FACING THE FUTURE
TECH TRENDS FOR 2023
OFFICE OF THE CTO
INTRODUCTION
PAUL BRAY, CTO UK&I
The technology industry continues to transform itself at pace, offering a raft of new opportunities for businesses – whether in the delivery of services to their consumers, or in how they work internally to optimise their processes to be more productive and operationally effective.
Despite the headwinds of 2022, we see it as a year of progress across many of our customer verticals, with ongoing investment in technology being prioritised – particularly in key areas of cyber defence, user experience and network connectivity to cater for the new “hybrid” world of work that we are all coming to terms with.
Given that context, we have drawn on members of our Office of the CTO (OCTO) team in the UK to provide a summary of the past year and some guidance for key topics that will form part of your future planning, or for which you may already be underway with as we enter 2023.
ACROSS OUR TEAM THIS YEAR
engagements with our customers across Technology and Solution topics
of these engagements related to “Maturing” category from our Technology Horizons radar
of engagements covered our “Emerging” category...
...showing that as we adapted to a business as normal mode in 2022, strategic planning was firmly on our customers’ agenda.
TREND 1: EMBRACING INTELLIGENT APPS AND NEXT GENERATION EXPERIENCES
NEIL CANT, SOLUTIONS LEADER
INTERNET OF THE FUTURE
The World Wide Web was conceived on March 12, 1989, by the legendary Tim Berners-Lee. Since then, it has undergone significant evolution from the early static web pages, through to the more dynamic and social content we enjoy today. It is not stopping there, we are now entering the next phase of its evolution, where richer 3D content and more immersive experiences will become prevalent.
So, what will be the future of the Internet? Right now, there is no definitive answer, however “Metaverse” as a concept, and the early scenarios and definitions are starting to be used to describe it.
The Metaverse is still a working concept that will no doubt evolve over the next few years, however early definitions will most likely include the ability for it to be “Interactive, Realtime, 3D, Social and Persistent”. It will not be a single digital place, multiple Metaverses will exist bringing together and exploiting technologies such as Augmented and Virtual Reality. But it will not be exclusive to these technologies, it will also be accessible from smartphones and traditional computing devices, allowing a full and inclusive experience.
2023 AND BEYOND
2023 will see an explosion of enterprise focused immersive and mixed reality headsets, digital avatars and connected devices, which will allow businesses to provide richer, more engaging, collaborative, and captivating experiences for their employees. These shifts in technology will be critical to the future of the Internet and how organisations will evolve their existing Web2.0 paradigm and embrace the new Metaverse principles to provide the services and experience we need for the future.
Whilst the Metaverse is still in its infancy, and elements such as interoperability between Metaverses are not yet established, current trends show significant interest and excitement for these more immersive experiences. It could be easy to see this trend as purely transient and one that will disappear in the next few years; however, we believe that the Metaverse, driven by innovation and modern technologies is the next logical evolution of the Internet as we understand it today.
AI WILL REMAIN ONE OF THE TOP WORKLOADS DRIVING INFRASTRUCTURE DECISIONS THROUGH 2023.
GARTNER PREDICTS THE FUTURE OF AI TECHNOLOGIES, NOVEMBER 2019
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
Artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on our future is not a new conversation, we have all heard about AI for some time now and this technology is becoming more prevalent. There is a good chance you have already encountered AI if you have ever used a smart device at home, they all use AI to answer your questions.
There are many upsides to AI, but the big plus to using AI in the workplace is that it will willingly do the repetitive and mundane tasks that no one really wants to do. Making work for employees easier, making us more productive with less effort.
One element of AI activity in 2023 will be around the augmentation of employees. Although AI will inevitably lead to the disappearance of some types of jobs, new ones will emerge to replace them. Forward-looking employers will be looking at capitalising on this impact whilst also supporting those employees that are impacted, through upskilling and role transitions.
Al may automate some jobs out of existence but, in many cases, AI decision-making tools work best when collaborating with, and augmenting, our capabilities. Employees will need to acquire new skills and adapt to the strengths and limits of any AI system with which they are working. The biggest risk will come to organisations that rely on AI systems will be employing sufficient oversight to ensure appropriate judgements and decisions are being made (an innately subjective matter!). Organisations will need to ensure its employees use their new skills to both complement the insights from AI, but also to know their limitations and when the AI recommendation should be ignored or negated.
No major industry will be spared the impact of AI, some sectors are in their infancy of their AI journey, others are already experts in leveraging this technology. But both have a much longer journey ahead. We believe that AI is already impacting and will continue to have a significant effect on the future of work.
INTELLIGENT CONNECTED WORLD
The intelligent connected world is key to harnessing AI and the Metaverse. It is the underlying network of sensors, devices, and infrastructure that collects the data we need to help build the Metaverse, create Digital Twins, and train AI and intelligent machines. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the very fabric that keeps expanding to include all connected devices we have today. It can be just about any device that we use in our homes, offices, or wear on our body.
There are many ways IoT can impact organisations, one area often referred to is the industrial Metaverse, IoT combined with the Metaverse, and AI has huge implications for the way organisations manufacture goods, provide services, and sell to customers. Smart factories and logistics plants are increasingly automated, and the availability of robotics and smart infrastructure “as-a-service” enable more companies to take advantage of the opportunities this offers. Organisations in 2023 will continue to build smart automation into their business models giving them the ability to benefit from increased efficiency, gaining a data-driven understanding of their operations and processes.
The bridging of the physical world to a virtual world will provide several opportunities for manufacturers, potentially unlocking new revenue streams. Transforming how organisations plan new factories and use these 3D digital twins to simulate business and process change, without the need to impact the physical world at all.
In the near future, in our intelligent connected world, we will be able to experience a truly smart world which integrates systems that were previously operated individually and create powerful new values and opportunities that we have yet to experience.