The year 2022 was all about 5G launch and increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by companies. In 2023, while 5G will drive technology innovations, the focus will also remain on leveraging AI for authentic cybersecurity solutions, improving smartphone tech, disaster management solutions and easy use of Internet by the masses, among others.
With regards to 5G, experts say that its monetisation from the retail consumers will take time as the telcos would largely try to recoup some of their investments by integrating their 5G solutions for enterprises. Industries like manufacturing, healthcare, automobiles are expected to see some advancements related to 5G use in the coming year, experts said.
In the healthcare segment, Airtel and Apollo Hospitals recently conducted 5G-based trials to detect colon cancer. Similarly, for supply chain automation, 5G can be used to automate vehicle-to-vehicle communication. In the automobile sector, the health of vehicles can be detected easily and faster using AI and 5G’s low-latency.
Also read: Consumer durable cos to drive double-digit growth in 2023, backed by demand for premium & feature-led products
“No one in the world has been able to find a killer app that will help them monetise the 5G technology especially for retail consumers. On the enterprise side, we will start pitching 5G solutions bundled with the current enterprise offerings,” an official at a telco said, adding that with 5G penetration, PlayStation will lose its importance and gaming will be one of the biggest use case for consumers in time to come.
In 2022, the adoption of AI by companies globally has more than doubled since 2017. In India, Big Tech companies like Google are also working on a line-up of innovations with changing digital needs of the country and the glimpse of that was shown by Google in 2022.
The company’s initiatives around making internet accessible for masses in their native language, remote sensing technology for crop disease monitoring and better agriculture outcomes, AI model to identify and highlight medicines within handwritten prescriptions, cross-language search technologies, speech recognition, etc, will see expansion in the upcoming year.
“We are excited to launch concerted efforts with AI to democratise this opportunity and solve for languages, security and transformation of scaled sectors such as agriculture and healthcare,” said Sanjay Gupta, country head and vice president of Google India.
When it comes to ‘Made-in-India’ technology, the government’s telecom research and development organisation Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) was in the limelight in 2022, especially with the development of indigenous 4G stack for state-owned BSNL to launch 4G services.
Also read: Manufacturers and exporters urge the Textile Ministry to set up a textile wet processing park in Karur
In 2023, C-DoT along with its industry partners is also expected to commercially launch full-fledged 5G stack, including radio and core equipment, for which the government has already received queries from other countries for its use.
“Besides the expansion of 5G, our focus next year will be on the development of a national firewall to strengthen cybersecurity solutions, having software intelligence to mitigate the impact. We will also work on phase-II for expanding our disaster management real-time alert solutions and integrate that with railways, more broadcasters, and even social media companies,” Pankaj Kumar Dalela, director at C-DoT, told FE.
For 5G penetration, smartphone pricing and features are going to be crucial next year. Keeping in mind the market sentiment, the companies’ focus will remain on phone displays, battery and cameras with AI capabilities.
“Smartphones are not just about utility today, they are about entertainment. The key things for 5G penetration next year will be better displays and batteries along with reasonable price of smartphones especially in the sub-20K segment,” said Prachir Singh, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research.
In 2022, when people upgraded to 5G phones, they had to compromise on the display and features even while paying a higher price, largely due to higher input costs for smartphone brands. For example, if the consumers were getting OLED displays in 4G phones, they got LCD display in their 5G phones in the similar price segment.
According to Singh, the companies are going to focus on value for money for consumers in the sub-20K 5G smartphone segment next year, whereas in premium segments, the focus will be mostly on improving user interface, camera and displays.
As India aims to become a $1-trillion digital economy by 2025, the balance between innovations and regulations will also be in focus next year onwards. The government is looking to bring into effect three important bills – new telecom, data protection and Digital India next year.
While regulations for a safer and open Internet are important, some experts believe that the same should not affect the process of innovations by Big Tech and startups.
“While the market currently has some dominant ‘Big Tech’ players, the emergence of new technologies and innovation by smaller players have an important role in encouraging the industry at large to formulate new ideas and improve quality for enhanced user experience. Therefore, it’s important to strike a balance to ensure opportunities for new entrants. At the same time, the law should evolve with new technologies and remain technology neutral to the extent possible,” said Harsh Walia, partner at Khaitan & Co.