In recent years, three areas — information technology (IT), educational technology (EdTech), and artificial intelligence (AI) — have become key drivers of global change. Their rapid development affects business, education, and daily life, forming a new technological order.

1. IT is the digital infrastructure of the world

15-20 years ago, IT was associated with programmers in offices and hardware in server rooms. Today, IT is the foundation of all industries:

• Banking, logistics, medicine, education — everything works through digital systems.
• The acceleration of the Internet, cloud technologies, 5G and IoT make instant communication and data processing possible.
• Companies are no longer competing only with product — they are competing with technology.

Without IT, even a coffee shop on the corner cannot exist now — from payment and delivery to advertising, everything goes through digital services.

The world is going digital. Online communications, process automation, remote work, and cloud services have already become the norm. The IT industry provides the infrastructure for these changes, and the demand for IT specialists is growing in all areas, from finance to healthcare.

Why is this important:

• Companies automate processes to reduce costs.
• Consumers expect fast and convenient digital services.
• The IT infrastructure has become critical for competitiveness.

EdTech (Education + Technology) has become especially relevant after the pandemic, when education was forced to go online.

• Platforms like Coursera, Khan Academy, and Udemy have emerged that provide access to world-class education.
• Personalized learning has become a reality — algorithms adjust the material to the pace and interest of the student.
• Education has stopped being tied to a place: you can study at Harvard while sitting in Almaty.

The global EdTech market is growing at double-digit rates because employers need specialists who are constantly learning and adapting quickly.

Educational technologies are experiencing rapid growth. Online courses, virtual classrooms and interactive platforms allow you to study anywhere and at a convenient time. The pandemic accelerated this process, and now EdTech has become a stable part of the market.

Key success factors of EdTech:

• Flexibility — training adapts to the user's schedule.
• Personalization — AI helps to build individual learning paths.
• Scalability — the platform can train thousands of people simultaneously.

Artificial intelligence has ceased to be fiction and has become an everyday occurrence.:

• ChatGPT, Midjourney, Copilot and other tools are already changing professions, from marketing to law.
• AI automates routine work and opens up new possibilities, from big data analysis to idea generation.
• Companies that implement AI quickly gain a huge competitive advantage.

Many experts call AI the new "electrification" — it, like electricity in the 20th century, will penetrate into all spheres of life.

AI has ceased to be an experimental technology and has entered everyday life. It processes large amounts of data, predicts trends, automates routine and helps to make more accurate decisions.

Where AI is already working:

• ChatGPT and other language models are used to generate texts, code, and ideas.
• Computer vision systems — for medicine and industry.
• Recommendation algorithms are used in marketing, e-commerce, and social media.

The combination of IT, EdTech and AI creates a powerful synergistic effect:

• IT — provides the infrastructure.
• EdTech — provides access to knowledge.
• AI — makes technology smarter and more efficient.

Global competition forces companies and countries to invest in these areas, and users to quickly learn new tools. The one who adapts earlier gets an advantage.

In the next 5-10 years, we will see an even closer intertwining of technologies: AI will be more deeply integrated into education, IT platforms will become more adaptive, and EdTech will become as personalized as possible. This will open up new opportunities, but it will also require constant training and retraining.

Conclusion: IT, EdTech and AI are in the spotlight because they are not just trends, but the foundation of a new economy and a future in which flexibility, speed and technology will become key competitive advantages.