Managed services giant KPMG said last year blockchain had moved beyond the "hype phase", shifting the focus of the technology far from often notably zany proof-of-concepts to actual utility within the world of business. Huawei, in collaboration with Oxford Economics, predicts that the digital economy will represent 24.3% of worldwide gross domestic product by 2025, totalling up to a valuation of about US$23 trillion. Among the emerging technologies driving that growth will be blockchain. While some of the competent applications of blockchain include its used in finance and provide chain traceability, such as that of the recent tie-up between IBM and Atia to ensure "safer, better seafood" in Norway, or the success of TradeLens by shipping giant Maersk, below are a few less-considered areas where blockchain is making its mark. Blockchain is increasingly infiltrating the gaming industry and is set to pioneer a new dimension of gaming by starting new and open economies within the virtual landscape.

IT'S robots that mostly come to mind when you ask people about the future of work. Robots taking our jobs, to be specific. And it's a reaction that's two centuries old, in a replay of Lancashire weavers attacking looms and stocking frames at the start of the first Industrial Revolution. A secondary reaction, among a much smaller group, is the creation of new jobs in the coming fourth Industrial Revolution. On the left side are old industries, where some workers are being replaced by robots.

Firms exploiting the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) could spawn a completely new sector, the vice chairman of U.S. stock exchange Nasdaq said Tuesday. "I think AI is really going to be the technology behind a lot of these great companies that provide the innovations that will be a new sector we probably don't know about yet," Bruce Aust told CNBC at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Aust highlighted self-driving cars as an example of companies utilizing AI technology to create an entirely new market. "You look at autonomous vehicles, things like that, they really do use a lot of artificial intelligence too. So I think we're excited about the early stage companies that are here, and we hope that eventually they'll come to market and list on Nasdaq one day."

A report on the future of technology in the workplace predicts that as many as 47 percent of US jobs are at risk in coming years due to increasing computerization, and that one of the best hopes for keeping people employed may come from a dedicated effort to improve a lagging American education system. The study, released in February, is part of a series co-produced by the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford and Citigroup that explores the most pressing global challenges of the 21st century. Michael Osborne, Citi Global Perspectives and Solutions project partner and Oxford Associate Professor of Machine Learning, has spoken in recent interviews about his part of the study, examining the characteristics of 702 occupations in the US. According to the report, food service jobs face 87 percent of risk of being replaced by robo burger chefs and counter help. The nearly 4 million Americans who work in the transportation industry are at risk from autonomous cars and trucks; up to 75 percent of jobs could be computerized in coming decades.