Note: The following is an excerpt from the white paper "The Emerging Autonomous Vehicle Ecosystem: Who Will Be the Stakeholders, and How Can They Win?" by BIS Research, a global market intelligence, research, and advisory company that focuses on emerging technology trends that are likely to disrupt the market.

Augmented reality overlays digital information in an augmented form in the physical world. It enables the gathering of data and presents the data in 3D condition. Virtual reality (VR), on the other hand, is where computer-assisted technology is used to construct a simulated environment virtually. At present, the global virtual reality and augmented reality market across different end-user industries was valued at $12.15 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach $78.45 billion by 2025.

Lack of visibility and transparency are considered some of the biggest challenges in the supply chain industry, at times causing disruptions and inventory imbalance.  These issues largely stem from an inability to store and make sense of the overwhelming amount of data scattered across different processes, sources, and systems.

Once the domain of science fiction novels, robots are poised to transform a broad range of different industry categories in the coming years. Here are just a few key examples — covering the uses of robots today and in the future — based on reports by several market research firms.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming a critical part of modern warfare. Compared with conventional systems, military systems equipped with AI are capable of handling larger volumes of data more efficiently. Additionally, AI improves self-control, self-regulation, and self-actuation of combat systems due to its inherent computing and decision-making capabilities.

Smart manufacturing is a powerful disruptive force with the potential to restructure the current competitive landscape and produce a new set of market leaders. Companies that are slow to adopt new technologies and processes could be left behind.

According to a market research report by BIS Research, the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technology market was estimated at $50 million in 2017 and is estimated to reach $8.23 billion by 2027.

In its US Freight Transportation Forecast publication, the American Trucking Association (ATA) has estimated that freight transport in the US will grow to 20.73 billion tons by 2028, a growth of 36.6% from that of 2017 numbers (15.18 billion tons).

Sports analytics change everything related to professional athletics: recruiting, play, coaching, and marketing. The ability to see change at a granular level gives more control to those managing players and teams.

Actually, farming robots are already here. But the upcoming generation of robotic systems is capable of creating changes that will reverberate throughout the world. We are about to experience a “perfect storm,” as agricultural robots draw on artificial intelligence, big data, ubiquitous low-cost sensors, and autonomy to help deliver on a vision of Precision Agriculture that will both benefit us all and fracture business models and employment.