Four transformational technologies to have on your radar

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) connect the human brain and nervous system directly to computing devices and digital information. Form factors range from wearables to surgical implants. The ultimate vision is enabling bi-directional flow of information: “reading” or interpreting neural signals, allowing users to control computing devices, and “writing” or relaying external information directly to the brain.

BMIs are not entirely new. They have a long history in clinical applications, such as cochlear implants for the hearing impaired or neuro-prosthetic limbs for the paralyzed. But now, progress in neuroscience, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence is unlocking new non-clinical opportunities, enabling even able-bodied individuals to augment their cognitive faculties.

Imagine a workforce that can be upskilled and reskilled at the same pace as technological and market changes. Or knowing your customers’ neurological responses to a new product or service, enabling you to take personalization to a whole new level. Surely, every company could benefit from such capabilities.

Although the field continues to make progress, hurdles remain. Invasive surgical implants are risky, and healthy individuals may not opt for one. Less invasive wearables on the head or elsewhere are not yet powerful enough to detect the high-resolution neural signals that would enable complex applications like flying a drone or virtual gaming. Significant training is required for even today’s most sophisticated BMIs to reliably function and complete tasks intended by the user. Lastly, with 100 billion neurons and 500 trillion connections, picking up the relevant signals from the extraneous noise in the brain is no mean feat.

BMIs imply a more seamless and intuitive bridge between human and machine intelligence and get at the very heart of individual personalities and characteristics. As a result, BMIs raise complex ethical issues about privacy and autonomy, as well as access to neural data and how it might be utilized by companies, employers, governments and law enforcement. In the most extreme scenarios, there is the possibility of mind hacking by cyber criminals to do their bidding or a future where our decisions are dictated more by data-driven algorithms than our independent will.

BMIs will need to be user-friendly, safe and reliable with a compelling value proposition for customers to consider adoption. Although today BMIs exist that allow users to control external devices, there are none that allow digital information to be accessed and absorbed directly into the brain. When bi-directional BMIs arrive then the field will have truly realized its technological promise. The productivity, creativity and efficiency benefits of BMIs will become tangible once legislation around data security, accessibility and governance are established.

In the coming months, expect to see a growing number of less invasive BMIs enter the market such as those that improve the quality of sleep, enable weight loss or treat psychiatric disorders such as depression. These will help make BMIs more common to the public. At the same time, testing to improve the signal capture of implantable BMIs will continue and result in making them more reliable. New and safer techniques to embed these interfaces inside the brain will also see progress.

While fully functional bi-directional BMIs might still be further off, today’s less invasive BMIs could provide new customer or employee data to businesses. Leaders need to consider the value of this data to their efficiency and productivity goals while balancing the ethical risks. Simultaneously, they need to keep pace with the technology’s progress and participate in shaping policy and governance.

Once they arrive, BMIs will revolutionize every human endeavor from work to learning and beyond. Companies need to be prepared for how BMIs will reshape their talent management and development as well as how they will leverage this new and valuable source of data to better serve their customers.

Startups as well as incumbents in the aviation and automotive sectors are looking to expand drone capabilities to transporting people, not just goods. With cities like Singapore and Dubai aiming to be the first to offer an aerial robo-taxi service, sci-fi visions of flying cars might be on the horizon.

Along with reducing commute times, improving productivity and lowering air pollution, passenger and cargo drones will have far-reaching implications for nearly every company. Business leaders across industries will need to ask themselves how this new mode of transportation will impact their operations, business models, customer experience and more.

For instance, architects would need to include vertical take-off and landing pads, charging docks and parking spaces in their designs. New building construction materials will be needed to enable wireless signals that are crucial for drone navigation and communication systems. Similarly, businesses ranging from insurance and advertising to fast-food and more will need to rethink how they might serve customers riding or offering aerial transport services.

However, several technological and regulatory barriers will need to be overcome for transportation drones to become part of our aerial landscape. Companies developing these drones have to overcome battery limitations and build in safety systems as well as design elements to instil trust to fuel customer adoption. Governments will need to institute regulations including vehicle requirements, social “driving” norms, and safety standards. Moreover, they will have to create some form of monitoring to ensure compliance.

Over the coming months, we expect to see more cities experiment with transportation drones and conduct pilots to assess viability and safety. Watch for the introduction of regulatory frameworks and governments giving licenses to the manufacturers of these systems for testing purposes. Once the technological limitations are overcome, regulations are firmly in place and the first test rides are offered to members of the general public, we might not be far from strapping in and taking off from our driveways.