Technology witnessed rapid growth in 2017. From cloud-based computing to machine learning, throughout the year technologies with significant potential evolved, paving the path to the upcoming year. Power players in the field including Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple showed the tremendous potential to bring consumer behaviour based technologies to the households. Using Big Data, these companies have evolved to enhance user experience. Some of the significant trends of 2017 including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, augmented reality are moving from the niche space to more prominent usage in the industry. As these trends become the stepping stones for 2018, the technological evolution has led to 5 major trends for 2018, as predicted by Gartner. “ With the increased adoption of bots, the growth of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) helps companies with process efficiencies and cost reduction. Incedo’s expertise in RPA in-cludes the proper implementation of RPAs to replace processes that are predictable, have low hu-man discretion, and expensive. ” 1. Intelligent apps and analytics Having created an impact in 2017, it suffices to say that the penetration of AI in applications and services has become inevitable. Forming a layer of systems and people, AI has been instrumental in creating intelligent apps to serve humans better. From virtual assistants to task performers, smart apps have the potential to transform the consumption of services. 2. Artificial intelligence The growing interest in AI has led to significant investments in the field by businesses. A study by Gartner reveals that 59% of organizations are continuously gathering information to build AI strategies. As the insights into AI learning deepen, the usage is rapidly moving from understanding user voice to performing human tasks that will soon increase machine-human interaction. 3. Digital twins Integrating AI, machine learning and analytics with data, digital twins refers to the replica of physical assets in the digital world. Continuously updated from multiple sources, digital twins use sensor data to update. With the rise of IoT, digital twins have now evolved from being a concept into reality. Gartner predicts that half of the industrial companies will use digital twins by 2021 thus resulting in 10% improvement in the effectiveness of the organization. 4. Conversational platforms The conversation between machines and humans has evolved beyond the realms of performing basic tasks of calling a person from the contact list. The evolution of conversational platforms has increased the burden on the system to interpret even more complicated interactions such as making a movie reservation. With the increased adoption of bots, the growth of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) helps companies with process efficiencies and cost reduction. 5. Blockchain The growth of Blockchain holds the promise to revolutionize industries by enabling smooth interactions among commercial parties outside the system. With an improved architecture, blockchain can help existing infrastructures remove business friction by transforming into independent individual applications or participants.

LinkedIn is hands down the most effective business networking tool on the web. It can find you your first job, help power your career transition, or monetize your hard-earned network beyond your imagination. A survey from  Jobvite  found that 94 percent of job recruiters tap into LinkedIn to find qualified candidates. For me other options don’t even exist. Here’s why: It is hard to lie on LinkedIn given all your friends, colleagues and ex-bosses are watching The recommendations are from real people and I can see their profiles to know how much weight to give to a recommendation. The number of people in your network tells me about your networking ability and the quality of your connections tell me a bit about who you hang out with. Common connections always grab more attention to your profile. What you volunteer for and what honours you received tell me what you are passionate about. This facet of your personality is super important for any serious recruiter. Given there are 400 million users on LinkedIn competing for attention, it is crucial to have an edge on your profile content and understand a bit about how LinkedIn search works. Here are 5 quick tips that will guarantee increased visibility from the targeted people that you want your profile to be viewed by: 1) Linkedin Search Optimization Carefully choose a couple of key phrases that describe your core competency. Think from your job recruiter’s perspective. Is s/he likely to search these key words/phrases on LinkedIn? An example could be “Technical Product Manager”. To get your profile indexed, make sure your summary has more than 40 words and that it contains your key phrases a couple of times. Also, use the key phrase in your headline, job title and skills. This is the way to get indexed by Linkedin search engine for those key phrases/words. 2) Profile Picture Invest a little time on getting a friend to do a “photoshoot” for you. A good enough smart phone will suffice. Understand this –  your picture needs to grab attention as a tiny thumbnail in the search result for “Technical Product Manager”. So a few considerations are important: Get a close up. If I can see your eyes , you have my attention. Practice your smile, find the best smile and then smile for the shoot. Find your best angle for the shot. The background should not distract from your face. So either have a flat/solid background or blur the background.  Use  Picasa  to crop, add light/shadow, enhance color or change to b/w. Proper hairdo and a tad bit of makeup can do wonders for the shoot. Dress up . LinkedIn is a network for professionals. 3) Share, Like, Comment and Congratulate This is how you show up on the news feed. The more you show up the more memorable you become to your network. Its basic marketing. Your brain needs 8 impressions to remember a brand (commercials, product placements, radio ads, etc.). Same applies to your personal brand. The more your network sees you the more familiar a face you become. Good kind of familiarity breeds a level of trust, but the bad kind can breed contempt. Be very selective what content you share . It should be something useful to your network so that that it makes you look good. Always share positive content. Avoid anything negative. You can be generous with your likes , but be careful not to like controversial or negative things. Choose your words carefully when commenting . Everyone is watching. So keep it positive, short and add a bit of your personality to your words. Congratulating on people’s Linkedin updates is very important. It gives you an excuse to not lose touch with your network. But please make sure to customize your message giving it a flavor of your relationship with the person. 4) View other people’s profiles LinkedIn power users are always monitoring how popular their profile is, which directly correlates to who is viewing their profile. It is an ego boost. So what happens when you fuel their ego by viewing their profile? You get special spot on the temporary memory space. 5) Give Recommendations Before asking for recommendation, why not recommend first? This way you earn gratitude points and chances of reciprocation are higher. It is also great for your personal brand in the eyes of your network. For example when I wrote a recommendation for my lawyer, I received a message from a contact saying, “…I just saw you recommended a lawyer. You must be doing really well”. You see? Spending a few hours on face-lifting your LinkedIn profile can be extremely rewarding, whether you are looking for your next job or investment for your startup. Just be visible, Be in touch Share positive content Be yourself, but be your best self You will attract the attention you are seeking from the right people who can transform your career. All the best!