With the proliferation of fake news, algorithmic social media bubbles and the growing capabilities of technology to manipulate human senses, our relationship with reality is evolving. As new technologies offer increasing possibilities to curate and modify how we experience both our digital and physical surroundings, our perception of what is to be considered real may be radically reframed in the future.

As uncertainty about the future increases, wild cards and science fiction are gaining popularity among various organisations to foster future preparedness and visionary thinking. Exploring possible futures supported by free imagination is a cornerstone of versatile foresight practice.

Horizon scanning is the phase of gathering future-related knowledge, which is the first stage of the larger foresight process. It is about being vigilant concerning the changes in one’s environment. The main focus in this category of Futures intelligence is on discontinuities, emerging issues, and weak signals of change.

As populations begin to demand businesses and governments to define their success in new metrics other than financial growth and economic prosperity, new routes for future economic systems are starting to take shape.

Scenarios help to expand the time horizon, aid in looking beyond the usual extrapolations and improve thinking about the potential unexpected developments. Being descriptions of possible, probable or preferable futures, they help organisations prepare for various contingencies and plan accordingly.

Much of what we can know about the future at the present moment is based on the directions and interactions of megatrends, trends and change drivers.

COVID-19 can be heavily taxing on our mental health. Significantly increased internet use and overload of information are exhausting our attention and causing grave cognitive fatigues. Now may be the time to go offline and contemplate an unplugged future for our mental health.

Futures intelligence is a key component of all successful decision making, strategy work or innovation. It provides its users with analytical knowledge about future changes, trends and their potential impacts. This is the first part of our Futures Intelligence blog series.

The uncertainties surrounding the US elections have led to increased volatility, urging organisations in various industries to reassess their operations in the face of potential policy and regulatory shifts. Foresight methodologies offer various collaborative and interactive tools that can help organisations make sense of the key changes, manage risks and discover new opportunities.

While the value of data is rising, the loss of privacy in the digital era is becoming a reality. But giving up personal data requires trust: consumers need to be able to trust organisations to handle their data ethically and keep it safe from hackers, and other cyber threats – but also from the more obscure purposes organisations themselves might have.

The new presidential term in the US will have structural, long-lasting impacts on the global system, potentially shifting organisational priorities and operational environments.

Our team of futurists have created an interactive foresight radar with 50+ cross-industry trends, enabling teams to see the interconnections between different phenomena and collaboratively assess the implications of the election outcome from their organisation’s point of view.

The digitalised and highly interconnected world is enormously vulnerable to seemingly invisible small attacks. The increasing value of data and service platforms, and the emergence of the internet of things, will speed up the growth of cyber hazards. Many possible but improbable drivers and events may impact the direction of the trend of cybersecurity spending.