Technology trends to watch in 2023
Chatbots, solving our biggest challenges and living in the metaverse – how will we use technology in 2023?
If 2020 and 2021 were the boom years for technology brands, 2022 could be deemed the year that reality started to bite. The natural business boom of the pandemic abated considerably, at the same time as cost-conscious businesses and consumers cut back on spending. Coupled with inflationary pressures, geopolitical issues and supply chain challenges, much of the market had a difficult year.
Looking ahead to 2023, it would be easy to paint a negative picture. But this year has the potential to be another defining one for technology brands. Working patterns have shifted into new (or old habits), meaning that businesses have a better idea of the tools they need and how their teams are most productive. The debate around the role that web3 platforms will play in our lives is set to continue, but the opportunity for first-mover advantage means that we can expect to see many new products launched. And grim economic outlooks mean that necessity will breed invention, as tools help us to save money and do more with less.
So, many of 2022’s events taught us that it’s unwise to make too many bold predictions for the year ahead, it’s safe to say there’s a lot of potential for technology platforms to shape our lives. Here are some trends that we’re paying close attention to:
The metaverse: one of the hottest topics in technology and beyond, we can expect to see conversations around the metaverse continue this year, as well as some consensus on exactly how we define it. But as budgets tighten, convincing consumers and businesses to adopt new platforms and hardware could prove to be a challenge. Businesses in the space will need to prove the value of their platforms and ensure they’re not seen as a frivolous spend. And the overall success of the metaverse may be accelerated by which brands launch into the sector.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) for good: like the metaverse, this isn’t the first time we’ve discussed AI. But we’re starting to see more applications of AI that showcase the technology’s benefits beyond background use cases. With the world facing many challenges around climate change, sustainability, fiscal policy and more, AI is starting to be applied to find solutions to issues that could have far-reaching impact. A quick search brings up examples of AI being used to generate insights from climate data, uncover patterns in health conditions and speed up the identification of cyber threats. And that’s just in the past couple of weeks. As this technology is applied at scale, we’ll start to see its benefits shine through.
Chatbots: one of the more tangible AI applications we’ve seen recently is in chatbots, with ChatGPT generating a fair amount of attention late last year. Asking the tool to write short pieces of text, solve problems and generally speak back to us started conversations around whether it would be taking our jobs in the years to come. We can expect to see this technology applied in more thoughtful ways this year, as people see its potential beyond being a smart tool and start to show where it can help them and give more time for tasks like creative thinking and planning.
Simplicity-as-a-service: whether it’s for personal or work purposes, most of us are using more technology platforms than ever before. That can prove challenging – sharing information between different services, swapping apps while we’re in the middle of tasks. While this isn’t a new concept, the rise in tech platforms over recent years combined with a new need for efficiency mean we can expect to see tools that offer ‘simplicity-as-a-service’ – aggregating different sources of data, combining a few apps into one or automating a process to save us time.
