The Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence are set to be the most significant influencers in IT and technology businesses, according to a new report.

In its second annual Top Ten Emerging Technologies list, CompTIA, ranked technologies according to the near-term business and financial opportunities they offer to IT channel firms and other companies working in the business of technology.

The technologies listed will also enhance security, productivity, and success across industries including retail, healthcare, hospitality, finance, and manufacturing.

For the first time, robotics made the Top Ten list, ranked sixth.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the emerging technology that offers the most immediate opportunities to generate new business and revenues, the report found.

The Internet of Things also topped the CompTIA’s Top Ten list last year. The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is a leading trade association for the global tech industry.

“Everybody in the technology world, as well as many consumers, is hearing the term Internet of Things,” said Frank Raimondi, a member of the CompTIA Emerging Technology Community leadership group who works in strategic channel and business development for Chargifi.

“To say it’s confusing and overwhelming is an understatement,” he said. “IoT may mean many things to many people, but it can clearly mean incremental or new business to a channel partner if they start adding relevant IoT solutions with their existing and new customers. More importantly, they don’t have to start over from scratch.”

AI will have an impact across all industries

Maddy Martin, head of growth and education for Smith.ai and community vice chair, said AI will also play a key role for industry going forward.

“The largest impacts across all industries – from retail to healthcare, hospitality to finance – are felt when AI improves data security, decision-making speed and accuracy, and employee output and training,” he said.

“With more capable staff, better-qualified sales leads, more efficient issue resolution, and systems that feed actual data back in for future process and product improvements, companies employing AI technologies can use resources with far greater efficiency.

“Best of all, as investment and competition increase in the AI realm, costs are reduced.”

Third on this year’s list of top emerging technologies is 5G wireless.

“The development and deployment of 5G is going to enable business impact at a level few technologies ever have, providing wireless at the speed and latency needed for complex solutions like driverless vehicles,” said Michael Haines, director of partner incentive strategy and program design for Microsoft and community chair.

“Additionally, once fully deployed geographically, 5G will help emerging markets realise the same ‘speed of business’ as their mature counterparts,” he said. “Solution providers that develop 5G-based solutions for specific industry applications will have profitable, early-mover advantages.”

Blockchain loses its shine

Also, on the top ten list is blockchain, coming in at number five this year.

“Blockchain came down crushing from its peak of hype cycle, and that’s probably for the best,” said Julia Moiseeva, founder of CLaaS (C-Level as a Service) Management Solutions Ltd and member of the community’s leadership group. “Now that the lustre of novelty and furore of the masses are gone, the dynamic of work around blockchain took a complete U-turn, again, for the best.”

“Now we observe players in this space building blockchain-based solutions in response to the real industry problems,” she said.

Two new technologies, serverless computing and robotics, made the 2019 list, replacing automation and quantum computing.