What’s in store for the next ten years? Experts predict the future of tech, health, entertainment–and how to ride this disruptive decade

Medicine and climate tech

Jeffrey Paine, venture capitalist
Managing partner & cofounder, Golden Gate Ventures

I would say the most significant disruption affecting people’s lives during the coming decade will be AI. Specifically, I think we’ll see AI making enormous contributions in the fields of climate tech and health — for instance, drug development. 

From an innovation perspective, the next three to five years will likely be more about business-to-business (B2B) applications and deep tech. The brightest minds in AI are focused on addressing the world’s biggest problems. Hence the move, for example, towards healthcare-related solutions, incorporating AI components. Health is something that touches all of our lives. 

We’ll see research in fields such as chemistry and material science leading to new companies within the next three to five years. Tech addressing climate change is a pressing concern—it’s been an urgent concern for a while, but now, it’s super urgent. The key will be the talent pool and research capabilities worldwide.

In the early stages, non-researchers may launch companies focusing on areas like carbon accounting. However, addressing more complex challenges, such as removing carbon from the air or reinventing jet fuel, requires a different level of expertise. It’s not Harvard MBAs who can do that. These people who can solve those big problems are a different breed. 

Many of the visionary companies devoted to ‘moonshots’ are led by individuals with extensive academic backgrounds and a deep commitment to making a positive impact through innovation. Their work could lead to significant advancements in saving lives and preserving the environment.

Looking at top research universities globally, AI research often revolves around major issues, such as healthcare. LLMs (large language models) and NLP (natural language processing) aren’t really a topic of conversation at these institutions. What they care about is using AI in areas like genomics, in deeper research. I was at Oxford recently, and everything they talked about was healthcare related. 

For those who wish to deploy their capital in support of these causes, the first step is determining what they care about the most, whether it’s healthcare, climate change, or another area, and then zeroing in on that. 

By supporting research universities that align with their interests, wealthy individuals can help advance critical projects. This isn’t about making an immediate profit but rather pushing the scientific frontier. Endowing certain research, it may take several years, or even decades to achieve results, but the impact can be substantial.

For those purely interested in making money in deep tech, diversifying investments through early and late-stage deep tech funds is recommended. Singling out particular companies within these funds that align with one’s preferences and goals can also be advantageous.

However, making direct investments in deep tech companies is risky, and it’s best left to professional fund managers. There’s interesting work in deep tech happening in our region, particularly Singapore, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. But the US remains a primary hub for deep tech investments, offering higher potential returns — the magnitudes of exits are much higher than anywhere else in the world. Europe is just getting started, China has slowed down, it’s not a good time for Israel. Everything points to the US.

It’s crucial to invest in early-stage companies to maximise returns. For those primarily interested in profit, diversifying investments across various US deep tech funds with a focus on early stages—seed or Series A—is a wise approach. Making direct investments without expertise in this area can be extremely dangerous.

Mental health

Clara Chen, venture builder
Co-founding managing partner, Singapore Deep Tech Alliance

I believe significant advances will soon be made in how we deliver preventive healthcare. In this, AI plays a crucial role, as preventive healthcare revolves around data collection, enabling predictions and precision medicine. The challenge lies in establishing consistent frameworks for the delivery of preventive healthcare using advanced technologies, sustainably, to more people. 

My focus as an investor and venture builder is on companies across the sectors of healthcare, manufacturing, semiconductor and energy, addressing complex issues based on new scientific discoveries that offer significant advances over existing technologies. While healthcare encompasses a broad spectrum, I have a vested interest to support technological advances in mental health diagnosis, interventions and treatments. 

In the past decade, smartphones have become nearly ubiquitous and enabled technologies like digital phenotyping, which collect real-time data about behaviour, to emerge. This is an area of personal importance to me, as my mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was born, and much of my youth was spent around hospitals when she was admitted for care. 

