Here's what Gartner says it sees arriving soon:

1. By 2020, 100 million consumers will shop in augmented reality environments.

AR will be "overlaying data on top of environments," said Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer. For instance, when you walk into a grocery store, "all the data about the different items will be floating in the air in front of those items," he said. The bulky and boxy glasses that customers need to see the augmented reality at the store will get more fashionable and will be easier to wear. AR also will be used in online shopping.

By 2017, Gartner expects that one in five leading global retail brands will be deploying AR.

2. By 2020, "the average person will have more conversations with bots than with their spouse."

More practically for IT managers, Gartner says, what this shift to voice means is that in four years, 30 percent of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen. Users of Amazon's Alexa voice service, which comes with its Echo device, are already doing this.

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