2026 IEEE World Congress on SERVICES
(SERVICES 2026)

13-18 July 2026, Sydney, Australia

Plenary Panel

How Technology Trends and Megatrends affect Workforce

Technological breakthroughs are being announced almost weekly, such as those in large language models and agentic AI. Socio-political, economic, and ecological development trump technology advancements and form a complex net of interdependencies. Wars are being won and lost using technology, as are the wins and losses on the market, and unfortunately, the impact on nature. The ability to predict trends, especially megatrends, is becoming essential for business, technology, politics, and daily life. The IEEE Computer Society has been making annual technology predictions for over 25 years and documenting them for 10 years. The IEEE Future Directions Committee has been exploring technology megatrends and the IEEE Industry Engagement Future of Workforce for over five years, issuing reports. These reports have made a tangible impact on businesses and education, and they are widely cited and used. In this panel, we will discuss the most recent predictions and megatrends affect future of the workforce. We will offer recommendations to industry, academia, governments, and professional organizations to maintain the pace with ever emerging pace of technology development from the viewpoint of services computing.

 

Panel Chair: Rong N. Chang, IBM Research

Rong N. Chang is a member of the IBM Academy of Technology at the T.J. Watson Research Center, an IEEE Life Fellow, an AAIS Fellow, and an ACM Distinguished Member. His current in-market research focus is on advanced AI platforms that enable trusted, scalable enterprise AI applications. He has received nine IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards, with contributions resulting in over $200 million in revenue impact. He holds more than 30 patents and has published over 60 refereed technical papers in enterprise-grade software service composition and management automation.  He serves as the Steering Committee Chair of IEEE SERVICES and the Advisory Committee Chair for IEEE TCSVC.  He is an Associate EiC and the Topic Area Editor for Service Computing Foundations of the IEEE Transactions on Services Computing . He is a member of Phi Tau Phi, Tau Beta Pi, and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
 

Panel Chair: Dejan Milojicic, Hewlett Packard Labs

Dejan Milojicic is an HPE Fellow and VP at Hewlett Packard Labs, Milpitas, CA [1998-present]. Previously, he worked at the OSF Research Institute, Cambridge, MA [1994-1998] and the Institute “Mihajlo Pupin”, Belgrade, Serbia [1983-1991]. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany (1993), and his MSc/BSc from Belgrade University, Serbia (1983/86). His research interests include systems software, distributed computing, systems management, and HPC. Dejan has over 300 papers, 2 books, and 100 granted and 75 pending patents. Dejan is an IEEE Life Fellow (Fellow since 2010), ACM Fellow (2026), and HKN and USENIX member. Dejan was on 9 Ph.D. thesis committees, and he mentored over 80 interns. Dejan was president of the IEEE Computer Society (2014), an IEEE presidential candidate in 2019, editor-in-chief of IEEE Computing Now and Distributed Systems Online, and he has served on many editorial boards and TPCs. Dejan led large industry-government-university collaborations, such as Open Cirrus (2007-2011) and New Operating System (2014-2017).