In this article, TEMITOPE AINA examines some emerging industries that have a lot of prospects for intending entrepreneurs
Years ago, groundbreaking inventions such as the automobile, the Internet, and the smartphone were all met with high degrees of scepticism when first introduced.
The Internet has spawned a host of online companies, such as Amazon.com and eBay.com, which have grown from small operations to very large ones. So what are the small businesses of the future, and where will we find them?
Here are some of the lucrative jobs soon
Virtual Reality
The emergence of commercial virtual reality technologies has led to an increase in innovation, with a wide range of businesses looking for VR opportunities in 2023 and beyond. This is exactly how it will impact the future.
People often relate VR to gaming and headsets. However, VR is one technology, which has real business value as well. Today, more and more businesses are coming up with newer and innovative techniques to incorporate VR into their routine business processes and are trying to make their operations more productive and efficient.
Virtual reality has largely rolled out as an entertainment technology, but the (actual) reality is that VR also boasts serious business capabilities.
It can be used to test-drive a product or boost customer loyalty. Virtual Reality is especially effective when it comes to cultivating a rich consumer experience and marketing your products and services.
Among the few fast-growing occupations that virtual reality will create include hologram stylist, virtual couture designer, autonomous car licensed specialist, augmented reality life designer, b2r2c marketing manager, personal brain trainer, and chief empathy officer.
These are industries that will decline or modify because of virtual reality; typists, Information gathering, analysts, and researchers, Pilots, stock traders, telemarketers and receptionists.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is a broad and general term that refers to any type of computer software that engages in human-like activities, including learning, planning and problem-solving.
Artificial intelligence today is properly known as narrow AI, in that it is designed to perform a narrow task, e.g., only facial recognition, internet searches or driving a car.
However, the long-term goal of many researchers is to create general AI. While narrow AI may outperform humans at whatever its specific task is, like playing chess or solving equations, AGI would outperform humans at nearly every cognitive task.
Designing the AI software or the hardware required for those scenarios could be a viable business strategy if you have the know-how and the resources. AI could even facilitate interpersonal reactions, as Samsung’s AI personalities have demonstrated.
Employers need AI talent to fulfil their companies’ technological requirements. Thus, a career in AI is not only attracting the job-seekers towards it but is witnessing immense growth. To establish a career in AI, job hunters need to possess relevant technical skills.
Some of the few fast-growing occupations AI will create include; big data engineer, business intelligence developer, data scientist, machine learning engineer, data analyst, AI engineer, robotics scientist, among others.
Industries declining because of AI
The industries that would be hit by artificial intelligence adoption include entertainment, medicine, cybersecurity, vital tasks, and transportation.
Home and office cleaning robots
The robot vacuum cleaners market is expected to register a compound annual growth rate of 13 per cent between 2022 and 2026. The International Federation of Robotics estimated that 31 million household robots were to be sold between 2016 and 2019, out of which 96 per cent of which were vacuum and floor cleaning robots. This is encouraging companies to invest in the sector.
One of the major factors driving the deployment of the robot vacuum cleaner is the highest number of occupational injuries being recorded in the janitorial industry.
Data from the US Bureau of Labour Statistics indicated that there were 2,384,600 building janitors and cleaners. Companies are spending about USD 60bn on average annually. Factors like these are boosting the demand for robot vacuum cleaners.
Many of today’s robots are more collaborative than ever, often complementing and assisting their human co-workers. These collaborative robots, or co-bots, work side-by-side with humans, helping companies and workers become more productive than ever before.
According to research firm Loup Ventures, today’s industrial robot market accounts for the highest potential of all robot sales (61 per cent).
However, due to advancements in computers, artificial intelligence, and motion sensing capabilities, collaborative robots will be one of the fastest-growing markets in the robotic space—accounting for 34 per cent of all industrial robots sold by 2025.
For building services, robotic cleaning machines can yield a powerful advantage in an industry facing tremendous competition and high turnover. Robotic cleaning machines can also help companies repurpose existing workers.
In the cleaning industry, robots can take over most of the chores. Today in industries, we are currently seeing the application of floor-cleaning robots, duct-cleaning robots, window-cleaning robots, special-purpose cleaning robots, etc.
 Automated digital marketing
Surveys have shown that 80 per cent of businesses wanted chatbots in 2020, and by 2022, chatbots might have helped businesses save $8bn every year.
Although the job risk estimates vary, economists agree that automation and artificial intelligence technologies will continue to transform the nature of work.
Some workers will lose their jobs to automation, others will get new jobs, and many will need to acquire new skills to transition across occupations.
