Machine learning, blockchain reaching peak hype: Gartner

Machine learning has reached peak hype in Gartner’s 2016 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, while blockchain, the connected home and smart robots are rapidly approaching this point.

Gartner’s Hype Cycle is a model for the journey new technologies go through on their way to mainstream adoption.

Under this model, from their inception all new technologies can be considered to reach a peak of inflated expectations, before slumping into a trough of disillusionment. Products graduating to mainstream adoption then enter the slope of enlightenment, before settling into the plateau of productivity.

The 2016 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies suggests that some new products — such as 'smart dust' and so-called 4D printing — are just starting this journey.

The hype is starting to fade for others as they enter the trough of disillusionment, including software-defined anything (SDx), machine learning and natural language question answering, while virtual reality is heading towards mainstream adoption.

Key trends among the technologies going through the hype cycle include the ongoing evolution of technology to be more human-centric to the point where it will introduce transparency between people, businesses and things. .

Gartner expects smart machine technologies to be the most disruptive class over the next 10 years due to unprecedented advances in fields including deep neural networks and the ongoing generation of near-endless amounts of data.

“These trends illustrate that the more organisations are able to make technology an integral part of their employees’, partners’ and customers’ experience, the more they will be able to connect their ecosystems to platforms in new and dynamic ways,” Gartner research director Mike Walker commented.

“This Hype Cycle provides a high-level view of important emerging trends that organisations must track, as well as the specific technologies that must be monitored.”