In this year’s Technology Vision, we explore trends across the entire continuum, from the virtual to the physical, across humans and machines alike. They identify where ambitious CSPs can find value by uprooting themselves from today and planting themselves firmly in the future.

People and enterprises are gaining unprecedented command over the physical world as it becomes innately programmable. The rise of new technologies including 5G, ambient computing, digital twins, augmented reality and smart materials is embedding digital capabilities into the fabric of our environments. These environments will reshape not just how people engage with worlds, but also redefine everything built in it, how people sense and interact and the control they have over it.

To meet our new expectations for digital and connectivity conveniences, CSPs will need a deep understanding of three layers that comprise The Programmable World: the Connected, the Experiential, and the Material.

However, as more connected, intelligent devices are introduced to the world – and more devices from more companies are connected – risks to privacy and security are growing. CSPs’ ability to safely connect programmable world technologies will impact the environments they can design or be part of, the partners they can have, and how quickly they can introduce new offerings.

The Unreal—a trend where our environments and businesses are increasingly filled with machines that are passably human. “Unreal” qualities are becoming intrinsic to the artificial intelligence, and even the data that CSPs are putting into mission-critical functions.

Historically, CSPs have been trusted partners for consumers and businesses. They provide the most critical resource in a digitally connected world -- connectivity. Secure and authentic communications while living, working and playing in the metaverse will be an industry imperative and a major call to action for the telcos.

We are on the verge of resetting the boundaries of traditional industries as we begin Computing the Impossible. The prospect of a quantum internet has people excited about endless possibilities, and CSPs are again at the forefront of a new, ground-breaking technology. Just as they transformed earlier technological breakthroughs like AI and cloud computing into chatbots, data analysis and other practical equipment, CSPs are now poised to design and develop the services that underpin the quantum communications. CSPs who start learning quickly about the rapidly evolving world of quantum communications, find partners and fund to jumpstart their quantum journey are the ones poised for success in the new quantum Internet era.