A panel of Silicon Valley’s top investors gathered in Santa Clara, California last night to offer their views on top new trends in technology that could explode over the next five years. While none of the future trends received unanimous agreement among the five participants, there was a clear sense that technology will be moving into some intriguing new areas and major investment dollars will follow.
The panel rated and debated top Tech Trends over the course of two hours at a meeting hosted by the Churchill Club forum in collaboration with Forbes.
Breakthroughs in voice technology seemed to be one trend supported by most of the investors, particularly Steve Jurvetson, a partner with the investment firm of DFJ. Jurvetson, who was an early investor in Tesla and SpaceX, said that less-expensive chips and the rocket-like growth of voice-activated technologies in the home such as Amazon’s Alexa, will fuel the expansion. “We will see a renaissance of voice in our everyday life,” said Jurvetson, who pointed out that voice technology will likely become the top interface of choice for people in developing nations.
Amazon could face antitrust action
While Amazon may benefit from their expanding role in voice technology, they could also confront government prosecution in the near term.
Rebecca Lynn, a partner with Canvas Ventures, said there is a possibility the Trump administration will bring an antitrust suit against Amazon. The company, which currently accounts for one of every two dollars spent online, was openly criticized by President Trump for its market power during the 2016 campaign. “Amazon is scared to death of antitrust action,” said Lynn.
However, some of her fellow panelists expressed skepticism about the possible breakup and speculated that if it were to happen it could make Amazon even more profitable. Sarah Tavel, a venture capital partner with Benchmark, was one of the doubters. “I just don’t think Russia cares about Amazon,” said Tavel, which brought roars of laughter from the Churchill Club crowd.
Tavel, who guided Pinterest in its early days, was joined by a few of her colleagues in predicting that an emerging tech trend will involve healthcare, specifically microbiome engineering. Microbiomes protect us against germs and produce vitamins in our bodies. Tavel and Lynn both predicted that over-prescription of antibiotics and increasingly poor diets will give rise to new companies dedicated to combating both of these problems. Perhaps even more significantly, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has recently donated $100 million to this cause.
Online learning set for major growth
Online Education was another emerging trend as Mike Abbott, partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, predicted that there will be a dramatic expansion of channels for learning.
He said that wider global access to virtual reality (VR) media will extend online education from elementary school through the university level.
Food production also attracted interest among the panel’s investors as more companies are emerging in the growth area of indoor farming. According to Hans Tung, managing partner with GGV Capital, the emergence of plant-based foods and interior LED lighting will drive new alternatives for the global food supply. One company already operating in this space – Plenty United – has received investments from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Google’s Eric Schmidt.
Finally, there will be a movement in the tech world towards tiny brains. Jurvetson pointed out that the explosion of Internet of Things (IoT) products will “push intelligence out to the edge,” where all devices could become capable of making independent decisions.
As chip costs drop, the ability to place machine learning in sensors will embed intelligence in everything from toasters to trash cans. While this may be greeted by consumers with equal parts enthusiasm and horror, there’s no denying that some of these top tech trends will almost certainly reshape our lives in the years ahead.