By Shiva Ramani
The era has arrived of countless digital transformations and innovations. The last few years have demonstrated the need for businesses to adapt to emerging technologies to remain relevant and competitive in the ever-changing, volatile landscape of doing business with ease. Organizations are embracing digital transformation strategies that impact products and services, improve performance, create new revenue streams, improve customer experience, and drive growth. By 2021, a report by IBM states that 56% of companies plan to prioritize digital transformation.
As per IDC, a global marketing intelligence company, global investment into digital transformation will grow at a compound rate of 17.1% per annum. This is expected to reach a staggering $2.3 trillion by 2023. Of all the countries, the biggest spenders in the digital transformation space will be the US, Europe, and China. Financial services (including banking, insurance, security, and investment) will see the highest digital transformation outlay of any industry.
Here are the top 5 digital transformation trends that will shape business in 2023.
AI, AI Everywhere
Come 2023, artificial intelligence (AI) is set to become real. The pace at which organizations across the globe embrace technology is fascinating, at least to say. From automating tasks to creating unique experiences, AI is making processes efficient and trying to fill the skill gap. The technology is set to augment nearly every job in business processes across markets. The original thesis of automation as a way to avoid repeat low end work has given way to AI as a capability to high value tasks, helping Doctors, Lawyers and now Programmers as well to auto complete key tasks. ChatGPT along with its adoption has shown that the time of AI and AI Everywhere is now.
According to a report by IBM, 35% of organizations currently use AI, and 42% are exploring the option. The organizations who have adopted the technology swear by its tenacity of churning out intelligent products and services. The retail market players have already used AI to manage and automate their complex inventory management processes. Going by the trend, the contactless, autonomous shopping segment is next in the queue.
MetaVerse is Set to Become Real
If you believe the experts, 2023 will define the metaverse for the next decade. Also, it will contribute $5 trillion to the global economy by 2030. Developments in Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR) will continue to progress. Companies across the globe are already using AR and VR to conduct training and onboarding, a trend that will see an upward move in the coming year.
However, one segment to watch out for is the work environment. This translates into more immersive meeting environments to brainstorm and co-create together. Another feature to watch out for is the advanced avatar technology. An avatar could look exactly like the real world, and the motion capture feature will enable them to adopt our unique body language and gestures.
Advancement in Web3
With a focus on creating more decentralized products and services, blockchain technology is set to progress significantly in 2023. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are becoming more practical. For instance, by using an NFT ticket to a concert, you can potentially experience the backstage. Moreover, NFTs might become the source of interaction with many digital products and services.
Quantum Progress
A trend to watch out for in 2023. Quantum computing uses subatomic particles to generate new ways of processing and storing information. We are in the global race to develop quantum computing at scale. The technology is expected to create computers capable of operating a trillion times faster than the fastest traditional processors available today.
However, a downside to it is that it could render our current encryption practices useless. In other words, any nation or business developing quantum computing at scale would be able to break the encryption of other countries, businesses, and security systems.
Progress in Green Technology
Controlling carbon emissions to tackle the climate crisis is one of the biggest challenges glaring at the world’s economies today. Therefore, 2023 can expect an increase in buzz around green hydrogen, a new clean-burning energy source that produces close to zero greenhouse gas emissions.
The economies could promote the development of decentralized power grids—a system of small power generators and storage located in communities or individual houses. This system has the potential to democratize power worldwide while decreasing carbon emissions.
(The writer Shiva Ramani is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of iOPEX Technologies. The views expressed in the article are of the author and do not reflect the official position or policy of FinancialExpress.com.)