Yesterday, I addressed the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter Society (CPCU) on the future of insurance industry. Given the advances in data analytics, the “Internet of Things,” robotics and collaborative consumption, I told them—perhaps not unsurprisingly—to expect big changes, including the possibility of new competitors. One of the more unconventional competitors on the horizon is Google….

We live in amazing times and our world is about to become even more amazing in the near future due to a plethora of game changing technologies. To understand why, it first helps to consider just a few of the technologies and trends that did not make my list: 3D printers, flying drones, low-cost robotics,…

As computers become ever more powerful, it’s difficult for some people to comprehend what will soon be possible. For example, after IBM’s Watson supercomputer defeated Jeopardy’s top two human champions, it might not have been obvious how the same technology would soon be helping doctors make better, faster, more affordable and more accurate cancer diagnosis….

Yesterday, I shared how Google’s new “Project Glass” might soon allow users to receive real-time voice translations of foreign conversations and, thus, render the need to learn a second language unnecessary. Many people–especially pessimists–immediately grasp how the technology might cause some foreign language instructors to lose their jobs. This is overly simplistic. I’d also encourage…

Blockbusters, Borders, Brittanica, and Best Buy. They all begin with the letter “B” and they are all disappearing. Surprisingly, the underlying cause of each is the same: Digitization. In the case of Blockbuster, Netflix has been digitizing movies and films for some time now thus rendering video rental stores obsolete. Amazon and its Kindle e-book…

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Ford and other automobile company’s efforts to entice young drivers into buying their products by offering vehicles that can stream Internet music, access news and podcasts, and even “send a tweet.” I’m sure some consumers will be intrigued by the ability to have their car send a…

Late last year, I reported mobile web video conferencing was expected to grow 250-fold by 2015. Not surprisingly, I suggested this would impact how a great many people conducted their work. To this end, the field of tele-psychiatry is now taking off. To understand, consider this statement from a professional using tele-confernecing to consult with…

Corning Glass has created an impressive 11 minute video that offers a real “window” into the future. If you have the time, I highly recommend it … especially if you’re in the automotive, buildings & construction, education and/or health care industries:

What if you could be enticed into saving more money just by being made to look older? What if you could be encouraged to exercise with greater regularity by appearing to be more overweight, and what if you could be made to become more environmentally-conscious by cutting down “virtual” trees. The aforementioned ideas might sound…

We’ve all heard and suffered through “commercial breaks.” Well, the commercial–that annoying staple of modern television–is about to become seriously broken. If you have a DVR you’ve probably been fast-forwarding through commercials for some time. What happens, however, when Apple introduces its Siri (voice recognition) technology to a next generation television set?  (As is widely…