TECHNOLOGY TRENDS 2023 AND BEYOND NIRANJAN GIDWANI CONSULTANT DIRECTOR – TEXUB | MEMBER UAE SUPERBRANDS COUNCIL | CHARTER MEMBER TIE DUBAI | HBR ADVISORY COUNCIL
After at least ten to twelve years of unstoppable growth, the technology industry has been hit harder than others during this economic slowdown.
Soaring inflation in 2022, diminishing ad revenues, new regulations and a covid reset from the last two years have put pressure on financial outlooks across many industries, including the technology sector which now forms the backbone of the new industrial revolution 4.0.
But that has not held back some countries in the region from investing heavily in the industry. Which is a very good sign.
India as well as some of the oil-rich Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE have poured lots of money into technology, as they have major ambitions to diversify their economies. The renewed upgrade in the alliance of these nations is also going to work wonders in terms of business potential over the coming decade.
Some of the major tech trends which will continue to gain momentum in 2023 and beyond are –
AI - The broad application of AI technologies for everything starting from customer experience, studying consumer behavior, planning and procurement, to health sciences, and from farming to space exploration, is rapidly changing our world in superbly positive ways that most of us fail to notice.
However, since AI is probably the most key trend that is changing the way almost all businesses are done, it becomes critical that businesses remain in charge of that change, not just their technology suppliers.
Automating more of businesses will surely remove or redefine the need for some human work. This is one area that would need to be tackled ethically, professionally and sensitively since global population is one the rise, more qualified youngsters are getting into the employment stream, and inflation in 2023 will hurt. The benefits of AI are clearly massive and visible. Care would need to be taken that social problems also are kept in perspective.
The Metaverse – This is a fusion of physical, digital and biological worlds, a new concept of “reality,” and we would be able to experience this reality with all five human senses involved.
Over the years, the metaverse will surely impact all major industries like healthcare, education, real estate, tourism, government services, manufacturing and enterprise.
However, the metaverse could lead to a dramatic increase in the energy consumed by cloud computing data centers, where many metaverse providers will likely choose to host their infrastructure. There will surely be more progress in this area in 2023, but realizing this grand vision will take more time.
Smart devices - We hope to see an evolution in smart glasses and lenses as going forward, the metaverse will be experienced as an overlay of reality, rather than via visiting a gaming platform on our laptops or phones. The hardware is slowly getting there. It might need a disruptor company like Apple to launch their Apple Glasses to force a breakthrough in this hardware segment.
More smart devices in the area of healthcare, medicine and wellness would get introduced. Robotics and AR/VR will also make remote medicine more easy.
Autonomous vehicles and battery operated transportation – these will see rapid development, and will have a similar transformational impact on our society as the Internet had.
Drone deliveries - Just as we are now used to choosing from a variety of payment and delivery options for home delivery, over the next 5-10 years we will see more different modes of transport used to make that delivery.
IoT market – A Great opportunity area which has been around for some years, but unfortunately has become hugely fragmented. This intense fragmentation needs a massive consolidation to generate scale and attain operational profitability
Web 3 -The shift to Web3 is already under way. However, there are key challenges such as interoperability, scalability, regulation, public trust in Web3 and IP issues.
Med-Tech and Bio-Tech are likely to see substantial growth. DNA testing will scale up and new RNA-based vaccines would be researched and made available.
In summary, digital transformation truly is a blue ocean opportunity for every company in the technology space, helping improve products, manpower and processes. The cautionary note here is that overuse of technology is leading to newer forms of physical, mental, eyesight and hearing health issues. If these are proactively factored into the strategy for growth, then overall progress would be more meaningful.
