This 5-year tech industry forecast predicts some surprising winners - and losers

Yagi Studio/Getty Images Smartphone sales will grow in fits and starts, while tablet demand will wane. Large language models (LLMs) will boom, and demand for data management solutions will soar. Also: Crawl, then walk, before you run with AI agents, experts recommend These technologies will be "hot" -- or "not" -- over the coming five years, as projected by ABI Research in its latest update on technology markets through 2029. Some surprises emerged. The consultancy examined 66 essential tech market shifts, with 33 poised for growth and 33 facing contraction. Below are eight leaders and eight laggards. Fast-growing technologies Large language models: LLMs will see 35% compounded annual growth over the next five years, ABI predicted: "Enterprise software spending on LLMs continues to grow rapidly as proofs of concept mature into scaled deployments embedded across entire companies." Data management tools. The exponential growth of cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning a ... Read full article.