Robots and Drones

This is an area that will surely see major shifts in 2015. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration started allowing some companies to use drones for commercial purposes this year, including certain Hollywood movie studios. There will likely be even more leeway in terms of drone regulation in 2015, even as Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -0.43%   threatens to take its drone testing elsewhere.

Better rules should entice drone manufacturers to build more capable machines and developers to build apps that make drones multifunctional across a wide range of applications.

“There will be more drones in the market, more consumers trying drones, more industries trying to get clearance to use drones, but there will also continue to be a struggle around them,” Kay said.

Meanwhile, Amazon, which is seeking approval to test its drone delivery services in the U.S., put to work tens of thousands of rolling robots in its distribution centers this year, which it said has greatly improved production. More automation in the workplace is inevitable.

And on a far creepier level, robots will continue to become more humanlike. SoftBank Corp. 9984, +0.41%   has unveiled a humanlike robot named “Pepper” that can seemingly sense, read and react to human emotions. This is seen as just the tip of the iceberg as research money pours into how to make machines more cognitive, like humans.

“There will be more [robots] that are more humanoid,” Kay said. “They’re already a little there. I think in 2015 they’ll be a little more there.”