IBM's annual ‘5 in 5’ list unveiled

All five items on this year's list - education, retail, healthcare, security and cities - are focused around the concept of computers and other systems learning about individuals in order to best meet their needs. "This year, IBM researchers are exploring the idea that everything will learn – driven by a new era of cognitive systems where machines will learn, reason and engage with us in a more natural and personalised way," said the company in a statement. "These innovations are beginning to emerge enabled by cloud computing, big data analytics and learning technologies all coming together." The classroom will learn you In the future, IBM predicts that teachers will be able to tailor the curriculum to each individual student, through the use of cloud based systems that anyalyse a student's progress and tells them where they can improve, as well as how. Buying local will beat online Somewhat surprisingly, IBM believes that the future of large retailers like Amazon is limited, and that with new technologies, local brick and mortar businesses will rule in the next five years. Shopping will become more personalised and instant gratification will be preferred over two day shipping in the future, it says. Doctors will routinely use your DNA to keep you well IBM envisions a future where DNA testing becomes standard procedure, not only to diagnose disease, but to formulate treatments and cures specifically for each patient. This, it says, will be thanks to advances in big data analytics, emerging cloud based cognitive systems and breakthroughs in genomic research and testing. A digital guardian angel will protect you online Security issues like identity theft and computer viruses are major problems that don't appear to be going away anytime soon. In light of this, IBM envisions a guardian angel system that can look after a person's data, devices and applications and keep them all safe. Not only will this guardian angel be able to make inferences about what's normal or reasonable activity and what's not, it will also be ready to spot deviations that could be precursors to an attack and a stolen identity. The city will help you live in it IBM imagines the city of the future where things like crowdsourcing, analytics and physical sensors interact. This new system, it says, will enable us to tap into our cities and use what our devices know about us to recommend restaurants, show us events of interest and help us avoid traffic jams.