In the past, mental health clinicians have relied heavily on self-reports from patients, lacking objective data. But digital phenotyping, which uses wearables and smartphones to collect data on moods and behaviour, can provide a more complete picture of a patient’s mental well-being. It validates self-reports and offers more accurate data on the patient’s state of mind, enabling clinicians and hospitals to deliver the most effective and personalised treatment.

I’ve been waiting for this technology my whole life. My mother committed suicide when I was young. At that time, there was no solution; we couldn’t know what she was telling the clinicians about her state of mind, and as caregivers, we could only report to the clinician our observations of her behaviour at home. This technology gathers pertinent data and can trigger life-saving interventions when needed. In my view, this is going to be a game-changer in the mental health space.

I’m very idealistic. I think, with this technology, everybody is a winner. Patients, families, clinicians and hospitals all benefit from having more accurate data to deliver more precise treatment. The economy will benefit as well—in Singapore, there was recently a study finding that mental health issues are costing the economy around S$16 billion a year. And that’s just Singapore. 

The initial hurdle is setting up the infrastructure and navigating healthcare structures in different countries, which can be quite challenging. As in most areas of healthcare, public-private partnerships are required—without the public sector’s involvement, the broader adoption of this technology won’t become a reality. 

Although there is immense potential, the sensitivity of data collection is a challenge, especially with mental health patients. The permission to collect this data depends on the patient’s condition and severity. Governments and hospitals are working on this, but it will take time. Still, I believe it’s achievable. Consumer adoption is relatively easy in Asia, as we tend to trust our governments. In countries like France and Germany, convincing people might be slightly tougher, but showing the benefits to citizens and the economy can lead to more data willingly being shared.

I ventured into deep tech investment because I believe in a balance between profit and purpose. There are numerous challenges we’re addressing and I believe we can make a positive impact and touch people’s lives. I don’t see profit and purpose as mutually exclusive.

New food sources

Professor William Chen, scientist
Director of NTU Food Science and Technology Programme

Disruptive innovations need not be always technological—they may be disruptive of the way we view life and live our lives. With tech-driven innovations, we will be seeing more food sources made available in the next few years. These may include those that emerge from urban farming and production systems such as plant-based proteins, microbial proteins and cultivated meat. However, my sense is that these urban solutions would provide consumers with more options, but may not be practical to implement across the world for a number of reasons, such as consumer acceptance, technology readiness, and price point. 

One change that will, however, happen globally to deal with the urgency to enhance global food security will be the emergence of nature-based solutions which are cost-effective, sustainable and well accepted by consumers. Notably, fermentation-based foods, which are nutritious, have longer shelf-life and are familiar to consumers worldwide; and mushroom/mycelium, underrated raw food materials that can be produced at scale using low energy and water.

Both fermentation-based foods and mushroom/mycelium-based foods can be easily incorporated by current food processing and production systems positively, without affecting the way we live and work. Fermentation-based foods, for example, can be diverse in nutrition profile, flavours and taste profile depending on the microbes we use, fermentation parameters, among other factors.

The food industry is unlike many other industries, as it’s largely driven by consumer needs. As such, for those looking to invest or build start-ups in this sector, it is critical to develop deep understanding of consumer needs locally, regionally and globally. Novel food development can be designed for two layers: firstly, for general large proportion of global solutions, the development should focus on practical, cost-effective, sustainable aspects; and secondly, for urban solutions which can be implemented in mega-cities to cater for the growing urban dwellers in the coming years, tech-driven food production practices can be path-finding and provide consumers with nutritious and safe food options.

The written word

Patrick Grove, entrepreneur
Co-founder & CEO, Catcha Group

The biggest disruption coming in the next ten years? Clearly AI. Clearly. As a start-up founder or an investor, the best way to participate is to wait for the euphoria to die down, then come in. It’s like internet investing—if you started in 1999, you would have felt the crash of 2000. Meanwhile, if you started in 2005 or 2010, it still wasn’t too late. 

AI is going to change the way we communicate in writing. Five years from now, your message to me, and my reply, will be done automatically, without either of us even realising. Wouldn’t that be cool? The world’s first entire AI magazine has already been published; every article, every image, all done by AI. 

