The digital wave that has impacted so many industries has been dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution with justification. We are all aware of how quickly it is reshaping how we work.

So what’s next out there? “4-D printing” or “smart dust”? For those wondering, 4-D printing could be the next step in 3-D printing’s evolution, leading to printing clever stuff like expanding or contracting pipe valves. Smart dust refers to tiny wireless microelectromechanical systems, mini-robot sensors that would be able to monitor virtually everything.

A survey by Gartner named the “hype cycle report” offers insights into potential technologies like those above, and it’s worthwhile reading. The technology specialist’s hype cycle is this: “Innovation Trigger,” “Peak of Inflated Expectations,” “Trough of Disillusionment,” “Slope of Enlightenment” and lastly “Plateau of Productivity.”

We can all probably recall instances of these—an initial breakthrough, an avalanche of game-changer clichés, some early failures causing discontent, a more realistic measured understanding of what the technology is and finally general acceptance. Many don’t get past the initial failures, of course, but there are those that do.

Here’s a real-world example: GE Oil & Gas said automation has dramatically increased productivity, with new technologies and robotics enabling it to specifically achieve cladding operations seven times faster than before. Threedimensional modeling, meanwhile, helped it reduce manufacturing workstreams for gas turbine nozzles to a single lean line, sensor-enabled and robotically enhanced, cutting lead time by 25%.

It also uses virtual reality tools to validate product designs, immersing engineers into near-full-scale virtual assemblies to ensure parts and tools fit.

A consequence might be that there is too much data—with about 10 terabytes generated every half hour by an oil rig, the fear is we will drown in petabytes. But this is where machine learning—something some of us are still not sure about—is likely to play its part in providing insight into emerging trends to make better quick decisions.

Some of this might sound optimistic, but did we truly believe 3-D printing would happen when we first heard of it a few years go, or, if you’re a little more experienced, how about when you heard that horizontal drilling would be fully commercialized with better downhole motors and new telemetry kit by the early 1980s?

The impact of disruptive technologies like data-driven digitalization is by its nature difficult to put into perspective during the early stages but, like so many, once they are in use, we cannot imagine life without them.

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