2018 - the year of the blockchain?

A year ago, the share was just eleven percent. This puts blockchain in the top ten digital trend topics for the first time. This is the result of the annual trend survey conducted by the digital association Bitkom among companies in the IT and telecommunications industry.

"The decentralized approach of blockchain technology enables secure transactions without a centralized trust authority.

In this way, financial transactions can already be made secure today, but in the future, for example, notarizations could also take place without a notary, contracts could be processed securely as smart contracts, or the complete supply chain of a product could be presented transparently."

says Bitkom President Achim Berg.

"Currently, the possibilities of blockchain are being explored. It is a pleasing sign that the German digital economy recognizes these opportunities. The task now is to develop practical solutions based on the technology."

Another trend that is mentioned significantly more frequently than in the previous year is artificial intelligence or cognitive computing. One in four companies (26 percent) considers this technology to be a key trend, compared with only one in five (21 percent) in the previous year.

"Artificial intelligence is also a key technology with the potential to improve our everyday lives and transform our economy"

says Berg.

"In addition to companies, policymakers are also called upon to provide much more support for AI research than has been the case to date. Germany has an excellent starting position, especially in basic research."

As in previous years, the most important trend for digital companies remains IT security, cited by two-thirds of respondents (67 percent).

"More and more devices are digitally networked, making them interesting targets for cybercriminals. IT security is therefore becoming increasingly important, especially in areas such as energy, transport and medicine.

says Berg.

In second place is cloud computing (61 percent), followed at a considerable distance by the Internet of Things (IoT, 48 percent), Industry 4.0 (47 percent) and Big Data (43 percent).

The topic of digital platforms, which was included in the ranking for the first time last year, remains in sixth place (33 percent).