Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending January 14, 2022

 According to Ardas, analysts believe the SaaS market will grow at 12% per year. By the end of this year, the volume of investments will reach $ 141 billion, so here is a rundown of what big things may be in store for tech and Saas in 2022.​

1. PRODUCT: The SaaS world is becoming a lot more democratized as it's more pervasive, accessible thanks to no-code platforms, and more developers are coming online all the time. This results in higher expectations and that a great product experience is a must-have, not a nice to have, and that there is a need to provide personalized experiences to drive value. Don't take my word for it, though - that was just a TL;DR of the Product Trends and Resolutions report for 2022 – from a bunch of top Product Experts.
2. CRYPTO: What do we even call Crypto anymore? Web3 makes sense, and the tech itself has been and still is in a period of ever-increasing complexity (and sophistication). 2022 will absolutely be more distributed, but there is still more infrastructure to build. Tomasz Tunguz has some predictions of which Web3 sectors will be top this year. A significant movement will be National, with some countries declaring that they have adopted <insert crypto coin here> as legal tender.
3. THE METAVERSE: According to many of my friend's Christmas goodies this year, we have some seriously quality VR devices now, and it's just getting started. Expanding on above - as we figure out how Web3 plumbing will work - one can hope the same for VR and AR. Some of it is undoubtedly cool - but where is the value? NFT's are creeping in here, but Bill Gates predicts something interesting: most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera image grids … to the metaverse, a 3D space with digital avatars.
4. SECURITY: I think we can all agree that security is one of the most essential priorities for 2022 and a big problem. Forbes predicts some serious supply-chain hacks, continued public cloud breaches, and an increase in ransomware. 
5. QUANTUM: Back in 2018, IBM and Intel announced impressive advances in Quantum Computing chips. IBM even had a Quantum Computer on display at CES (which was a thing of beauty). But in 2022, things are really heating up for Quantum, with Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM, and Intel establishing themselves in the quantum space through product launches, R&D projects, investments, partnerships, and more. At the time of publishing for this report from CB Insights, $921m of capital had been deployed into Quantum in 2021 (compared to $411m in 2020 and $470 in 2019)
6. CONTENT MARKETING: Content marketing helps you attract, engage, convert, and retain customers you may not reach otherwise, and only 10% of marketers don't use content marketing, so for all you marketers out there, here is a list of Content Marketing statistics and benchmarks for 2022.
7. TOMASZ TUNGUZ: For the last few years, Tomasz Tunguz from Redpoint Ventures has made a list of predictions and scored last year's predictions. Here are this year's top 5 predictions with all the usual suspects: Web3, Data, and Machine Learning topping the list. A great one for all you non-Silicon Valley readers is his post-pandemic prediction of the spread of innovation and funding outside of the Valley.
8. JOBS: Backing up #7 above, this article from Dice (backed up by an analysis of postings on their site) recognizes that organizations everywhere see AI as increasingly vital to their long-term strategies, and they're looking for recruiting Devs with the right mix of AI and machine-learning skills and backing this up, the IDC predicts that spending on AI will increase 24.5% annually to $204 billion by 2025
9. FORRESTER: Forrester publishes a predictions paper every year - here is their 2022 version. Top of their list: higher consumer expectations of digital experiences; "always-on" digital engagement strategy for B2B marketers, one in three businesses implementing a hybrid work model will fail!
10. SOCIAL MEDIA: HubSpot and Talkwalker deliver the Social Media Trends Report for 2022. Viewing TikTok as the platform-du-jour, advertising in a post-cookie apocalyptic world, and the rise of Omni-channel engagement.