I’m not one for making calendar predictions however there are a few trends heading into 2020 that bear watching:

1. Deep fakes will become an issue continuing the disturbing trend everything can have its factual basis challenged. Already central to the 2020 US election, this will pop-up in some way and make it so that every public figure can now deny any statement/video as “fake”. There are no easy answers here and I find it deeply troubling (not just deep fakes but the erosion of truth).
2. Related, fake/harmful content will continue to plague social networks and their AI-driven approaches will only have limited effect. I wrote a commentary piece on how to handle balancing reducing fake/harmful content with privacy on social networks. This is not easy to solve but there are algo+human solutions that can greatly raise the bar and the hurdles for those with ill-motives.
3. There will continue to be more consciousness of mild mental health disorders and people seeking solutions (traditional therapy and alternative). As the events around us induce more anxiety, people will continue to become comfortable seeking help and tech is trending here to try and help. See what a friend is doing here.
4. The “VC is broken” trend will continue to gain momentum. There won’t be any notable change to funding in the near term as stupid money still seeks outsize returns and the “entreprenuership/VC cheerleading” will continue unabated, but we’ll see more realization of solid business models and that old-fashioned profitability come (back) into play.
5. “Product Manager” will continue to grow as hip title du-jour and see a supply-demand imbalance grow especially for experienced PMs. I now firmly believe this is being driven by more and more traditional firms changing their org structure to be product-centric (a good thing) and re-titling positions like business analyst and project manager as product manager (not necessarily a good thing). I’m working on some help for this at NYU Stern and in another way. Stay tuned as this is a 2020 focus for me.
6. There will be little substantive movement on regulation/anti-trust of big tech any time soon. Lots of smoke, little fire as laws have to be changed and some well-heeled interests are opposed to this.

Wishing everyone a joyous and safe holiday season. After venturing into the deep cold woods of upstate NY I’m off to Fla for some sun before the deep winter grind hits. I have several notable projects teed up for Jan & Feb that I’ll write about more once I get them underway. As always, hit me up if I can be of help.