IT projects in Spain highlight digital trust and AI to enhance human skills
- From post-quantum cryptography to synthetic humans with AI
- Zero trust in the face of threats and secure information
- Green Revolution 5.0 and asset repatriation
- Methodology
Quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity are the technologies experiencing the most advances and applications worldwide, and Spain is no exception. In our country, research into digital trust, security against disinformation and augmented workforce, i.e. AI applications that enhance human skills, stands out.
So much so that, in a comparison between twelve countries and regions – Spain, Italy, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil, the Southern Cone, Colombia and Central America, the Philippines, the European Union, the United States and China – our country has a technology adoption rating of 8 out of 10.
The data comes from Innovation Telescope, the first trend report from the new Innovation Observatory created as part of the Indra Group's technology plan, which seeks to lead European innovation and contribute to technological and disruptive sovereignty. The technology company is equipping itself with tools such as this one that enable it to collect and analyse current technological trends in order to identify key areas of R&D&I and anticipate the future of the sector.
Although the United States and China continue to lead the development of almost all technologies, the other countries and regions analysed perform well depending on the sectors and disciplines. According to the study, the EU as a whole stands out for the development of sustainable technologies and, as in the case of Spain, cybersecurity and AI applications that enhance human skills.
Joaquín Ponz, Director of the CTO - Portfolio & Innovation Governance Area at Indra Group, believes that "Innovation Telescope is consolidating its position as a strategic initiative for anticipating technological trends and transforming productive sectors in the medium and long term. By combining artificial intelligence and expert analysis, this observatory identifies and analyses the emerging technologies that will shape the future, with a special focus on the most disruptive use cases."
From post-quantum cryptography to synthetic humans with AI
Quantum computing is revolutionising technological advances around the world and also in Spain, where companies such as Indra Group are working to advance its development and application. In particular, in the areas of quantum sensing and communications, anticipating unprecedented change in less than five years.
Within this chapter, the Innovation Telescope report confirms progress towards post-quantum cryptography – also known as security algorithmics – which will be essential for current encryption models used by banks, governments and corporate security systems to withstand possible attacks that quantum computing could be capable of in the near future.
Another trend detected by the observatory is the growth of multifunctional robots. Unlike traditional assembly line robots, they can perform complex and very different tasks because they are programmable and equipped with generative artificial intelligence, which gives them the ability to adapt to all types of sectors.
In this way, they offer possibilities as diverse as providing telecare services to the elderly, one of the major impacts expected in the medium term, or welding on deep-sea platforms or pipelines.
Technological trends are also exploring the relationship between people and machines. A notable example is the creation of synthetic humans to simulate social interactions in certain environments, such as the management of critical infrastructure. This is a new leap forward in artificial intelligence which, with the evolution of large language models (LLMs), will make it possible to predict human behaviour in order to assess future scenarios and propose possible responses.
Zero trust in the face of threats and secure information
Cybersecurity is constantly evolving to address increasingly sophisticated threats. Emerging trends include the adoption of collaborative architectures which, together with zero trust architectures – requiring continuous authentication and verification for each access request – are generating a new technological trend.
These solutions amplify their functionalities with the incorporation of artificial intelligence on a global scale and are present in areas such as threat detection and, increasingly, in the cyber protection of the supply chain.
Another trend in cybersecurity is determined by the importance of access to information, decentralising but maintaining security standards through blockchain-based technologies and, above all, by digital trust, i.e. the ability to protect data, guarantee operational continuity and ensure the integrity of public and private documentation.
Precisely for this reason, and because advances in artificial intelligence are blurring the line between reality and fiction, technological innovation is developing formulas to combat the risks of disinformation, which can undermine the credibility of governments and companies or trigger conflict between countries.
Green Revolution 5.0 and asset repatriation
Innovation Telescope warns that sustainable technologies are undergoing a new revolution marked by the intensive use of artificial intelligence, which will multiply exponentially with the advent of quantum computing.
Another trend highlighted in the report is the construction of green data centres, which will use renewables as their main source of energy and will not require water for cooling. Notable examples include China, where there are plans to move data centres to the sea to control their temperature without wasting water resources.
On the other hand, and in relation to another recent revolution, that of the transformation of organisations with the move of their digital assets to the cloud, the Indra Group report addresses the new shift towards data repatriation, a concept linked to technological sovereignty that is strategic in Spain and Europe.
According to its analysis, there is a trend towards the adoption of hybrid computing models on premise (in proprietary architectures), at the edge (processing close to where the data is generated) and in the cloud for more complex tasks involving large volumes of information.
Methodology
The Indra Group units that participated in the development of Innovation Telescope reviewed industry reports, market studies and academic publications, identifying emerging technologies that will drive innovation and define competitiveness in the coming years.
The result is a detailed document structured by technologies and sectors of activity, with a special focus on the most disruptive use cases that are setting trends.
The technology observatory responsible for this study is part of the technology plan with which Indra Group is strengthening its innovation ecosystem. The company is also working on the maturation and incorporation into its portfolio of new generation technologies such as quantum computing, advanced electronics and sensors, directed energy and AI, to develop a range of high-value products, maximising synergies between all the group's businesses.