5 Futuristic Industries On Which To Keep An Eye
As technology and society continues to evolve, it’s only natural that new industries will pop-up while others fade away.
Over the years, many have identified emerging industries that have begun to claim their spots as future ready industries. These include the obvious ones like the carbon sequestration (carbon capture) industries, automation and robotics, nanotechnologies, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, 3D printing, as well as drones and autonomous transportation systems.
Here I outline 5 industries that are likely to emerge as “everyday” future industries. There are obviously going to be much more than just these five industries that will emerge, yet these are a good set to start with.
Virtual tourism
Enabled by virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, we’re bound to see the emergence of a virtual tourism industry. Not only does virtual tourism mean being able to travel to real world locations via digital means, it also means being able to explore fictional spaces virtually.
Imagine in the not so distant future being able to virtually walk the streets of Tokyo on your lunch hour. Already you can sort of do that by clicking along Google Streetview, or by watching an hour-long user uploaded clip on Youtube. Well, take it one step further and imagine experiencing it live. Stepping into a virtually rendered live-feed of different places around the world.
Of course, an important consideration for such a solution would be the privacy of city dwellers. As a citizen, we’ll have to become extra wary of invisible virtual travellers experiencing a seemingly empty street with us. No more nose picking in public folks, no matter how “empty” the streets may look!
Virtual tourism will also extend to the creation of virtual fantasy environments to explore. Sort of like video game worlds that you can really step into and explore in incredible detail. In the future you could convincingly travel to Tatooine or Hogwarts. Today, you can experience a slice of what Ancient Greece would have been like via Assassin's Creed Odyssey. The game has an educational mode which allows players to explore ancient Greece and learn about its culture, artifacts, and buildings. It’s a type of choose-your-own adventure world where you can explore ancient Greece as a virtual tourist (of sorts…). These types of virtual environments would also allow people to step into the scenes of the latest cinematic release… you name it, the options are endless! This is why I believe branded virtual spaces (and accompanying experiences) are likely to become more and more common in the near future.
As a last little tangent on this industry, I’d like to highlight that virtual tourism can also include the creation of therapeutic digital environments for use as medical treatments, as meditative aids, or simply as a type of virtual escapism/detox from the stresses of life.
Virtual talent management
Next, it’s likely we will see the rise of a virtual talent management industry. Akin to today’s talent agencies managing actors, models, authors, and other creatives, the talent agencies of the future will do the same but manage virtually created talent (hopefully in addition to real human talent?).
This is already happening today, with virtual models being signed to modelling agencies, AI automaton acting in movies, and virtual influencers representing real brands. Indeed, most of us are aware that today’s movie industry is relying on face mapping and CGI technology to bring back actors from the dead. What we don’t think about as often is that when CGI is paired with deep learning, and deep fake technology, it becomes possible for today’s actors to live on in the productions of tomorrow.
For example, Taylor Swift’s voice and song-writing talent could potentially be analyzed by a future algorithm in order for her talent management company to release new albums by the artist, long after Taylor’s moved on to other more exciting things. It sounds far fetched but today we’re already seeing things like Whitney Houston’s estate having Whitney perform posthumously via a hologram tour (An Evening with Whitney), and James Dean potentially making a comeback.
Other than that, AI can already be trained on samples of people’s voices and be taught to say anything in that person’s voice in a rather convincing manner. Not only is AI being used to copy existing people, it’s also becoming more and more creative. Already it’s able to write books, create artwork, and create music. Heck, there are even AI journalists fooling us. It’s not long until we see a creative AI matched with a digital personality become the next pop icon (Hatsune Miku is getting close).
Virtual designers (AI algorithms) being used by agencies to develop brands for clients. All of these types of algorithms will need a specialized industry to manage their rights, promote their works, and license their outputs.
