The Top Five Tech Trends that Every CXO Should Watch Out For in 2023

As 2022 draws to a close, I’d like to look ahead to the coming year. And I’m not the only one: Experts at Gartner have recently published their forecast for the ten strategic technology trends for 2023. In this post, I want to zoom in on five of these trends, which I expect to have the greatest impact on businesses and society – and consider how they can enable CIOs and IT leaders to drive the digital transformation within their companies.?

Trend #1: Digital Immune System

Given the pivotal role of IT in today’s businesses, it’s vital to ensure that mission-critical software and systems remain in robust health. That’s where digital immune systems come in, shielding applications and services against potentially debilitating viruses or cyberattacks and delivering end-to-end security.

Systems of this kind combine various practices and technologies, ranging from software design and development right through to automation and operations. The aim? To make critical applications and services more resilient so that they can rapidly recover from failures – thus improving business continuity. The upshot? According to Gartner, developing digital immunity could help companies decrease costly downtime by an impressive 80%.

Trend #2: Applied Observability

The idea behind applied observability is simple: It’s all about applying observable data in enterprise-wide decision-making in a structured fashion. But while data-driven approaches have clear benefits, many organizations still implement them piecemeal. Consequently, these companies miss out on value and generate inefficiencies. Worse still, when traditional approaches are applied to resolving problems, it may take months or even years to achieve the desired results.

This is where applied observability promises to make a real difference. Building on technologies such as kappa or lambda architectures for real-time analysis, this novel approach can yield faster, more powerful insight. Thanks to cloud computing, advanced analytics can be made available throughout the organization. And the data acquired in this way can be analyzed – for example, by AI – to provide better recommendations faster.

Such is the potential of applied observability that I expect this technology, in combination with innovative architectures, to greatly accelerate decision-making processes, helping companies gain an all-important edge over their competitors.

Trend #3: Wireless Value Realization

As the name suggests, the third of our top-five trends focuses on new, improved services via wireless networks. Here, the key to realizing value is the interplay of disparate wireless technologies within a single infrastructure – enhancing basic communication capabilities and opening up a considerably wider range of applications.

The tasks for which wireless value realization lays a digital foundation include the following:

• Improving location tracking of connected endpoints within the wireless network
• Delivering value-added services, such as vehicle-to-vehicle communications
• Bringing Internet and Internet-of-Things (IoT) connectivity to unconnected regions
• Enabling long-range wireless power transmission

By supporting use cases such as these, wireless is transitioning from being purely a communications technology to become a platform for much wider-ranging digital innovation.

Trend #4: Adaptive AI

In contrast to conventional AI, adaptive AI involves continuously retraining machine learning models using techniques such as reinforcement learning. In an ever-changing world, the adaptive approach allows models to revise their own code, enabling them to adjust rapidly to circumstances that weren’t known or couldn’t be foreseen when the original code was written.

When combined with decision intelligence systems, adaptive AI supports insights based on up-to-the-minute data – resulting in better decisions that take into account the very latest developments. This makes adaptive AI ideal for continually changing environments and minimizes the risk of decision intelligence systems becoming outdated or obsolete.

Trend #5: Sustainable Technology

Technology is the driving force behind today’s business and society – and, as such, it consumes vast quantities of energy. In light of recent global developments, it’s becoming increasingly important for organizations to optimize associated costs, energy performance, and asset utilization.

While new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and quantum computing undoubtedly hold considerable potential, they’ll also add to existing energy needs. Small wonder, then, that CIOs are increasingly expected to deploy dedicated performance metrics to measure the sustainability of their organization.

Investing in sustainable technology can bring operational and financial benefits. But the aim here isn’t simply to make technology itself more sustainable; we also have to use technology to make businesses and society more sustainable.

Tech may be a major energy consumer, but it also provides many solutions that help our society tackle its energy challenges. Technologies such as smart building systems, robotics, and digital twins – to name just a few – can help organizations increase their efficiency while reducing their carbon footprint.?

A Taste of Things to Come

I hope that this brief taster of my top-five tech trends for 2023 has whetted your appetite. During the coming year, I’ll be revisiting each of these technologies, looking into the challenges they address, and spotlighting the benefits they have to offer.

In the meantime, if you have any thoughts on these or any other tech trends, feel free to share them in the comments section.

And Finally…

As another year ends, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a relaxing, enjoyable, and safe holiday season. I wish you all the very best for the coming year and look forward to seeing you here again in 2023.