In fact, I think one of the occupations that will be most negatively affected by AI is written content. I expect 90 percent of all writing roles to be killed by AI in the next five years: writers, editors, copywriters… In between three to five years, AI will do all the writing and humans will just proof-read and edit. And then, probably five years after that, AI will also edit. 

It’s like how Microsoft Excel stopped humans from actually doing math. Now, we just input numbers into a sheet on a computer. It will be the same with writing, we will input prompts into an AI engine and an article or story will be written.

Cybersecurity

Linda Nguyen Schindler, entrepreneur
Director of AI Competence Centre, Start2 Group

Looking toward the next 10 years, if I had to highlight something truly intriguing, it would be quantum computing. It is on the horizon, and it possesses the ability to crack all codes and passwords, which is a concerning aspect. However, on the positive side, it has the potential to revolutionise technology by offering unprecedented computing power. 

In my experience speaking with top-level executives in the cybersecurity sector, the conversation often revolves around quantum cryptography. Surprisingly, many people outside these circles seem oblivious to the potential threats. Those who are informed and forward-thinking understand that we need to prepare. The existing systems we possess and are building may soon become vulnerable, so it’s crucial to factor this upcoming technology into our existing strategies.

The weakest link in cybersecurity, currently, tends to be the human element. While we have solutions like two-factor authentication to enhance security, people find workarounds or choose not to implement them. Humans are ingenious at finding ways around security measures. The key challenge in cybersecurity is creating user-friendly solutions that people will adopt and consistently follow.

Phishing attacks are a common tactic from cyber criminals, and companies often test their employees by sending simulated phishing emails. Frequently, it’s the most senior executives who fall for these—it’s not uncommon for even cybersecurity professionals to click on a suspicious link in a moment of distraction. Busy schedules can lead to lapses in judgment. Getting people to adhere to security protocols, stopping employees putting sensitive company information at risk by using their personal mobile devices— these are problems in need of solutions.

Entertainment

Melissa Quek, educator
Head, School of Dance & Theatre, Lasalle College of the Arts

We’ll soon see major advances in the way audiences experience or consume performances, including holographic technology, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and so forth. But I think the most significant advancements will result from artificial intelligence. 

AI is becoming much more accessible to artists. It is being acknowledged within arts education, and schools are considering the ethics of using AI—in the creation of artworks, how to credit and acknowledge the use of AI and how to assess such work. 

As it affects the way we create, it will also affect the way we think. The art may be in how we instruct AI technology, how well we can refine what we ask for. This may mean that in some areas there will be greater emphasis on the concept rather than the technical skills of the craft. 

In future, a director could use AI to express what they want a set to look like. A set designer might test how the performers would move within the set. If AI could generate the performers in action, could the choreographer create the work based on past recordings of the dancers, without them being in the studio? Could all dancers in the future be given an AI-generated version of a dance to learn before they even meet each other? 

Ideally, AI will be able to take on some of the ‘grunt work’ and help to reduce hours needed in the creative process — the cost of making new work could be reduced and ticket prices made more affordable. It could also speed up some of the initial stages of research and creation so that work can reach a more advanced stage of development in a shorter period of time. 

AI could bring new perspectives to how we value liveness, identity and the passage of time. It captures our past actions and tries to predict our future choices, but it cannot know our present. There are multiple possibilities and probabilities. We become more conscious of how we differ from our past selves and how rapidly we change. 

I hope that AI will support areas of access for diverse audiences and make it more affordable to include these aspects in live performances. For instance, audio description of live performances, translation services, live sign language interpretation and subtitles. 

For those looking to create AI-based applications in this sector, remember: in the arts and entertainment, efficiency and speed are key. Technology should have a good user experience and interface so people can learn quickly and many on a team can easily work with it. It should be compatible with existing processes. It should be accessible to artists—so affordable, tiered access and functions will be helpful.  

