10 Hot Technology Developments Right Now
Most years, analysts have a hard time picking the hottest technology spots, but the 2023 developments almost all related to one type of technology. Can you guess what it is?
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Since OpenAI released ChatGPT at the end of last year, interest in generative AI has skyrocketed. It is hands down the hottest IT trend of 2023.
Unlike other AI technology, generative AI can analyze unstructured data and create completely new content including audio, video, images, text, code, and much more. As a result, its business applications are nearly endless. McKinsey Digital reports that last year the number of job postings related to generative AI grew by 44 percent, a higher growth rate than jobs related to any other IT trend.
While the technology is still very new and has yet to be implemented by organizations on a large scale, its unique potential for transforming businesses means that generative AI is sure to continue to grow. Forrester analyst Rowan Curran boldly predicts that in 2023, 10% of all employees will be using generative AI.
Probably the most general and overarching IT trend of 2023 is organizations automating business functions to increase productivity.
New AI, machine learning, and other technologies are enabling businesses to automate processes in ways that were once thought to be impossible. This trend has been present for a while but more and more automation is becoming an essential part of any business’ ability to survive and expand.
Retail is one interesting example of a business function outside IT where successful automation could be essential to an organization’s success. Forrester’s Craig Le Clair argues that the retail labor shortage could force the retail industry to depend on automation technology. One example of this is Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” solution where a customer could shop at a store without cashiers.
Next-generation technologies are already beginning to transform the way engineers develop software and open up many facets of software development to employees with fewer technical skills.
Some of the most prominent of these technologies include low-code/no-code platforms, machine learning operations, automated integration, AI pair programmers, and generative AI tools. While it will take time to implement these technologies on a large scale, research suggests they have the ability to significantly raise productivity.
McKinsey Digital reports that job postings related to next-gen software development increased 29% since 2021, even though global job postings declined 13% during the same period.
In recent years engineers have made significant advances in quantum computing technology that are sure to have a significant impact on the IT world.
Quantum computing taps into the laws of quantum mechanics to build computers that can perform with a processing power exponentially higher than classical computers. This enables scientists and engineers to solve problems that are too difficult even for a classical supercomputer.
According to McKinsey, while research and patents in quantum computing have grown substantially in the past five years, the industry has not seen a corresponding rise in attention with news reports, equity investment, and internet searches not increasing very significantly during this period. However, given the enormous potential benefits, it is likely only a matter of time before the trend is paid proper attention.
A cloud-native or cloud-first strategy involves prioritizing the use of cloud-based solutions when it comes to addressing all different facets of an organization’s business operations.
This year, more organizations are implementing this strategy by building, deploying, and managing applications in cloud environments. The benefits of a cloud-native strategy include increased scalability, flexibility, and significant cost savings.
Forrester Analyst Lee Sustar predicts that by the end of 2023, 40% of firms will implement a cloud-native strategy. He sees this as an indication that organizations are moving in a decisive direction toward cloud and that this is just the beginning of the widespread transition.
While cloud computing offers a wide variety of benefits and remains as prominent as every in 2023, it has some significant disadvantages, most notably the long latency time that results from the distance between users and data centers hosting cloud services. Edge computing addresses this problem by processing and computing data close to the actual source rather than at far away data centers.
According to Forrester analyst Michele Pelino edge computing has seen more growth in 2023 because “rising business wide networks, confidential computing, and zero-trust edge (ZTE) will ignite many different edge deployments in 2023.” However, despite the numerous benefits of edge computing, she also warns that an increase in edge computing will lead to increased security risks that organizations must address.
Sustainable technology refers to a wide array of different solutions designed to reduce environmental and ecological risks, improve social outcomes, and comply with governmental regulations. These technologies include renewable energy, analytics, AI, traceability, and many others.
