leftronics)

A McKinsey Global Institute study found that over 80% of adults in developing countries owned a mobile device. However, only 55% had a bank account.

Mass adoption of mobile banking technologies has the potential to empower people financially. For one, technology adoption stats show that it can generate up to 95 million jobs and even increase GDP by a whopping $3.7 trillion by 2025.

Internet of Things (IoT) Statistics

Over the last few years, the concept of IoT has become a vital role player across various industries. More and more businesses now look to integrate its many benefits into their network infrastructures. The following are some of the most up-to-date statistics on the growth of IoT.

41. Every second, 127 new devices are connected to the internet.

(Source: McKinsey)

With the availability of affordable computer chips (sensors) through nanotechnology and the ubiquity of wireless networks, almost anything can now be made a part of the IoT according to statistics about how fast technology is advancing. 

42. There are 4.66 billion internet users as of the first quarter of 2021.

(Source: Data Reportal)

Just how fast is technology advancing in 2021?

The first few months of 2021 show that 4.7 billion people are using the internet. That’s almost ¾ of people in the world, looking at it from a global perspective!

43. North America had the highest internet penetration rate globally in 2020. 

(Source: Internet World Stats)

In December 2020, North America's internet access was the highest globally, at almost 90%. Europe was second with 87%, while Latin America took the third position with 72%.

Although Africa had the lowest internet penetration rates globally, it has made some significant advancements in the last few years. Its progression in the area was pretty fast that same year.

Let’s look at the numbers:

According to internet growth stats, Africa had the highest rate at 13,941%. The Middle East followed with 5,528% and finally Latin America with 2,545%.

44. Cellular IoT connections could reach 3.5 billion by 2023.

(Source: Forbes)

Cellular IoT connection is a feature that allows sensors to be able to transfer information directly to a computer or your mobile device within a region or specified distance. Health wearables that transfer the information about the state of health of a patient to a doctor or hospital is an excellent example of cellular IoT.

45. 75.44 billion IoT devices could be in existence by 2025.

(Source: Statista)

IoT statistics reveal that there were over 25 billion IoT devices around the globe at the end of 2019. Statista predicts that there could be well over 50 billion by 2023.

46. 70% of all automobiles will be connected to the internet through the Internet of Things by 2023.

(Source: Statista)

Technology statistics and findings show that the automobile industry is one of the few places where innovations in the IoT have seen significant improvements in the past few years. Aside from developing self-driving cars, research is being made to add lots of other features to the automobile industry through the Internet of Things. Soon, we could have vehicles that detect bad driving, accidents, and possibly imminent collision. In addition, cars that detect flaws in design while sending a report back to the manufacturer could also be a norm in years to come. 

47. The IoT could generate up to $11 trillion in economic value per year by 2025.

(Source: McKinsey)

Statistics that illustrate how fast technology is growing show that the global usefulness and availability of the Internet of Things is increasing at a breakneck pace. The IoT can save costs, increase productivity, create employment, and bring in billions and trillions in economic value in the process.

48. Around 44% of businesses use IoT to reduce costs.

(Source: Leftronics)

IoT statistics show that more companies are pursuing smarter systems due to the technological growth in that sector.

As of 2021, about 44% of businesses use IoT devices to reduce costs. 37% of them use it to enhance operational processes, and 30% use them to grow revenue.

Interestingly, major tech websites are beginning to follow these technology trends and have started implementing similar systems.

Global Tech Market Growth Statistics

Technology touches our whole lives and has generated trillions of dollars in revenue and market size in the process. Discussed below are some incredible milestones to help you better understand the impact of technology on businesses around the world.

49. Worldwide spending on IT will amount to $3 trillion by 2021. 

(Source: Statista)

Predictions show that consumers will spend upwards of $3 trillion by 2021. 33% of this budget will go to hardware, while the rest will be for apps and related software. It will be a positive growth from 2020 data which showed a slow down due to Corona when most businesses aimed at cutting costs.  

50. By 2025, the wearable AI market is going to be worth $180 billion.

(Source: Semrush)

AI statistics reveal that as of 2018, the wearable AI market was already worth $35 billion. Growing at a CAGR of 30%, that figure is expected to surpass the $100 million mark by 2025.

51. Big Data could attain a market size of $77 billion by 2023.

(Source: Statista)

Big Data volume statistics have shown that I cannot overemphasize its importance. This follows as hundreds of organizations around the world are already investing directly and indirectly into its befitting features. Insights from Big Data analytics can pioneer a small startup into becoming a multinational organization within the shortest possible time.

52. Income from AI hardware will be worth $234.6 billion in 2025.

(Source: Statista)

Products in this category include storage devices, network products for Graphics Processing Units (GPU), and Central Processing Units (CPU). Forecasts show that in 2025, their market value will have surpassed that of 2018’s by around $22 billion. 

53. Successful companies like Netflix have been able to save up to $1 billion monthly following the adoption of a machine learning algorithm.

(Source: Finance Online)

Netflix’s AI algorithm can accurately recommend which movies will get the attention of each user based on their interaction with the website. That way, user engagement is significantly increased, and the cancellation rate reduced, thus increasing the potential of having a user around for a more extended period. Without a doubt, Netflix's machine learning algorithm is one of the essential elements that make it one of the best streaming services out there.

54. Up to $657.31 billion would have been invested into the IoT by 2025.

(Source: Analitics Insight)

As of the end of 2019, the IoT market was already worth 193.60 billion. It could grow even further with a CAGR of 21% yearly if the technology growth rate is anything to go by.

