All technological revolutions have led to social changes. The past three major waves of human development-from the agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution to the most recent information revolution-all brought profound changes by means of the "disruptive technologies" of the time. Today, the disruptive technologies, from cloud computing and big data to artificial intelligence, are having a tremendous impact on the world economy, and even on the global landscape, on an annual basis. The world's leading nations have attached great importance to their ability to anticipate future technologies,leveraging disruptive technologies to improve core technological capabilities. This paper discusses eight trends, two environments and the seven-layer model of disruptive technologies with focus on the transformative role of cloud computing and artificial intelligence in digital economy.

disruptive technologies  /  digital economy  /  cloud computing  /  artificial intelligence