Information and communications network technology company Cisco says the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) to process extreme quantities of data means AI needs to be transparent, so everyone using the system understands how the insights have been produced.

Transparency must be present in all aspects of the AI lifecycle, including its design, development and deployment, it stresses.

The extreme quantity of data being generated has already exceeded human scale but still needs to be processed intelligently and, in some cases, in near real-time.

“This scenario is where machine learning (ML) and AI will come into their own.  The challenge is that data has ownership, sovereignty, privacy and compliance issues associated with it. And if the AI being used to produce instant insights has inherent biases built-in, then these insights are inherently flawed,” says Cisco Middle East and Africa CTO Osama Al-Zoubi.

"Ethical, responsible and explainable AI, from design and development to deployment, will become a top priority for organisations and governments worldwide if we are genuinely interested in an inclusive future for all," he adds.

Further, Cisco says that only through the delivery of predictive and seamless Internet access will the metaverse be realised, and access to technology and innovation become ubiquitous.

“There is no doubt that the trend for untethered connectivity and communications will continue. The sheer convenience of using devices wirelessly is obvious to everyone, whether nomadic or mobile.

“This always-on Internet connectivity will further help alleviate social and economic disparity through more equitable access to the modern economy, especially in non-metropolitan areas, helping create jobs for everyone. But this also means that if wireless connectivity is lost or interrupted, activities must not come to a grinding halt,” says Al-Zoubi.

The future needs ubiquitous, reliable, always-on Internet connectivity at low price points. A future that includes seamless Internet services requires the heterogeneity of access, meaning AI-augmented and seamless connectivity between every cellular and WiFi generation and the upcoming low Earth orbit satellite constellations and beyond.

Meanwhile, the deluge of data, data gravity and the need for predictive insights will propel the network edge towards new application development and experience paradigms, Cisco predicts in a new report on technology trends for the future.

“Modern enterprises are defined by the business applications they create, connect to and use. In effect, applications, whether they are serving end-users or are business-to-business focused or even machine-to-machine connections, will become the boundary of the enterprise.

“The business interactions that happen across different types of applications will create an ever-expanding deluge of data. Every aspect of every interaction will generate additional data to provide predictive insights. With predictive insights, the data will likely gravitate to a central data store for some use cases, while other use cases will require pre-processing of some data at the edge, including ML and other capabilities,” says Al-Zoubi.

Further, the future of innovation and business is tied to unlocking the power of data in an application-driven world. Beyond enabling contextual business insights to be generated from the data, teams will be able to better automate many complex actions, ultimately getting to automated self-healing, he says.

“To achieve this future state, applications must be created with an automated, observable and application programming interface- (API-) first mindset with seamless security embedded from development to run-time. Organisations will have the ability to identify, inspect and manage APIs regardless of provider or source,” he says.

Additionally, Cisco predicts that quantum computing, communications and security will power a faster, more secure future.

Quantum computing and security will interconnect very differently than classical communications networks, which stream bits and bytes to provide voice and data information. Quantum technology is fundamentally based on an unexplained phenomenon in quantum physics, namely the entanglement between particles that enables them to share states, Cisco states.

“In the case of quantum networking, this phenomenon can be used to share or transmit information, and the prospect of joining sets of smaller quantum computers together to make a very large quantum computer is enticing.”

Quantum networking could enable a new type of secure connection between digital devices, making them impenetrable to hacks. As this type of foolproof security becomes achievable with quantum networking, it could lead to better fraud protection for transactions.

“In addition, this higher quality of secure connectivity may also be able to protect voice and data communications from any interference or snooping; all of these possibilities would reshape the Internet we know and use today,” Cisco says.