Delhi, India, October 7, 2015 — Gartner, Inc. has revealed its top predictions for IT organizations and IT users for 2016 and beyond. Gartner's Top Predictions for 2016 look at the digital future, at an algorithmic and smart machine-driven world where people and machines must define harmonious relationships.

"The 'robo' trend, the emerging practicality of artificial intelligence, and the fact that enterprises and consumers are now embracing the advancement of these technologies is driving change," said Daryl Plummer, vice president, distinguished analyst and Gartner Fellow. "Gartner's Top Predictions begin to separate us from the mere notion of technology adoption and to draw us more deeply into issues surrounding what it means to be human in a digital world."

In this year's Top Predictions, three trends come together — the relationship of machines to people; "smart-ness" applied to the work environment; and the evolution of the Nexus of Forces — to create 10 disparate predictions that are more related than they first seem.

1) By 2018, 20 percent of business content will be authored by machines.
2) By 2018, six billion connected things will be requesting support.
3) By 2020, autonomous software agents outside of human control will participate in five percent of all economic transactions.
4) By 2018, more than 3 million workers globally will be supervised by a "robo-boss."
5) By year-end 2018, 20 percent of smart buildings will have suffered from digital vandalism.
6) By 2018, 45 percent of the fastest-growing companies will have fewer employees than instances of smart machines.
7) By year-end 2018, customer digital assistant will recognize individuals by face and voice across channels and partners.
8) By 2018, two million employees will be required to wear health and fitness tracking devices as a condition of employment.
9) By 2020, smart agents will facilitate 40 percent of mobile interactions, and the postapp era will begin to dominate.
10) Through 2020, 95 percent of cloud security failures will be the customer's fault

Additional analysis can be found in the Gartner report “Top Strategic Predictions for 2016 and Beyond: The Future Is a Digital Thing.”