There's a lot of technology buzzwords flying around in the financial media these days. "Digital transformation", "cloud computing", "edge computing", and "artificial intelligence" are making their way into plenty of headlines and also into the conversations of more and more cocktail parties. The world is gaining a better understanding of what several cutting-edge trends actually mean.  

But even more important than understanding them is following how these disruptive new technologies are actually being implemented. Businesses of all sizes are moving their workflows to the cloud service providers like Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Web Services and Google (Nasdaq: GOOGL) Cloud Platform. They're hiring data scientists to set up machine learning environments, and they're assembling teams of hundreds or thousands of engineers to undertake massive new projects. There are a lot of dollars at stake as the digital transformation more firmly takes root within the enterprise.  

What will all of this mean for investors? Are there ways to capitalize on the biggest trends taking shape in the tech world?

To help us answer these questions, we've brought in an expert who is at the forefront of innovation. Ben Book is the co-founder and CEO of GigaOm, who is helping IT decision makers tackle their most complex technical challenges. GigaOm is bringing the executives of progressive companies up-to-speed about emerging technologies and then helping to implement them across their organizations.

In this exclusive interview with 7investing, Ben digs deep into what's really going on in today's biggest trends. He explains what the digital transformation is really all about and why we're still just "in the second or third inning." He describes how cloud computing is allowing companies to simplify their IT operations and how machine learning is now being used for more customized applications. Previously a healthcare consultant, Ben also sheds some insight on where tech companies have the greatest chances of succeeding in health care.  

Finally, Simon asks Ben to share several other trends he's excited about right now.  

Publicly-traded companies mentioned in this interview include Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOGL), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), Datadog (Nasdaq: DDOG), Disney (NYSE: DIS), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), and Snowflake (Nasdaq: SNOW), and Zoom Video Communications (Nasdaq: ZM). 7investing's advisors or its guests may have positions in the companies mentioned.