How the tech landscape has changed since 2019

(Image credit: Future / Unsplash - Aron Visuals)

It’s now been four years since the ITPro Podcast’s first episode and so much has changed in that time.

Across almost every sector, we're working in different ways, in different places, and through the use of different hardware and software. Remote work and AI have unsettled our idea of the office and the working day, while promises such as the metaverse have flared and burned.

In this special 200th episode, Jane and Rory take a look back at how far we've come since 2019.

Highlights

“There were a lot of security concerns that came with remote working, partially because people weren't really ready for it but it had to happen, it was a bit of untested ground. But also, people hadn't been trained to not just randomly go into video conferences and they were concerned over the security of Zoom, because it wasn't a business platform.”

“[Generative AI is] essentially incredibly advanced, deep learning algorithms or neural networks. It's not sci-fi, we're not talking about general intelligence here. What we are talking about is more advanced forms of data processing than we've previously had access to.”

“Last year we were talking about the metaverse for so long, and then suddenly something bigger came along and everyone’s forgotten about it. But the other problem with it, I think it was too early to announce. I mean, even Zuckerberg himself said it was like a seven-year journey, so what came to the fore now wasn't fully what they wanted to show us and wasn't finished, and alarmingly looks a lot like Wii Sports. I have been in Horizon Rooms, they've shown me Meta Quest Pro. I've used it, I did enjoy it. But, for a business perspective there’s very little use case for it.”

Footnotes

Rory Bathgate is Features and Multimedia Editor at ITPro, overseeing all in-depth content and case studies. He can also be found co-hosting the ITPro Podcast with Jane McCallion, swapping a keyboard for a microphone to discuss the latest learnings with thought leaders from across the tech sector.

In his free time, Rory enjoys photography, video editing, and good science fiction. After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA in English and American Literature, Rory undertook an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King’s College London. He joined ITPro in 2022 as a graduate, following four years in student journalism. You can contact Rory at rory.bathgate@futurenet.com or on LinkedIn.