Digital designs
Next up is the digital design industry. Design is already transitioning towards digital tools (hello CAD, Photoshop, Sketch, etc.), digital processes (e-mail, virtual meetings, etc.), and digital outputs (apps, websites, etc.). This will likely continue and include some types of design that have adopted digital tools and processes but have yet to make the jump towards digital outputs. Here I’m thinking of things like interior design and food design. The future will have designers who specialize in digital products that can only be experienced through a digital lens. These differ from the creation of a digital model that will then be transformed into a real physical thing. No, instead these are digital productions that live on in the digital environment.
Virtual interior designers will start to emerge. These are interior designers that will specialize in the design of virtual environments and spaces for businesses. As the industry evolves, they’ll be able to design several interiors for a single business, ensuring the most appropriate design is delivered to each customer (based on customer preferences for interior design styles). Today, there are digital tools that exist to help people envision interior spaces via digital means, yet this next generation of tools will allow people to experience these digital creations.
We will also likely see more digitally created and digitally augmented artwork that can only be experienced via augmented reality. In 2019 we saw Apple partner with New York’s New Museum to deliver a walking tour of AR, site-specific artworks located around New York. Invisible to the naked eye, but visible via a screen.
Other applications for the digital design industry includes the real estate development and architecture industry which will be able to rely on digital designers to create the virtual environments for prospective clients to walk through (this is already possible and done in a few cases yet is not common practice).
In addition, digital fashion designers and digital product designers (for things such as furnishings, home décor, and the like) will likely emerge as a professional industry. As an example, The Fabricant has emerged as the world’s first digital fashion house. As augmented reality becomes the norm through which life is experienced, digitally bought fashion and digitally-designed hairstyles, accessories, make-up, and filters will similarly rise in popularity. Together, this will establish the foundations of the digital design industry.
Bioengineering and biodesigners
Another industry that has already begun to make its mark is that of bioengineering. The future will likely hold a space for this industry, spawning a sub-industry of biodesigners specializing in the creation of bespoke living “products.”
Things like designer materials made by bacteria, biodesigned plants, genetically altered babies, genetically engineered foods, and in-lab designed pets. Indeed, this industry has a ton of ethical ramifications surrounding it. Today we can already find examples of plants being genetically engineered to act as light sources, to act as energy sources, to detect (and alert) for bomb threats, and to act as data repositories. We’re also seeing bacteria being developed as a construction material, and medical diseases being treated via genetic manipulation.
As the tools to modify and design new life forms continues to evolve, we’re likely going to see a new professional industry of biodesigners emerge to give it its shape.
Bioengineering benefits industries like medicine (bioprinting), food and agriculture, and the pharmaceutical industry (smart drugs). Biodesigners will work with the same tools but will likely be focused on the creative capacities of genetic and bio manipulation. Further down the line transhumanist, bionic enhancements will likely be the result of bioengineers and biodesigners working together.
This industry will likely give us such experiences as entirely new 3D printable foods for us, new types of plants that could produce biofortified seeds, and new types of grown or self-healing materials.
Rapid on-demand production
Last of the five on this list is the establishment of a rapid on-demand production industry. These types of local factories will be used to produce the digitally ordered products that consumers have bought. Similar to Amazon’s fulfillment centres, the on-demand production hubs of the future will be able to produce the requested pieces on site. This will reduce the need for storage and international shipping of goods. Of course, it feels the furthest one out as in today’s economy, it seems unlikely that a company would want to trust a fulfilment centre with the production of their goods. Yet as production technologies evolve, tracing and verification systems improve, and sustainability values pique, it’s likely we will see more fabrication labs pop up across our cities.
When imagining a future fabrication lab, it’s important to evolve the current iteration of FabLabs as centres that specialize in 3D printing of prototypes and engineering parts. These same studios will likely evolve to become manufacturing specialists for on-demand consumer goods, becoming just as established as today’s Walmarts and Costcos.
As the antithesis of a FabLabs that specialize in turning the virtual into the physical, we’re also going to see more “capture studios” that specialize in turning real, physical things into digital assets. Whether it's capturing your body measurements for facilitated online shopping, or digitizing your creation for worldwide distribution these capture studios will provide an easy access point for generating digital assets.
Both of these types of rapid on-demand production spaces will become more commonplace in our future as we continue to transition towards a digitally-enabled way of life.