5 Tech Predictions going into 2023

1. Crypto will continue its decline.

Cryptocurrency has no real value beyond what people are willing to pay. Bitcoin has seen a 70% drop over the past year. This decline will continue in 2023 as the buzz and excitement over cryptocurrencies continue to wane.

Crypto enthusiasts will continue to make claims about the potential of blockchain and how it will disrupt existing systems, but with no real change since its inception in 2009, the market is tired of waiting for a real use case.

2. Transitional Apps will become the dominant website technology

Transitional apps merge the best of server-rendered websites and single-page applications (SPA) into a system that can elegantly handle content-heavy SEO-optimized pages and highly interactive experiences. The current SPA frameworks are quickly adopting transitional techniques while new frameworks (Svelte-Kit, Astro, Remix, etc.) are gaining headlines and market share.

It will become the default approach for new ecommerce implementations as they have requirements of both content pages and interactivity, but by the end of the year, it will be the default for most new web projects.

The final name for this trend is not solidified, while transitional apps or transitional websites have some momentum, expect additional terms to be invented and applied to this next wave of website technology.

3. Edge Computing will grow and diversify

2023 will be a breakout year for edge computing. As a core component of transitional apps and better tooling in popular frameworks, it will become a standard for new website deployments. Edge computing will be adopted across the market, especially in enterprise applications. With the expansion, we will see diversification in what is defined as the edge. Currently seen as simple functions deployed to a CDN’s infrastructure, expect to see industry-specific definitions handling different requirements from telecommunications to data orchestration.

4. The definition of Web3 will become even less clear

While web2 and other trends were named after disrupting their space and their impact understood, Web3 is a term that has been forced on the market through buzz and evangelism. The proponents of Web3 have a vested interest in its success due to its connection with cryptocurrencies. As a result, the definition of web3 continues to morph to include any trendy technology from AR/VR to machine learning.

Blockchain-based web applications will not be adopted this year, but expect the term Web3 to be attributed to any exciting new technology released this year.

5. Composable Commerce will dominate new projects

Companies will adopt composable commerce in large numbers this year, even with fears of recession and some companies avoiding new software projects, the benefit composable commerce brings is too large to ignore.

The mass adoption will cause marketing and sales teams to leverage the term for their specific solution. Expect to see monolithic platforms claim to be composable as they have plugins, APIs, or a handful of integrations. Companies with single-purpose offerings will leverage the term without consideration for integrations, a key component to being composable. An attempt will be made to tie the term composable commerce to barely related buzzwords like headless, MACH, and DXP. While the definition of Composable Commerce has been well defined, in 2023 we will see the old guard in ecommerce blurring the definition to dupe companies into purchasing monolithic applications.

This pattern will be adopted outside of commerce under different terms including Composable Enterprise, Composable Architecture, API Economy, and more. Regardless of naming convention most companies, especially those with a technical team or understanding, will consider adopting this approach.