IDC FutureScape: Top 10 Predictions for the Future of Innovation

Delivering innovative digital products can help businesses satisfy customers and create stronger competitive differentiation. Organizations that can then take the next step and transform their software innovation into value engines will spawn additional business value, such as data monetization, new partnerships, or entrance into new markets. As business leaders consider ways to leverage software innovation and transform their businesses into digital innovation factories, International Data Corporation (IDC) offers its top 10 predictions for the Future of Digital Innovation.

Profitable digital innovation requires alignment across the organization, combined with a strategic selection and application of proprietary or community source tools. Most of all, digital innovation requires a clear understanding of what customers want, as well as the ability to anticipate what they will need – even before they do.

“One notable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is that many enterprises now recognize that their ability to build innovative digital products and services will determine whether they succeed or fail in the market,” said Nancy Gohring, research director, Future of Digital Innovation at IDC. “The imperative to develop innovative digital offerings is influencing an array of strategic decision making in the enterprise, including significant changes to business models, organizational models, distribution models, and revenue streams.”

IDC’s top 10 predictions for the Future of Digital Innovation address topics related to shifting business requirements and enabling more efficient software development:

• Prediction 1: By 2026, enterprises that successfully generate digital innovation will derive over 25% of revenue from digital products, services, and/or experiences.
• Prediction 2: By 2022, organizations that allocate 50+% of their software development projects to customer-facing initiatives will see revenue grow 15% faster compared to those that focus more on internal projects.
• Prediction 3: To help alleviate the developer skills shortage, 55% of organizations will use cloud marketplaces and tech startup acquisitions as their most important approaches to software sourcing by 2024.
• Prediction 4: By 2024, companies that have already invested in building a developer ecosystem will expand their customer base by 25%.
• Prediction 5: Securing the software supply chain will be a core competency embraced by 75% of large digital innovators by 2023.
• Prediction 6: By 2023, traditional distribution models crumble as 20% of businesses in some sectors use technology to go direct to customers, seeking to improve customer satisfaction and product development.
• Prediction 7: By 2026, 30% of software development teams will be focused on turning traditional products into outcomes as a service.
• Prediction 8: Half of the Global 500 will have insourced software development significantly by 2025, exacerbating the software engineering skills shortage and fueling interest in software development efficiencies.
• Prediction 9: By 2024, 55% of successful digitally innovative products will be built by teams that include people with creative, critical thinking, analysis, and automation skills, as well as software engineers.
• Prediction 10: By 2025, 75% of newly developed applications will include some automatically generated code, freeing up humans to focus on development tasks that are not easily automated.

These predictions are discussed in greater detail in a new IDC FutureScape report, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Digital Innovation 2022 Predictions (IDC #US47148621), which is available for download at: https://www.idc.com/events/futurescape?tab=latest-research.