What science fiction films teach about future technologies

I remember watching Back to the future when I was a child and looked forward to the future he predicted. Flying cars! Hoverboards! But here we are, 10 years after the movie timeline, and I still need roads everywhere I go.

It turns out it’s hard to predict the future. Really hard. Especially when you’re trying to do it on a specific schedule. But that doesn’t mean we can’t detect the signals and patterns emerging today that hint at what’s to come. Researching these two elements can help us anticipate future scenarios that we can then choose to prepare for in the work we undertake today.

I think films can be a valuable resource here. As John Egan, CEO of L’Atelier, pointed out, the biggest challenge in forecasting is not predicting technological change but understanding societal change. Films can often reflect the cultural pulse of their times while playing with some of the deeper changes in the way we live, work and connect.

So, as small business owners look toward 2025 and beyond, here are a few films that I think are worth looking at again as sources of signals and storylines for the future – both of which can lead us to ask interesting questions when making life or personal decisions. business plans for the coming years.

Iron Man — Agentic AI

We can’t all be “genius, billionaires, playboys, philanthropists” superheroes, I guess. We can’t fly in high-tech metal suits either. But the team behind the 2008 Marvel sci-fi film that introduced JARVIS – Iron Man’s intelligent, high-performance AI assistant – had definitely picked up on a signal about the increasing rate of computing power and the evolution of artificial intelligence.

In 2025, we find ourselves on the cusp of the next leap forward in this field: agentic AI. AI assistants like Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude will be able to act on behalf of their users. So, rather than just answering questions about our next flight, for example, virtual agents will be able to make changes to our reservations, order inventory for a retail business based on sales projections, or even see what we’re can see on a screen and move. the mouse as we would move it to carry out a process.

What questions does this emerging capability pose for small business owners? Well, how well do you know your processes? How well documented are they? How digital are they? How could they be scaled up or accelerated if you had intelligent agents working alongside you and your human staff? What would you do with the time saved? Could you provide more coverage of customer support queries at odd hours? Is there something stopping you from rolling out a new product or service that could be solved with an intelligent agent?

Ready Player One – Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)

The immersive virtual world of Ready Player One It may still be a long way off (just like the sci-fi movie timeline), but the signs pointing to fully sensory virtual reality are emerging, with headsets like Meta’s Quest and Apple Vision Pro showing displays and spatial audio more and more realistic.

The signal of the merger between the physical and virtual worlds is more pronounced. When was the last time you checked the price of a product in front of it in a physical store? Or have you helped your children pay for a virtual item with real money? Both the Vision Pro and Quest enable “mixed reality” – in which virtual objects appear superimposed on the physical world. And if you feel clumsy wearing something like this, the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses show how interacting with the physical and virtual world in real time can actually be stylish.

Whether it’s called OASIS, metaverse or something else, this future is taking shape today. As a small business owner, it might be worth asking yourself: what’s next for my website? Should it encourage more interactivity with my products? Do I have images and videos of my products at high enough resolution to thrive in a high-definition virtual environment? What changes should I make to my promotional content, given that it may be viewed by AI rather than humans (like Apple Intelligence reading your marketing emails or an AI assistant answering questions about your product) ? Could I train my staff (or clients) more effectively and safely in a virtual reality environment?

Star Trek — Ambient computing conversational interfaces

By pushing the timetable even further, we will really have to give in Star Trek It will take a long time – like a century or two – to see how accurate his predictions about teleportation, replicators, and holodecks actually are. But the imagination of the creative team behind the television series and numerous films was right to pick up on signals about access, miniaturization and integration of computing capabilities.

Think about these signals and how they manifest themselves in the capabilities that small businesses can already leverage: It’s possible today to access incredible computing capabilities from a portable device. And the signal is only getting stronger as the capacity and ubiquity of connectivity continues to rapidly expand with options like StarLink allowing even the most remote locations to quickly access the Internet.

Furthermore, this interaction increasingly goes beyond screens. Advances in natural language processing and the proliferation of smart speakers, smart watches, smart headphones and smart homes mean that the ability to have a conversation with your computer while your hands are busy or while you work is definitely within reach.

So what questions are worth asking as these signals of future capabilities only strengthen? Well, how many processes in your store or warehouse could be further improved by no longer needing to return to the office laptop or your smartphone to write something down, check something or start something? If someone asks their smart assistant about a product or service you offer, what can you do to be part of the consideration set? Are there capabilities in the cloud that you are not yet leveraging, but that would give your business an advantage in the coming year?

What Sci-Fi Movies Can Teach Us About Technology in Small Business

While not all of the visions of science fiction films may have come to fruition yet, the signals are clear: the transformative power of technology is here and now. Small businesses can use signals from the future to ask strategic questions in the present.

For example, we don’t yet have Tax 3.0 where real-time reporting, payments and compliance coincide with taxable events. Yet we are seeing faster digital payments and automated e-invoicing. AI is not sentient, but it automates tasks, provides deep insights, and frees up time for small business owners.

Just as science fiction authors and filmmakers imagined the future based on the cues of their times, today’s small businesses can do the same. By understanding the underlying trends and possibilities, they can harness the power of technology to create their own success stories.