Leading data and analytics company GlobalData has revealed its predictions for 2019 across the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) industry.

The company’s latest thematic research report ‘TMT Predictions 2019’ identifies the top 30 themes impacting the TMT sector this year, offering a series of predictions and identifies the likely winners and losers for each theme. Among the major themes for 2019 are artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, 5G, virtual and augmented reality, and regulation:

• AI

The discussion around AI will become more balanced this year, although lurid media headlines will continue to whip up controversy and distort public perceptions of AI capabilities. The extent to which AI technologies have already embedded themselves into our everyday lives will become increasingly apparent, giving greater impetus to discussions around ethical concerns. However, concrete proposals to tackle issues such as privacy, consent, and bias will prove elusive.

• Blockchain

Most enterprise blockchain initiatives will fail as corporations discover that blockchain is not, in fact, magic. A key predictor of failure will be the way in which the project is described internally. If it is referred to as “the blockchain project” it will almost certainly fail, whereas those organizations that launch projects with a business outcome in mind stand a far higher chance of success.

• 5G

2019 will be the year of multiple 5G commercial launches, but with limited adoption due to minimal coverage, poor device availability and a lack of clearly differentiated 5G consumer use cases. By the end of the year, GlobalData estimates that there will be 7 million 5G subscriptions worldwide, representing just 0.08% of the global total.

• Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)

VR and AR will not cross the chasm from early adopters and special use cases to the mass market in 2019, due to a lack of both content and reasonably-priced headsets and eyewear. AR will remain tightly integrated with iOS and Android smartphones. Mobile AR use cases will expand beyond games into areas like sport, health monitoring, marketing and merchandising.

• Regulation

The debate over how to ensure a better regulated and democratic internet will gain centre stage in 2019. Between China’s digital protectionism and the light-touch regulation of the US, the main initiatives will come from Europe and will target big tech companies in a number of key areas, such as tax avoidance, data privacy, legal status as a content platform, copyright, and net neutrality.