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Gartner releases its 2021 emerging tech hype cycle: Here's what's in and headed out

The hype cycle is handy for tech buyers who need to know what buzzword bingo they're about to receive from vendors.
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Nonfungible tokens (NFT) have 2 to 5 years before plateauing after hitting a "trough of disillusionment" and active metadata management, composable applications and generative AI are in the same camp, according to Gartner's 2021 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies.

Now the hype cycle report from Gartner is always good for debate. But the hype cycle is even better for tech buyers who need to know what buzzword bingo they're about to receive from vendors.

Gartner's emerging technology hype cycle distills more than 1,500 technologies into a list of must know tools.

Without further ado, here's the hype cycle chart.

hc-emerging-tech-2021.jpg

A few takeaways worth pondering:

  • Artificial intelligence's impact on generating code, augmenting design and innovation is all 5- to 10-years away.
  • Composable is going to be a key buzzword for applications and networks.
  • Industry clouds are just beginning on the hype cycle with a plateau reached in 5- to 10-years. That take is interesting given industry clouds are everywhere from multiple vendors. 
  • Digital humans are being talked about a good bit, but Gartner reckons the technology is more than 10 years away from productivity gains. Quantum-based machine learning is also more than 10 years out. 

Also: What is quantum computing? Everything you need to know about the strange world of quantum computers

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