WATCH: What will the channel look like in 2020?

Catch the video highlights from the recent CRN On event about the channel in 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) are being backed to flourish by the majority of the channel, according to the results of CRN's The European Channel in 2020 report.

The report, sponsored by Agilitas, gathered the forward-thinking views of respondents to understand the focus of channel firms through to 2020.

There was also an event in London to support the report and you can watch highlights from the day above.

The Channel 2020 survey asked channel respondents which of today's disruptive technologies will become the norm by 2020.

Respondents could vote for more than one answer and only two areas grabbed the attention of the majority of respondents, with 68 per cent backing IoT and 54 per cent going for AI. Following those, 49 per cent felt that 3D printing would establish itself by 2020.

There was then a cluster of technology areas selected by around a third of survey participants: hybrid cloud computing (37 per cent), virtual assistants (35 per cent), wearables (31 per cent), smart workplace (31 per cent), machine learning (28 per cent), personal analytics (28 per cent) and virtual reality (27 per cent).

The suggested emerging technologies which lagged at the bottom of the rankings included edge computing, which only nine per cent backed, and last of all was digital twin with under one per cent.

Respondents were also asked what they thought will be the new technology areas that will emerge to disrupt the industry.

There were seven options for respondents and at the top of the rankings was human augmentation, with 48 per cent feeling it was the next big thing in disruptive technology.

This was closely followed by quantum computing with 44 per cent. Coming in third was brain-computer interface with 36 per cent.

There was a steep drop back in support for technologies outside those top three, with no other option getting support from even a fifth of respondents. Both polling 19 per cent were smart dust and bioacoustics sensing.

The bottom two were volumetric displays with eight per cent and neurobusiness with just seven per cent support.

You can read the full The European Channel in 2020 report, sponsored by Agilitas, here.