Gartner's 2020 Strategic Technology Trends: Hyperautomation, Multiexperience, Democratization, Human Augmentation, and More

Gartner, the world‑leading IT research and advisory firm, recently released the strategic technology trends that enterprises should study in 2020.

These strategic trends are defined as technologies with massive disruptive potential that have moved beyond the early adoption phase, are rapidly growing, highly volatile, and expected to reach a critical point within the next five years.

Technology is shifting from augmenting human abilities to creating superhuman capabilities, and Gartner lists this shift as one of its ten strategic technology trends that will bring significant disruption and opportunity over the next five to ten years.

Gartner research vice‑president Brian Burke said at the Gartner 2019 IT Symposium in Orlando that organizations must first consider the impact on people and the environments they inhabit rather than simply building a stack of technologies.

IT leaders need to determine which combination of trends will yield the most productive innovation and strategy; for example, combining machine‑learning AI with hyperautomation and edge computing can create highly integrated smart buildings and city spaces, which in turn fuels further technology democratization.

Hyperautomation

Hyperautomation uses advanced technologies—including AI and machine learning—to increasingly automate processes and augment humans. It encompasses a suite of tools such as robotic process automation (RPA), intelligent business process management software (iBPMS), and AI, aiming to use AI for decision‑making.

Although no single tool can replace humans, hyperautomation often leads to the formation of digital twins (DTO), providing real‑time intelligent insight into organizational functions, processes, and KPIs, and creating new business opportunities.

Multiexperience

Multiexperience replaces technology‑centric interaction with human‑centric experiences, expanding the traditional single‑point interface to include wearables, advanced sensors, and other multimodal touchpoints. For example, Domino’s Pizza offers ordering via app, autonomous vehicles, pizza trackers, and smart speaker communication.

Future multiexperience will focus on immersive AR, VR, mixed reality, omnichannel HMI, and sensing technologies, ranging from simple AR overlays to fully immersive VR experiences.

Democratization

Technology democratization enables people to access technology or business expertise without extensive, costly training, focusing on application development, data & analytics, design, and knowledge—often referred to as “citizen access,” leading to the rise of citizen data scientists and citizen developers.

For instance, developers can generate data models without being data‑science experts by relying on AI‑driven development methods that generate code and automate testing.

Human Augmentation

Human augmentation uses technology to enhance cognitive and physical experiences. Physical augmentation involves implants or wearables that improve safety in mining, automotive, retail, and travel industries.

Four categories of physical augmentation are:

Sensory augmentation (hearing, vision, perception)

Extremity and bio‑function augmentation (exoskeletons, prosthetics)

Brain augmentation (implants for treating epilepsy)

Genetic augmentation (somatic gene and cell therapies)

Cognitive augmentation enhances decision‑making and learning through information and applications, and includes brain‑augmentation technologies that support cognitive reasoning.

Human augmentation raises cultural and ethical concerns, such as the ethical implications of using CRISPR for gene enhancement.

Transparency and Traceability

Rapid technological advancement is creating a trust crisis as consumers become more aware of data collection and organizations face greater responsibility for data storage and usage. AI and machine learning increasingly replace human decision‑making, prompting the need for explainable AI and AI governance.

This trend emphasizes six trust elements: ethics, integrity, openness, accountability, competence, and consistency, with regulations like the EU GDPR driving global adoption.

The Empowered Edge

Edge computing places information processing, content collection, and delivery closer to the data source, reducing latency and supporting IoT devices. By 2023, the number of intelligent edge devices is expected to be 20 times that of traditional IT devices.

The Distributed Cloud

Distributed cloud delivers public‑cloud services outside the provider’s physical data centers while remaining under provider control, merging the benefits of public cloud and on‑premises private cloud, addressing latency and data‑sovereignty challenges.

Autonomous Things

Autonomous devices—including drones, robots, ships, and other equipment—use AI to perform tasks traditionally done by humans, ranging from semi‑autonomous to fully autonomous, and are expanding from controlled environments to public spaces and collaborative swarms.

Practical Blockchain

Blockchain is a distributed ledger that records immutable, time‑ordered transactions with cryptographic signatures. It enables traceability of assets, supports use cases like food‑safety provenance, and allows secure value exchange without centralized intermediaries.

A full blockchain model includes a shared ledger, immutability, cryptography, tokenization, and distributed consensus, but issues such as poor scalability and interoperability limit enterprise adoption.

Enterprises adopt a pragmatic approach by decoupling the ledger from applications, replicating it across distributed networks, and using private consensus models, while future integration with AI and IoT may unlock “complete” blockchain potential.

AI Security

Hyperautomation and autonomous devices introduce new attack surfaces; security teams must understand how AI impacts security and address three key perspectives: protecting AI‑driven systems, leveraging AI to strengthen defenses, and anticipating malicious AI use.

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