These predictions aim to provide a broader view of the future and to develop our own imagination. It’s a tangible analysis to establish links between these subjects and our business goals.
By working out the digital trends, we not only get closer to the future, but we also track the broader evolution of Tech.
Here are our predictions for the tech sector in 2023:
1. Sustainability vs. Growth
At the root of many future issues now is the issue of sustainability. Unsustainable measures, such as overfull warehouses, will cost some brands and e-commerce players dearly in 2023. “Growth at any price” or purely growth-driven models will have a hard time.
Venture capital will remain just as uncomfortable as it was in 2022, and it may become even more difficult to raise capital. Similarly, the “growth equities” sector, which was already extremely beaten down in 2022, could hit new lows.
2. Generative AI & search engine wars
With the release of ChatGPT a Pandora box was opened at the end of 2022. Generative artificial intelligence was made accessible to the masses from one moment to the next. Within five days, more than one million users were already using ChatGPT. There had never been a faster rate of use of a service before. The use of such highly skilled and fast learning AI will have implications for almost all business areas and situations.
Companies like Microsoft, which have exclusive access to these services as financiers of OpenAI, can and probably will profit faster and more in the process. Google, which for years has offered little that is disruptive and poor user experiences with its search and in products like Calendar, Mail or Android, is stuck firmly in the innovators’ dilemma and will be increasingly easy to disrupt.
Providing people in 2023 with personalized results based on questions and answers in the form of lists of links with ads next to them will no longer be enough. Google has an ever-growing problem. Apple will increasingly feed Siri with AI and provide better UI and UX as an answer engine than Google search. Microsoft will integrate ChatGPT into Bing and gain market share. Let the search engine wars begin!
3. Longevity
After using data, digitization and automation to crack the formula for growth and wealth over the past two decades, some tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are now looking to use their knowledge and resources to unlock the code for healthier and longer lives. Billions are being poured into Data- and Tech-Driven Healthcare, Genetics, Prevention and Personalized Supplements.
4. Super Apps & Elon Musk.
A Western Wechat-like super app will appear or be poised to hit the market in 2023. Elon Musk will continue to be unpredictable and possibly implement his X-App super app dream including Doge and Bitcoin payments using Twitter as a base.
5. Smart Everything & IoT
The range of smart IoT devices is growing inexorably. In parallel, voice control, integrations into operating systems, apps and thus into people’s everyday lives are improving. The question “Alexa, where are my glasses?” will finally be possible in 2023.
6. Low code & no code
Again with the help of AI and so-called low-code and no-code apps, but also directly through tools such as ChatGPT, it will be possible for more and more people to program their own applications and apps or to have low-code and no-code apps put them together. Programming and writing applications will thus become accessible and democratized for everyone.
7. Web3, crypto & tokenization
Once again this year, poorly established blockchain projects built on meaningless mountains of money will fail without purpose or traction, and associated tokens will crash into the bottomless pit. Established projects with high usage, good product-market fit, and valid models will nevertheless prevail and continue to grow.
Large blue chip NFT and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether will continue to grow as an alternative investment class and experience large inflows. 2023 will be the year when the first successful decentralized companies gain wider recognition. The inexorable rolling trend towards more decentralization, blockchain, DAO, NFT and tokenization will continue to roll. Much like software and digitization ate and ate the world, tokenization will eat everything bit by bit.
8. Metaverse, Metawork, Avatars, AR and VR
It seems certain to me that very soon we will have well-worn AR and VR glasses on our noses, that after our ears our eyes will be augmented, that we will spend more time in chats, video calls and digital spaces.
In parallel, the importance of our digital profiles and personalities is becoming more important by the day. The importance of our own digital personalities, social media profiles and avatars, and the time we and others spend maintaining and using digital selves, is growing and growing.
Not only moving in virtual 3D worlds, but also the strongly growing degree of use of digital communication, personalities, platforms, tools and worlds should be understood holistically as a metaverse. Where does it begin, where does it end, this metaverse?!