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Technology markets in 2022 were decimated. Tesla share price collapsed. Netflix stock has dropped more than 50% in the last year. Facebook is in freefall. Even TikTok might be in trouble. Oh, and cryptocurrencies lost 50%-80% in value.
Will 2023 be better? I believe it will be and, continuing this week’s mop-up of the main prediction pieces I’ve stumbled across in the last month, these are the things that will make the 2023 tech world better.
Generally, it's all about where technology is going which is to the Metaverse … good news for Meta?
I’ve said that augmented and virtual realities will change our world for a while – comparing it to walking into the holodeck of the Star Trek ship – and it is finally coming true.
Perhaps the most interesting thing I found around this space is from the British Computer Society (BCS) – I’m a fellow (ed: jolly good fellow?) – and they predict five ways in which it will change our lives in the next few years:
- Workplace collaboration will never be the same again
- Large scale professional events will go virtual
- Bands and DJs will rock your virtual worlds – and so will your date and favourite football team
- Brands will express themselves in new ways
- Recruitment and onboarding will be transformed
But the best line in their piece is maybe this one: “the metaverse will augment the physical world and all the things we love, rather than substituting them”. Totally agree.
These precitions are expanded by Rita Batalha on Medium, who talks more about Web3, which she cites as “the internet owned by the builders and users, orchestrated with tokens” (as defined by Packy McCormick). In other words, it plays into all the platform, crypto and networked stuff in tech of today.
Although she doesn’t say decentralised, she does say that Web3 is “a more democratic version of today’s online and digital works, where Web3platforms could give creators and users a way to monetize their activity and contributions”.
But there is more to tech 2023 than just the metaverse and Web3, as there’s a buzz around embedded finance, platform business models, AI and ML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning), quantum and digitalisation in general.
One of the big tips for 2023, more than the metaverse, is the advancement of AI. Manasi Vartak, founder and CEO of Verta, a Palo Alto-based provider of solutions for Operational AI and ML Model Management, gives her six key AI/ML trends for 2023:
- Real-time use cases drive changes in the ML tech stack
- Increasing AI regulation puts spotlight on tools supporting ethical AI
- Model Management becomes the center of gravity for machine learning
- Companies build ML platform teams to ensure business-critical models run smoothly
- Industrialization of ML drives standardization of ML processes
- Generative AI takes the creative arts by storm, raising ethics and fraud concerns
The key is to recognise that everything is become smart: “intelligent experiences delivered in real time on smartphones, smart TVs, smart cars—smart everything”.
The thing is that as all things get smarter, so do the criminals, which leads to trends in cybersecurity. After more serious hacks in 2022, this it a top of the agenda item, and a good insight comes from IT World Canada in a two-part review (Part One and Part Two):
Making cybersecurity predictions is easy (“Cybercriminals will become more inventive”). Making actionable ones for IT security leaders is much harder. We’ve assembled what we hope is a useful list of predictions from cybersecurity vendors – people who know what threat actors talk about on dark web forums, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their customers’ IT infrastructures. There’s no promise that all/most/some of these predictions will come true. The bottom line is, there will be no let-up in attacks.
There are others you can look at too.
Intelligent CISO features an article from Chad Skipper, Global Security Technologist at VMware, who predicts five key challenges for enterprise cybersecurity teams in 2023: investing in responsive tech; lateral movement; aggressive API attacks; a rise in deepfakes; and cyber warfare.
“We may be entering into a new year, but the primary goal of cybercriminals stays the same: gain the keys to the kingdom, steal credentials, move laterally, acquire data and then monetise it. To improve defence efficiency moving forward, security teams must focus on workloads holistically, inspect in-band traffic, integrate Network Detection and Response (NDR) with Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), embrace Zero Trust principles and conduct continuous threat hunting. Only with this comprehensive rulebook will organisations empower security teams to face the challenges ahead.”
Meantime, Business World sees four key trends: Operational Technology (OT) security will become a necessity; 5Gs revolutionary impact is only as strong as its security; Metaverse is exciting but not without security and ransomware wasn’t the end of it
I guess my conclusion in tech trends 2023 is a line that includes every variation of tech-speak we can throw out there today from John Barber, VP & Head of Europe, Infosys Finacle:
We believe that in 2023, businesses will continue to automate using both established and emerging technologies. These technological advances include open API-driven automation, robotic process automation (RPA), which automatically performs routine and rule-based human tasks, and blockchain-powered private, permissioned networks for payments and trade finance.
Yea …
Related: Don’t Be a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing if You’re Not a Wolf