Deloitte’s annual Technology Trends report examines technology put to practical business use. The theme of this year’s report is Inspiring Disruption. In it, we discuss 10 trends that exemplify the unprecedented potential for emerging technologies to reshape how work gets done, how businesses grow, and how markets and industries evolve. Our 2014 trends are grouped into two categories:

Disruptors are technologies that can create sustainable positive disruption in IT capabilities, business operations, and sometimes even business models.

• CIO as venture capitalist
• Cognitive analytics
• Industrialised crowdsourcing
• Digital engagement
• Wearables.

Enablers are technologies in which many CIOs have already invested time and effort, but that warrant another look this year because of new developments, new capabilities, or new potential use cases.

• Technical debt reversal
• Social activation
• Cloud orchestration
• In-memory revolution
• Real-time DevOps.

For the first time, we’ve added a section dedicated to exponential technologies, working with Singularity University to highlight five innovative technologies that may take longer than our standard 24-month time horizon for businesses to harness them—but whose eventual impact may be profound. Examples include artificial intelligence, robotics, and additive manufacturing (3-D printing). The research, experimentation, and invention behind these “exponentials” are the building blocks for many of our technology trends. Our goal is to provide a high-level introduction to each exponential—a snapshot of what it is, where it comes from, and where it’s going.

Each of the 2014 trends is relevant today. Each has significant momentum and potential to make a business impact. And each warrants timely consideration—even if the strategy is to wait and see. But whatever you do, don’t be caught unaware—or unprepared. Use these forces to inspire, to transform. And to disrupt.  Click here to register for a copy of the report.