Between sensational media headlines, inspirational narratives pushed by big tech, and the “tech trends” publications released by dozens of major organizations each year, it’s easy to get lost in the rapidly-evolving landscape of modern technologies. Prioritizing which of these technologies to invest in can be the primary driver of a company’s success.  

Technology hype cycles have been around for decades. However, because of the pace at which the industry is evolving today (partly due to technology itself driving the acceleration of innovation), we’re seeing cycles occur much more frequently. That makes it more critical than ever for organizations to be able to sift through the noise and figure out what really matters, and to determine where and when to invest resources in a new technology. Otherwise, they risk wasting valuable resources on tools that may need to be replaced before they see any real return on investment. For instance, companies that invested in deploying chatbots over the last few years are likely now planning to invest additional resources into newer, groundbreaking generative AI-powered chatbot solutions to realize the benefits that they originally hoped for.   

Prioritization of technology investments becomes even more challenging when we start thinking about “emerging technologies” – those technologies that are still relatively nascent, often poorly understood, and relatively early in the adoption lifecycle. That’s because the practical applications of these technologies are still being defined and, in some cases, limited to a specific industry or domain. For example, Web3 tech, starting with the advent of the Bitcoin blockchain, has been evolving for over a decade, but has found limited use outside of the transaction of digital currencies for most of its lifetime. Only recently have new applications and use cases, including digital asset ownership and trading, been introduced to more established industries like gaming and retail. Yet these applications only scratch the surface of what Web3 tech is capable of. In the coming years, we will witness its effect on almost all sectors of society, including opportunities for real-world asset tokenization, novel governance and voting mechanisms, and decentralization of user credentials and online identities.   

So how can business leaders start to envision how the future will be shaped by emerging technologies, and the value that they can bring to organizations, teams, and industries? We believe that leaders must be exposed to tomorrow’s art of the possible… and that’s where we can help.   

At 11:59 Labs, we are constantly scanning the technological horizon to identify nascent technologies that show promise for enabling significant disruption across business, industry, and society. We're dedicated to researching those emerging trends and experimenting with the underlying technologies to better understand and showcase their potential value to business leaders. With the primary goal of educating our clients, our team of experts not only learns about how the technology works from a theoretical perspective, but we develop hands-on technical experience, tools, and pilot projects for demonstrating how the technology can be implemented practically.   

What sets us apart from others is our focus on the future’s art of the possible. We're not interested in developing science fiction presentations. Instead, we want to help organizations realize the value the right emerging technology can unlock within their organizations and provide guidance on how they should be implemented.   

So, why should you care about what we're doing? Well, if you're an organization looking to prepare for the future, 11:59 Labs can help you navigate the hype cycles and rapidly changing landscape of emerging technologies by showing you the realm of real possibilities. By identifying the technologies that are worth following and showcasing their practical applications, we can help you stay ahead of the curve and create a better future for your organization.  

Our group of curious experts is passionate about inspiring organizations to embrace the reality new technologies will help us realize in the future. So, if you're looking to prepare your organization for the future, we invite you to join us on this journey. Let's create tomorrow’s art of the possible together today.   

Disclaimer: This blog post leveraged AI-generated content, significantly edited and enhanced through human-intervention.