Every decade brings with it the promise of new technological breakthroughs, and the 2020s are no different. These five technological trends in particular appear primed to push the boundaries of the tech sector and change the world.

  1. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

AI has been with us for a couple decades now, but it’s set to take another leap in the years to come. As machines become more advanced, so too are they increasingly improving their ability to learn, which in turn helps boost their overall intelligence. The expansion of AI has implications for everything from smarter robots to developing deep learning to improving algorithms.

  1. More Chatbots

We already talk to Siri and Alexa, and chatbots are already present on many websites. Still, as AI improves, the technology behind chatbots and home assistants is bound to get better – and as it does, it could radically shape the way companies handle customer service.

  1. The IoT

This is another example of something that’s already here, but will grow even more ever present throughout the decade. As the integration of the Internet of Things into the Internet and our lives expands, we may see a whole host of changes, from more digital assistants and smart homes to more sensors and scanners with Internet connectivity.

  1. 5G Possibilities

Few things have reshaped life in the past 15 years than the invention and incredible expansion of smartphones and digital devices. Everyone now has the Internet at their fingertips wherever they go, and 5G is set to make connectivity faster and better than ever before.

  1. Self-Driving Cars

One of the most exciting possibilities for 5G technology is one we have been awaiting for many decades now – self-driving cars. These require incredibly fast connection speed, and 5G may finally provide engineers and programmers with speeds fast enough to accomplish the near-instantaneous car-to-car communication necessary to make them work. Companies such as Google and Yandex are already experimenting with prototypes of these cars. Not everyone is excited, though – just a couple years ago Yandex Taxi workers protested in Russia at the threat this poses to their jobs, with smoke bombs being set off outside Yandex Taxi’s Moscow office.

Each of these impending tech breakthroughs have the potential to reshape the world. Still, these technologies are just a set of tools, and it’s up to us to determine how to use them and what their global impact will be.