It doesn’t have to be a big change immediately, but something small that makes one aspect of life easier. A lot of people creating tech have been smart in getting it tested. They’re partnering with educational or arts institutions to test the functionality of what they are creating. They go straight to the artists to find out how it can be used.

My advice is, find the right partners in the arts to get the word out. Allow artists to play with your new creation. People need to experiment to find new ways of working with the technology, and the audience and other artists will be inspired when they see how it is being used.

Ageing

Hugh Mason, futurist
CEO & co-founder, JFDI.Asia

In the next decade, I believe we will come to understand the biological processes behind longevity, healthspan, and ageing much more deeply. We are on the verge of important breakthroughs that will profoundly impact our understanding of what it means to get older. 

Significant research energy is currently being directed to investigate the concept of healthspan. Not merely on extending our lifespan, but on prolonging the period of life during which we remain in good health. This is important because ageing populations are becoming a challenge across advanced nations, forcing a transformation in the way we design our urban environments, how we educate ourselves throughout life, and how we plan our finances.

I think we will value youth over age even more in future, as the number of youngsters decreases. I recall my grandfather’s passing in 1990 at the age of 104. At that time, it was extraordinarily rare to live beyond 100 in the UK. The Queen would send centenarians a congratulatory telegram on their 100th birthday and thereafter each year. 

Today, many 10-year-olds have a good chance of reaching 100 years of age, so becoming a centenarian will seem increasingly normal. Singapore, for example, already has 20 percent of its population aged over 65 and by 2030 that will rise to about 25 percent. As we better understand the biology of ageing, we can help individuals enjoy that extra life, but only if we make a profound transformation in healthcare systems. Currently, the healthcare industry is incentivised to make money treating sickness rather than promoting health. That paradigm must surely shift towards fostering healthy longevity in the future. 

Approximately 70 percent of deaths in advanced countries are presently due to preventable non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. The good news is that we already know what to do to reduce these risks: pay attention to diet, get plenty of sleep, engage in regular exercise, and manage stress effectively. Before we reach for gadgets and supplements, all the evidence shows that following these four principles will significantly reduce the likelihood of disease and premature death. So in that sense health span is about social change, not new technology, across the population. 

However, as our understanding of the mechanisms of ageing grows, we will also have the capacity to reflect individual health risks. Sequencing DNA has become remarkably affordable, and artificial intelligence can discern patterns within these sequences. Biochemistry is being explored at a new level, allowing for targeted interventions for groups, individuals and specific diseases. For example, we now know that the DNA of individual cancer tumours varies significantly. So tailoring treatments to an individual’s specific body chemistry and processes, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach, could become the new standard. It may be that in future our medicines are personalised, made to order in robot labs that do what is currently done on the scale of test-tubes with the kind of micro-technology that has made semiconductors ubiquitous.

This transformative knowledge will place a greater responsibility on individuals to manage their health throughout their lives. New job opportunities related to health span will also emerge, offsetting the displacement of traditional clerical and middle management positions by AI. More people may find employment in roles that necessitate human qualities such as counselling, support, and behaviour change facilitation—areas where the safety and effectiveness of AI is unproven. This shift will give rise to a variety of businesses dedicated to improving health span.

This emerging field will not solely be about cutting-edge computing or traditional face-to-face services, but about integrating all those things into new offerings. The next generation of healthspan businesses will likely feature a blend of online and offline components. The key to success will lie not only in implementing technology but also more nuanced understanding of human behaviour, behavioural economics, and how we motivate change in our habits. 

For example, gamification has been promoted in recent years as a way to engage our attention, but it predominantly appeals to individuals motivated by achievement, scoring points and earning prizes. Yet only about a third of people are highly motivated by such incentives. Many are more inclined to be motivated by belonging and making connection with others, or by a sense of autonomy and power, the belief in their ability to control their lives and remain relevant to others. Future technologies are likely to influence behaviour by considering these diverse motivators, making this an intriguing area for investment and exploration in the coming disruption.

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