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Welcome to ZDNET's Innovation Index, which identifies the most innovative developments in tech from the past week and ranks the top four, based on votes from our panel of editors and experts. Our mission is to help you identify the trends that will have the biggest impact on the future.
Research firm Gartner made waves this week at #1 with the release of its annual Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report. As ZDNET's David Gewirtz put it, the hype cycle informs "whether a technology is on track for productive use, or is still in the smoke-and-mirrors phase of its life." The cycle also influences several factors in its development, including investments. This particular report can indicate where businesses should focus growth efforts. The four major themes Gartner's report identifies as exciting are autonomous AI, developer productivity, total experience, and human-centric security. Examples of autonomous AI include self-driving cars, agentic systems that can take action independently of humans, and working robots (Hollywood's favorite), to name a few. Gartner's callout builds on earlier reports noticing AI's impact. If the Gartner report creates a significant investment bump in the area, the ripple effects could impact job shifts (and anxieties) sooner than we think.
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The hype continues in second place with an IDC report that predicts AI spending will double in the next five years, hitting $632 billion by 2028. Besides being a staggering number, the prediction by the research firm buoys AI optimism amid mounting evidence that implementation risks aren't adequately considered, even in the most robust frameworks. It's hard to say where Gartner's report and IDC's predictions leave concerns that the AI bubble is on its way to bursting.
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Google takes third place with something more grounded: a new anti-theft AI feature for Android. In a delightfully pedestrian use of the technology, the feature monitors a phone's sensors for signs of "common motion associated with theft" -- like someone grabbing the device and sprinting away -- and locks the screen if it detects suspicious movement. Google is currently testing the feature and is expected to release it with Android 15, continuing the trend of enticing users to buy new models with humble yet useful AI upgrades. The feature is a mindful application of an emerging technology at risk of being breathlessly overblown -- and a reminder of how gracefully AI can improve daily lives in tiny ways. That is, if the feature works.
Closing out the week are AI content checkers, which happen to be getting better. ZDNET did a deep dive into how these tools work and found that, at the rate they're improving, the cheating services and checking tools will stay neck-and-neck in a never-ending sophistication loop, trying to catch and evade each other. Cybersecurity provider McAfee also released a deepfake audio detector this week, but that technology isn't exactly reliable at this stage. The battle between fakery and detection makes a future full of synthetic content a little daunting -- especially with an election brewing and students heading back to school with more fabrication tools than ever before.
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