2021 Emerging Technology Top 10 List

New technologies continue to emerge at an unprecedented rate, fueled, in part, by the global pandemic. But adoption often lags behind invention. CompTIA’s Emerging Technology Community recognizes the gap between the promise and profit of emerging technologies and has shifted the focus its of annual list of emerging technologies to uncover the top use cases for artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT).

These two technologies have topped the list three years in a row, and with good reason—use cases that highlight the power of AI and IoT solutions are plentiful, helping companies create efficiencies, save time, and increase revenue (to name a few benefits). The 2021 Emerging Technology Top 10 list takes a deeper dive into AI and IoT, illustrating how they’re transforming business. This is where the rubber meets the road, where managed service providers (MSPs) can identify solutions to better address customer challenges and turn promise into profit.

To determine the top use cases for both technologies, the Emerging Technology Community utilized CompTIA data from a recent quantitative study that consisted of an online survey fielded to professionals during February 2021. A total of 400 businesses based in the United States participated in the survey and identified the most common use cases for IoT and AI. The Emerging Technology Community then narrowed that list to five use cases for each technology based on member input and experience.