In the last year or so, we have seen a great deal of conversations and action around Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, as well as Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality. Although these technologies have existed for multiple years, for effective AI/ML algorithm creation you need lots of data, and likewise for AR/VR, you need plenty of CPUs/GPUs. Now, as the cloud provides you the underlying infrastructure components at scale, you can virtually store petabytes of data and have thousands of CPUs available to you in no time for bringing your new-age applications to life. Apart from this, we have also seen tons of progress in the services and frameworks in this area, like Apache MXNet (https://mxnet.apache.org/), TensorFlow (https://www.tensorflow.org/), Caffe (http://caffe.berkeleyvision.org/), PyTorch (https://pytorch.org/), and so on. Similarly, we have seen major growth in various types of bots, ranging from simple Q&A types of bots to a full-featured bot which can complete a specific use case, like travel bookings. These bots are also becoming mainstream as part of cloud-based contact center implementations wherein, based on the call routing flow, many of the tasks can be fully handled by the bots themselves without any human dependency. These bots also function on AI/ML technologies as behind the scenes they use techniques like Natural Language Processing (NLP), voice-to-text, text-to-voice, image recognition, and Optical Content Recognition (OCR). Likewise, on the AR/VR side, we have seen the use of digital avatars being used for both end user interactions (for example, customers can digitally try dresses online), as well as industrial/enterprise use cases (like detecting problems in heavy machinery through a remote engineer). These trends are further amplified by cloud services like Amazon Sumerian, which can be used to create VR, AR, and 3D experiences that can run on popular hardware such as Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive Google Daydream, and Lenovo Mirage as well as Android and iOS mobile devices.

Another classic example of voice-based interaction is Amazon Alexa, which is a cloud-based voice service which you can directly interact with using devices like Amazon Echo, Amazon Echo Dot, or you can even integrate in your own devices using the Alexa Voice Service (https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-voice-service). As a result of these integrations, and available Alexa skills, you can control your TV, temperature/lights at home, or even do banking operations (like checking a credit card's payment status or initiating a payment).

Earlier, for invoking an application, a user would typically need browser-based access or mobile app and likewise, for system level-integrations, APIs would come in handy. However, with the aforementioned new types of interaction mechanisms of chatbot, voice, or AR/VR-based interfaces, the application development patterns are also changing. In fact, not just for applications, but even for infrastructure management tasks, many organizations have started to create Alexa skills to launch an EC2 instance, get monitoring details, or even delete it. One area which is still nascent as of now is gesture-based (like hand or facial gestures without any applications) interfaces, however that too is a function of time before it becomes mainstream. As a result, in the future, applications will be more interactive, leverage multiple different interfaces, and also have a better user experience.

Future trend #5

Cloud services will enable applications to be more interactive, leveraging techniques like voice, gestures, and virtual reality/augmented reality, thereby reducing the gap between humans and machines.