Internet Growth Statistics

Initially designed only to interconnect government-owned research laboratories, the internet has expanded at an exponential rate over the last three decades

55. Internet users around the world spend an average of 6 hours, 42 minutes online daily.

(Source: Digital Information World)

The most recent data presented by statistics that illustrate how fast technology is growing places the average time spent online at above six hours. Countries like the Philippines and Brazil have the highest amount of time spent online daily, with 10:02 hours and 9:20 hours, respectively. The US falls a little short of the global average, clocking in at 6:31 hours daily internet time. Others like Japan and France spend the least amount of time online daily with 3:45 hours and 4:38 hours, respectively.

56. The median social media usage between 2019 and 2020 was 143 minutes daily.

(Source: Statista)

How fast technology is growing statistics show that two hours and 23 minutes is the amount of time that social media users spent on their favorite networking sites in 2020. When it comes to the country whose citizens spend the highest amount of time on the sites, the Philippines came first with about 3 hours. 

57. Over 4.54 billion people are active internet users out of the 7.76 billion people in the world.

(Source: Statista)

According to statistics that illustrate internet growth, the internet is growing at a pace of 11 new users per second - that is about 1 million unique users daily. Between the fourth quarter of 2018 and that of 2019, 366 million new users were added to the total number of internet users, bringing the final figure for 2019 to 4.39 billion users. However, between the end of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, that figure has risen to more than 4.54 billion.

58. There were 1.83 billion websites in January 2021.

(Source: Web Hosting Rating)

Websites began getting popular in 2012. That year alone, businesses and individuals alike launched about one billion websites. Growth of the internet statistics indicates an upward trend, and the number has increased by approximately 800 million as of 2021. 

As of 2020, there were 20 million domain registrations. That was close to a 5% increment from the last quarter of 2019. 

59. 63% of 2021 internet surfers prefer Chrome.

(Source: Oberlo)

As of 2021, six out of every 10 people visiting the internet do so via Chrome. Safari, the second most popular browser, doesn’t even come close. It only has about 19% of regular users. Mozilla Firefox and Samsung Internet tie at number three, with 3.61%. 

60. The global ecommerce market is set to hit $6.54 trillion by 2022.

(Source: Forbes)

As of the end of 2019, the ecommerce market already had $4.2 trillion in sales. That number is expected to grow even further given that ecommerce is becoming the most preferred form of buying and selling around the globe.

61. More than 92% of internet users now consume video content online monthly.

(Source: Data Reportal)

Online video platforms like YouTube get massive traffic on a per-second basis every day. According to statistics, up to 500 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. Also, the platform has up to 1.9 billion users.

62. The number one YouTube channel had 51.36 billion views.

(Source: Statista) 

Like Nastya’s - Anastasia Radzinskaya, has slightly over 51 billion lifetime views in January 2021. Technology facts show that users find videos more entertaining and memorable. So keep that in mind, marketers!

When it comes to future technological trends that will rule the world shortly, a few inventions come to mind. They include Blockchain, cloud computing, AR/VR, robotics, and automation. The stats that follow will expose you to some of these future technology trends.

63. There will be 8.4 billion voice assistants by 2024.

(Source: Statista)

In 2020, there were about 4 million virtual assistants. That number will double by 2024 and will be close to 8.5 billion units. The world’s human population is 7 billion, so let’s hope it’s not the dawn of the Matrix.

64. By 2025, 500 million Virtual Reality headsets would have been sold.

(Source: Forbes)

An increasing smartphone adoption rate, the automobile industry, military and law enforcement training, the gaming industry, and growing technology awareness are some of the significant factors influencing the increasing need for VR headsets. 

65. 94% of the internet workload will be processed on the cloud by the end of 2021.

(Source: Network World)

Since its introduction to the mainstream market, the cloud computing trend has shown massive year-over-year growth. Experts believe that it will soon cause traditional data centers to go obsolete. As of 2018, the cloud was already housing 45% of the internet workload, and that number will rise even further in a few years.

66. The Blockchain technology industry’s revenue is predicted to hit $20 billion by 2024.

(Source: GlobeNewswire)

Experts predict that as time goes on, blockchain will find usefulness across multiple industries due to its secure and sophisticated network. Currently, there are ongoing successful experiments to combine Blockchain and Big Data to ensure uniformity and accuracy of results, especially in the insurance sector, and many more will follow in the years to come.

How Is Technology Affecting Our Lives?

There is no doubt about how vital technology has become to how we live our lives each day on earth. The technology process has made life both more comfortable and efficient for the average human. The following stats will expound more on how technology is influencing our lives in general:

67. Technology has made communication easier.

(Source: Thrive Global)

The younger generations won't remember the days when there were no mobile phones. Today, anyone can pick up the phone and place a phone call to loved ones, irrespective of their location in the world. Plus, the coming of the internet and social media has made staying connected even cheaper.

68. Technology has improved advertising.

(Source: Thrive Global)

Billboards are becoming outdated, and door-to-door advertising is said to have gone extinct. With the internet, businesses can now reach their targeted audience with ease and still obtain better conversion rates than the old system of advertising.

69. Learning is now more efficient and more comfortable to carry out with technology.

(Source: Thrive Global)

In the past, you had to scourge the library for books on specific subjects that you intend to study. Today, there are billions of videos, podcasts, audio, and text over the internet on almost anything you wish to study, making education more accessible.

Wrap Up

Technology has sure come a long way! There are billions of inventions yet to be discovered by the upcoming generations, and many more after them.

So, if you’ve ever wondered how fast is technology growing, statistics answer - lightning fast. And it is showing no signs of slowing down.

Can you imagine what life would be without technology?

Jacquelyn Bulao
May 02, 2022

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