20 predictions for 2050

20 FORECASTS FOR 2050

“Forecasting the future is not my area of business.”

I sometimes hear this from people when discussing how future innovation will impact the next 20 years or so. While I know their point is that their exact line of work is not within business strategy development or similar, I fundamentally disagree with the statement.

Everyone has a stake in the future. Anticipating the most likely future is something most people already do in some way or another, and it does, to a smaller or larger extent, influence your actions.

• You have decided to learn some skills with the expectation that it would help you earn a living.

• Potentially you either save up money for retirement or worry about the future because you don’t.

• You make some lifestyle choices to avoid disease or premature ageing.

Almost all people have some story of regret in terms of making the wrong decisions like not investing in stocks, not buying that house, or not jumping on some career opportunity, etc.

So no matter our lines of work, positioning ourselves correctly for the future makes a lot of sense.

Going back 25 years in time, we all have a clear playbook on how to become super successful by adjusting a few choices, right? Well, just buying a few Apple stocks or Bitcoins at the right time would have set you financially free.

Unfortunately, we cannot predict the future so that we can pick the next Apple stock, but we can do a lot more than nothing.

We can paint a picture of the most likely future in, for example, 2050. And before you scream "no way," try and hear me out!

The Supertrends that shape the world are not something that just pops out of nowhere. They take a lot of time from invention to commercial release and then to widespread adoption. AI development began around the 1940s to 1960s, depending on how you define it, and the electrical car is actually about 200 years old.

So why don’t people forecast and try to predict the likely future? Throughout history, people and companies have “stayed on a sinking Titanic” because they were either paralyzed by fear or in “Analysis Paralysis.”

Think of Blockbuster – way before the bankruptcy in 2010. The company had a good 5 years of declining results to change their outdated business model to a Future-Proof one.

Think of the music industry from 2000-2010. The leadership was well aware that digital distribution would take over, yet they were very slow in adopting new digital offerings.

Looking back today, these are stories that make audiences laugh when shared in keynote speeches because it seemed too obvious that these companies had to embrace technology rather than resist it.

But here's the thing - analyzing the most probable future and acting on those predictions can be daunting for everyone. Predictions about the future often challenge us to step out of our comfort zones. It might tell us that we are on the verge of making some really bad decisions or that a career change is needed.

It is uncomfortable, which leads to the easy answer – we can’t predict the future! And true, we may have nuclear war, a zombie epidemic, or an alien invasion that could disrupt everything. If that happens, all planning goes out the window. However, if that doesn’t happen, I think a lot of the below predictions are a really good bet when predicting 2050.

1. Stock markets will continue to increase, and the Nasdaq index will be above 50,000 by 2050.

2. Computing will take another great leap with quantum computing, and computers will be millions (if not billions or trillions) of times more powerful in 2050 than they are now.

3. AI will be at a stage that is currently unimaginable and will be able to independently work on scientific problems that humans could never solve.

4. In terms of the job market, any “computer-like” tasks with repetition will be taken over by AI. However, most likely, there will be many new jobs related to service as well as AI-related jobs.

5. There will most likely still be a lot of cars on the roads, but most will be electric and have much more self-driving capabilities than today (level 4 or 5 autonomous). Self-flying taxis (drones) will exist, but I believe they will still be rare due to regulation.

6. Digital immersive experiences such as VR and AR (or even lucid dreaming) will have a much larger market than today. People might choose to go to a virtual resort instead of a real one. Some of these experiences may be similar to lucid dreaming. However, I believe real ones will continue to exist.

7. Consumers will increasingly demand “instant” and “frictionless” experiences, so drone delivery and seamless digital solutions will be essential to stay in business.

8. Wearables will measure our body functions and alert us if anything is “wrong” and suggest the best diet and supplements for us.

9. Healthcare will focus much more on prevention and wellness than today. Medications and treatments will be much more personalized, potentially 3D printed.

10. It will be possible to “merge” with wearables to gain abilities like super strength or enhanced memory.

11. The job market will be more flexible than today, offering more types of hybrid positions, and this will be more tailored to individual needs than now.

12. The retail experience will still be present, but the checkout process will be eliminated as AI can monitor what you take, and automatically deduct the amount from the credit card.

13. Robots will continue to take over more and more functions, but not everywhere. I still believe, for example, that waiters will serve in restaurants and real people will offer support in many types of shops.

14. Education will increasingly move online and become virtual, tailored to individual needs.

15. AI assistants will become a “must-have”. We will feel more lost in 2050 without our AI assistant than we feel now without our mobile.

16. Free speech will be an even bigger issue than it is now. AI bots will warn us if we are about to post something others might find offensive. The challenge of hate speech vs. free speech will continue to grow.

17. AI will have decoded treatments and preventions for many diseases. Cancer, allergies, and Alzheimer’s will probably still exist but be significantly more manageable than today.

18. Some form of age-slowing medication will be on the market with a significant proven effect on the aging process. If we haven't learned to stop aging by 2050, I predict we will have learned to slow it by 50% or more.

19. The world's demographic will be significantly older in 2050, accelerated by advances in healthcare and disease prevention.

20. The “old” 65–85-year-olds will be significantly more active than today, which also means that they will be active and wealthier consumers than other market segments.

So, I have no doubt that the aforementioned 20 forecasts will spark diverse opinions, and I don’t claim that they will all be accurate. However, many of them are interconnected and driven by innovation that is already in motion, so they aren't just pulled out of thin air.

Now, here's the tricky part: if you believe the most probable future looks like the one described above, how will you position yourself in the best possible way?

I will give my 5 cents on that in the next newsletter.