Technology Strategy 2030: Nokia’s guide to the emerging technologies that are radically changing our world

The technological landscape of 2030 will be a very different one than the one we know today. For the last few decades, digitalization has been the driving force shaping business, government and the consumer technology. But today, a trio of forces is radically reshaping the way we conduct business, govern our societies and interact with the world.

Those forces are AI, cloud and the rapid and constant evolution of connectivity.

AI has come to dominate headlines, and while the hype of AI might die down in the news media, AI’s impact and influence will only increase. AI will write code, it will optimize chips, and it will miniaturize hardware. AI will accelerate the time-to-market of our products, it will streamline industrial processes, and it will revolutionize healthcare. 

While cloud is certainly not a new concept, the next iteration of cloud technologies will trigger a new wave of disruption. Separate siloed clouds are evolving into a seamless cloud continuum that will change every aspect of business, from the way they deliver products and services to their interactions with customers, employees and partners. Cloud systems will become complex, spanning public, private, hybrid, multi-clouds and cloud-enabled edge devices across geographical regions. 

The meaning of connectivity is expanding to include far more than the transfer of information. As our networks evolve, we are no longer only connecting endpoints. We are interconnecting networks, clouds and resources. This new connectivity will fuse the human, physical and digital worlds, enmeshing itself into every aspect of, and every process in, business and industry. The network will become personal, helping us stay healthy, work more efficiently and forge closer bonds to those we care about.

AI, cloud and connectivity – these aren’t just unavoidable, they are necessary. By harnessing their power, enterprises, industries and service providers will only benefit. According to ABI Research, AI will contribute roughly $450 billion in value across various verticals by 2030. Accenture found that 86 percent of companies are increasing their cloud initiatives. And according to the new Nokia Global Network Traffic 2030 report, demand on global telecom networks will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 22 percent - 25 percent between 2022 to 2030. 

To embrace these forces, Nokia has adopted a new way of thinking about the future of technology and the critical role networks play within it. We call this new approach Beyondn. AI, cloud and connectivity will reset the status quo whether we act or not. But networks will accelerate the transformative effects of these technologies, allowing our customers to reap their full potential.

Ultimately, Beyondn  will produce a re-envisioned future network architecture designed to capitalize on the exponential potential of these new technological forces. This future network architecture will be the result of hundreds of new innovations from across Nokia, and it will be built on UNEXT, the new Nokia Bell Labs research initiative that will turn the network into a programmable operating system. Connectivity and the transformative technologies utilized in our future network architecture will provide the path to tomorrow by intelligently automating enormous amounts of information for the benefit of the world.

In the coming months, I will be revealing more details about this new holistic approach to networking and the technology enablers behind it. But today, we are kicking off Beyondn with the unveiling of Nokia Technology Strategy 2030, our roadmap to the future of networking. Technology Strategy is intended as a guide for every single one of Nokia’s service provider, enterprise and industrial customers, helping them prepare for the new realities they will face in the next seven years.

I invite all our customers to explore Nokia Technology Strategy 2030. Within it, we identify numerous trends challenges, and we provide insights into how to capitalize on or overcome them. 

The years leading up to 2030 will produce tectonic shifts in technology. AI will permeate everything, the cloud will envelop the globe, and connectivity will enable far more than mere communication. Those are daunting prospects, but they are exciting ones as well. Together we can make the most of these inevitable forces to create new opportunities and build a better world.