In other words, as more companies adopt marketing automation, content creation and strategy services will also be in higher demand than ever before. So not all marketing jobs will be automated.
Companies that use marketing automation in the development and execution of their tactics have improved conversion rates, grown revenues, and become more efficient.
For that reason, the following jobs are popping out of the industry; creative marketing laboratories, operational marketing factories, and automated ads.
Remote working
The world witnessed a historic shift in the 2020 job market due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While some companies used to offer the ability to work from home as a perk, it has now become the norm for most businesses.
According to research, by 2025, an estimated 70 per cent of the workforce will be working remotely at least five days a month. Many companies are also planning a new combination of remote and on-site working, giving rise to a hybrid work model.
In-person meetings might be reserved for brainstorming sessions, introducing new projects, or team-building exercises, while remote days would be for work that can be performed individually. The office could be redesigned and reorganized by getting rid of cubicles and creating more collaborative meeting spaces.
Effective digital leaders know that software like Office 365 is revolutionising online productivity and communication, and technology like 4G/5G and shared public Wi-Fi are providing power.
In descending order, these are the five most rapidly growing career fields for remote workers in 2023. They include marketing, administration, HR and recruiting, accounting and finance and graphic design.
Virtual learning
The concept of traditional education has changed radically within the last couple of years. Being physically present in a classroom isn’t the only learning option anymore — not with the rise of the internet and new technologies.
Nowadays, you can have access to quality education whenever and wherever you want, as long as you have access to a computer. Over 30 per cent of higher education students in the U.S. are taking at least one distance course.
As students progress to higher classes in school, they seek more autonomy and intellectual freedom. Online learning can help them pursue highly individualised learning programmes, possibly even college-level courses.
These, combined with hands-on exercises, real-world exploration, and thorough assessments, can be highly beneficial to their learning progress.
There is often access to very diverse material such as videos, photos, and e-books as well, and tutors can also integrate other formats like forums or discussions to improve their lessons.
Some of the jobs that the virtual learning industry will create are; online tutors and lecturers, learning software creators, online publishing, e-book writing app creators, graphics designers, illustrators, content-creating apps, etc.
Content marketing
Content marketing is a strategy that involves using blog posts, videos, emails and other web content to attract and retain customers.
It is a relatively new field that is evolving every day, which makes predicting the future of content marketing very difficult. SEO has been and always will be an important part of content marketing.
Content marketing will be transformed by technology. While the written word will never completely disappear, multimedia storytelling will be a requirement.
Content marketing will be about hyper-targeting at scale, or using an editorial approach to engage ever-smaller groups of people with relevant video, photo, immersive and written content.
Fast-growing occupations: these opportunities will include but are not limited to the augmented reality industry, virtual reality, AR/VR technology industry, language processing app creators, content writers, interactive infographic creators, videographers, etc.
Consultancy business
Video-based conference calls on platforms like Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Cisco Webex, etc. are—like it or not—with us to stay.
It is an approach that went from something unusual to completely mainstream, and the remote workplace has created habits that we are not going to be able to simply walk away from.
Yes, there is a growing awareness that it is possible to have too much of a good thing—that is, too many video calls.
As a result, the number and length of video-based meetings will likely decline somewhat over time, but they aren’t going to disappear.
They are starting to evolve. However, thanks to the immense competition among the different platforms and the critical factor that programmers who are creating these tools have to use them extensively.
Connectivity technologies like 5G and enhanced versions of Wi-Fi (specifically Wi-Fi 6E) will be critical in the consulting industry because of the absolutely essential need for high speed when attending to clients.
Thankfully, we are starting to see many more mobile personal systems that integrate these technologies come to market from major vendors like Lenovo, Dell, and HP, with more on the way.
These opportunities will create hardware tech creators, virtual desktop solutions, and micro-apps that can check the mental health of consultants and their clients.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is the process by which an affiliate earns a commission for marketing another person’s or company’s products.
The affiliate simply searches for a product they enjoy, then promotes that product and earns a piece of the profit from each sale they make.
The sales are tracked via affiliate links from one website to another. Affiliate marketing is a popular tactic to drive sales and generate significant online revenue.
Affiliate marketing involves an affiliate/influencer signing up for an affiliate programme offered by a retailer to promote and sell their products for a commission.
The affiliate promotes the services or products of the brand by using their own unique link. This link then sends traffic to the brand’s website. Small businesses need a simple way to recruit marketers to help sell products.
These opportunities will create eBay Partner Networks, middlemen, small-scale online retailers, etc.
Your future business idea will be in a much stronger position if it can harness the opportunities of an increasingly automated world. Automation can save entrepreneurs time and money.