Louis Lovas is director of solutions at OneMarketData.

What do you see as the next major watershed for the industry?

Machine learning has gained prominence in 2018, but I don’t feel it is being utilized to its full potential just yet. People are not convinced of its benefits and longevity. I predict that machine learning will have a stronger demand for historical data and market history over the next few years to help predict future market activity. Whether it pans out as something of value is yet to be determined.

Which skill sets will be demanded most in the coming year?

The wave of digital transformation has impacted every industry and skills that were previously considered a specialty are now regarded as essential, particularly coding. Because of this, I think Python will prove to be the most in-demand skill set in 2019.

Will 2019 will be the “Year of Institutional Crypto?”

Previously, large investors stayed clear from the crypto-investing space due to the high volatility of the key currencies, but then this year we saw institutional crypto began reaching critical mass from the major players like Bloomberg and Goldman. I do expect this trend to continue in 2019 with more traditional financial institutions diversifying their portfolios with crypto assets.