Creating sustainable IT is currently a high priority for organizations because it can help protect and grow their brand and increase revenue by improving overall efficiency. Both McKinsey Digital and Gartner list environmental sustainability among the most important IT trends of 2023. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 50% of CIOs will have performance metrics tied to the sustainability of the IT organization.
Applied observability refers to using directly observable rather than anticipated data to help guide business decisions. This enables enterprises to make faster and more accurate decisions and has also been shown to lead to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Tesla is just one notable example of an organization that has benefited from using applied observability in their business model. Tesla offers customers insurance based entirely on their observable driving behavior rather than on their predicted intentions or based on their anticipated driving behavior in the future. This allows both average and safe drivers to save a significant amount of money on car insurance.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, 70% of organizations that successfully implement applied observability will make decisions faster and gain an advantage over their competitors. This can already be seen in the many organizations that have already implemented applied observability and this is sure to drive more and more organizations to do so in the future.
Researchers are constantly making new breakthroughs in AI technology and companies are looking to take advantage of these advancements by applying them in all sorts of different ways.
Applied AI refers generally to systems that are trained in machine learning to analyze data in order to automate particular activities and solve practical problems. It has been a major trend in the IT world for over 5 years and shows no signs of slowing down in 2023.
According to a survey done by McKinsey Digital the percentage of responding organizations adopting AI went from 20% in 2017 to 50% in 2022. Additionally, the demand for talent in applied AI last year was the highest among all trends reported on by McKinsey.
While the AI boom has brought exciting new opportunities it has also brought new complex challenges.
One of the biggest challenges arises because AI requires new types of trust and security management owing to the unique nature of the new technology. Organizations must grapple with a number of complex legal and ethical issues related to transparency, data privacy, security, and risk before deploying a new AI system. As understanding of AI grows, people become more aware of the risks and challenges associated with it, which makes AI trust, risk, and security management a trend that is sure to continue.
Gartner.com predicts that by 2026 companies that focus on AI transparency, trust, and security will “see their AI models achieve a 50% result improvement in terms of adoption, business goals and user acceptance.”
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While the AI boom has brought exciting new opportunities it has also brought new complex challenges.
One of the biggest challenges arises because AI requires new types of trust and security management owing to the unique nature of the new technology. Organizations must grapple with a number of complex legal and ethical issues related to transparency, data privacy, security, and risk before deploying a new AI system. As understanding of AI grows, people become more aware of the risks and challenges associated with it, which makes AI trust, risk, and security management a trend that is sure to continue.
Gartner.com predicts that by 2026 companies that focus on AI transparency, trust, and security will “see their AI models achieve a 50% result improvement in terms of adoption, business goals and user acceptance.”
Check Out Other InformationWeek Slideshows
As the year begins to draw to a close, technology industry analysts invariably revisit the past 12 months to see what new innovations have taken the market by storm and what trends are likely to stick around into the coming year. They offer plenty of opinions on which hot developments have true staying power and which are little more than buzzwords.
Why does it matter?
For organizations, failing to jump on a trend that offers significant benefits can mean falling behind the competition, leading to declining customer satisfaction and sales. But investing in technology that doesn’t pan out is also risky because the organization could end up losing money. On the other hand, picking the right trend at the right time can lead to substantial financial reward.
For technology vendors, the stakes are even higher. They have to know which features and innovations they need to build into their products and services to keep their customer base happy. And choosing badly could have existential implications.
Investors also need to carefully consider which trends will ultimately be profitable. They want to put money in companies that are pursuing the technologies that will reap the biggest benefits in the long term and avoid startups that burn out quickly.
Most years, it’s difficult to pick which technologies are going to have the biggest impact on the IT landscape. But not this year.
In many ways the technology story of 2023 was all about artificial intelligence. In fact, in this list of hot technology trends, almost all relate in some way to AI. That begs the question of whether we’ll eventually stop calling out AI as a separate thing or if all technology will just incorporate AI in some way.
For now, however, AI is still very much the topic of the moment, as the following slides will highlight.
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