--- title: "YottaBit: The Research Behind the Keynotes" description: "YottaBit is where futurist Jim Carroll's research goes public: 110 plain-English stories about the breakthroughs in AI, science, energy, robotics and biology reshaping industries. Six places to start." canonical: https://jimcarroll.com/yottabit/ updated: 2026-10-16T15:35:28+00:00 --- # YottaBit: The Research Behind the Keynotes YottaBit: The Future Is Bigger Than You Think # YottaBit: The Research Behind the Keynotes Every keynote Jim builds starts with research into what is changing, and how fast. YottaBit is where that research goes public: plain-English stories about the breakthroughs in AI, science, energy, robotics and biology that are reshaping industries, and what they could mean for your people. [EXPLORE YOTTABIT ↗](https://yottabit.com/)[BRING THIS THINKING TO YOUR EVENT](https://jimcarroll.com/contact/) Why it matters for your event ## The developments behind the keynote, in plain English. Your audience doesn’t need another list of technologies. They need to know which developments matter to their world, how fast they are moving and what they could change. YottaBit holds 110 stories, each with the evidence behind it. 95 explain breakthroughs already under way. 15 clearly labelled scenarios explore what may become possible by 2031 and 2036. Every headline number comes with an explanation of exactly what it measures, and what it doesn’t. When Jim builds a keynote for your room, this is part of the raw material behind the 25–50+ hours of fresh research, connected to the decisions your audience actually has to make. Six places to start ## Start with a story that touches your industry. Energy + AI ### What if AI could invent the batteries that power its own future? 93%: the decline in average fully installed large-scale battery project costs between 2010 and 2024. Battery costs are falling, electricity demand is growing, and artificial intelligence could help discover better materials. The surprising story is how these revolutions could begin reinforcing one another. [Read the story ↗](https://yottabit.com/stories/ai-batteries-energy/) Health + AI ### What if we could design medicines for diseases we can’t treat today? 200 million+: predicted protein structures now freely accessible to scientists (not 200 million medicines). We are beginning to move from searching for useful molecules to designing biological tools for particular targets. That could change how the search for new treatments begins. [Read the story ↗](https://yottabit.com/stories/ai-designed-medicines/) Agriculture + robotics ### What if a farm could think, see and work around the clock? 5 million: acres where John Deere says its See & Spray system was used during the 2025 growing season. Machines are beginning to distinguish crops from weeds, respond to conditions and handle specific jobs with much greater precision. The next question is what happens when they start working as connected teams. [Read the story ↗](https://yottabit.com/stories/intelligent-farms-robotics/) Manufacturing + robotics ### What happens when millions of robots become part of everyday industry? 4.66 million: industrial robots estimated to be operating worldwide in 2024, according to the International Federation of Robotics. The factory robot is no longer an unusual experiment. Millions already work inside industrial operations, and AI is beginning to change what machines can do. [Read the story ↗](https://yottabit.com/stories/factories-fill-with-robots/) Mobility + insurance ### What changes when the driverless car stops being science fiction? 400,000+: fully autonomous rides per week reported by Waymo in February 2026, across six major U.S. metropolitan areas. Autonomous vehicles are already carrying paying passengers at commercial scale in selected cities. The next challenge is making the experience safe, useful and widely available. [Read the story ↗](https://yottabit.com/stories/driverless-rides-become-routine/) A 2036 scenario: business + AI ### What happens when software stops answering questions and starts running parts of the economy? A scenario, not a prediction: what may become possible by 2036. Your next important business transaction may be negotiated by two pieces of software, each acting for a different person or organization. [Read the scenario ↗](https://yottabit.com/stories/the-agent-operated-economy/) [ALL 110 STORIES ↗](https://yottabit.com/stories/) Where the name comes from ## A 26-year-old idea, finally put to work. In 2000, Jim and his co-author Rick Broadhead published *From Light Bulbs to Yottabits: How to Profit by Understanding the Internet of the Future*. They took the name from the far end of the scale used to measure digital information: yotta, 10²⁴, a one followed by 24 zeros. Jim registered yottabit.com that year. In 2026 he finally brought it to life, not as a site about network capacity, but as a way to understand the extraordinary scale of today’s change. [The full 26-year story ↗](https://yottabit.com/why-yottabit/) Looking back, looking forward ## Twenty years of predictions, graded. Then what comes next. Jim graded 20+ years of his own documented predictions, industry by industry, in [The Trends Scorecard](https://jimcarroll.com/2026/07/the-trends-scorecard-the-final-verdict-what-20-years-of-predictions-taught-me/). YottaBit picks up where the scorecard leaves off: the developments that will shape the next round. Want to see how that research becomes a keynote for one specific audience? Look at the [2027 Briefs](https://jimcarroll.com/2027-briefs/), or tell Jim about your room. [TELL JIM YOUR ROOM](https://jimcarroll.com/contact/)[EXPLORE YOTTABIT ↗](https://yottabit.com/)