The pandemic was a before and after in managing companies and technology and marked business trends and developments for this decade. Digitization was forced, but we left the digital transformation of our organizations pending. It also changed the rate of change more than Moore’s Law predicted. So, if you want to be included, find out what the business trends will be for 2023.
Supply chain problems, a shortage of semiconductors, inflation, or a lack of labor will mark this year. And while the economic downturn will be tempered by the business bonanza in the tech world, we are sure it will be a year of significant innovations, and a powerful wave of technological change is coming. Let’s discover the main business trends for 2023:
1. From digitization to digital transformation
Digital transformation is a fact, and companies must be aware of it. How to do it? The first measure should be training employees to learn new skills and get them out of their comfort zone.
No matter how much investment is made in technology or automated processes, it will only be able to face digital transformation if the organization is prepared.
And what generally happens is that we dedicate ourselves to digitizing and incorporating technology. Still, we need to face true digital transformation. This complex and lengthy process implies taking advantage of technology to change and renew the organization and prepare it for a BANI world. (Anxious, Non-Linear, Brittle, and even incomprehensible). That is what the actual digital transformation is designed for, to create liquid organizations that adapt to everything like water and that are also agile in the face of change and adapt to everything.
2. Web 3.0 goes mainstream
Web 3.0 is the third generation of Internet services for web pages and applications. It will use machine-based data insights to provide a data-enabled Semantic Web. The goal of Web 3.0 is to create more intelligent, connected, and open sites using technologies such as Blockchain, AI, or Metaverses to improve the experience and amplify it.
The implementation of technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, NFTs, DeFi, blockchain, and more, will make us change the way we navigate the Internet; for this reason, little by little, websites will be transformed, and it will be an excellent opportunity for new entrepreneurs who find how to improve what already exists. In addition, training in Web 3.0, Metaverses, and NFTs will also be a great opportunity this year for professionals.
Blockchain Hand Decentralization
It is the basis of web 3.0. It allows disintermediation and transparently facilitates interoperability. Furthermore, it enables the creation of decentralized applications Daps, DAOS, and DeFi decentralized finance and decentralized metaverses like Decentraland.
NFTs: the assets or “digital assets” arrive.
For a digital immigrant, it is difficult to understand the value of something digital but ask your children what Robux or Fortnite turkeys are and why they spend it on digital things that are incomprehensible to you.
Well, it is what it is and what is to come because if a bag is sold for $3,000 or the love of an influencer for an obscene amount, everything can be sold. And think about it coldly, how many times have you seen on TV that a piece of art was sold for an indecent price, and you thought it was rubbish? Well, it’s the same, and the best thing is an industry that already moves 189 million euros.
Tokenomics
Both fungible and non-fungible assets, “NFTs,” can be tokenized. This allows for streamlining transactions and B2B2C2C operations. This will be reflected in new business forms where the blockchain regulates transactions and helps speed up specific verification processes, such as a patent or a title deed of a property, which will be divided into small pieces making it accessible, flexible, and cheaper investment in real estate, artistic and digital assets for all. As a result, new companies and business models will appear in this line.
Metaverses
This is one of the most popular technology and business trends of 2023. Of course, the metaverse is nothing new. However, the merger of this technology with web 3.0 will change how we do things and interoperate economically. In addition, it will boost the creative economy through NFTs.
We are sure that Meta has hit the nail on the head and will have a particular advantage in this new market where little by little, we will be replicating everything that exists in the conventional world, and that is where NFTs come in. Can you imagine paying for a steak in the metaverse? Well, don’t imagine it, enjoy it shortly.
Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more reliable.
Artificial intelligence is a set of numerous technologies that offer solutions to increasingly complex problems. Some of the technologies with significant influence on the development of formative intelligence in 2023 will be AI-aided design, AI-augmented development, ontologies, and graphs, «small data,» composite AI, and generative AI, among others.
Artificial intelligence already flows strongly through our lives, and the recent events that occurred with the opening of GPT3 by OpenAI have revealed to the public the power of this technology and how much it can make life easier for us.
But this was the past, and AI will start to flow through our lives as electricity did, and it will undoubtedly be the biggest revolution for companies because it will be applied to everything.
Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality
Other business innovation trends to watch out for are virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. Virtual reality immerses the individual in an environment, while augmented reality enlarges the users’ territory, and mixed reality combines both.
Businesses are expected to use this trend more in their marketing strategies to make more substantial and lasting connections. As the world adjusts to the constraints of the new normal, AR can play quite a role in our daily interactions.
Some studies say that half of the consumers are willing to pay more for a product if it offers the experience of augmented reality or mixed reality, such as Ikea does with its solution to see how a piece of furniture looks in a space.
3. Economy of time
The economy of the internet revolution of the late 90s went from being decentralized by TCP/IP technology to users allowing companies like Google or Facebook to centralize it and dominate the world. These companies have dedicated themselves to stealing our time, creating absurd applications like Instagram and using neuromarketing techniques so that we stick to the screen like a hard drug or as the English did with the colonization of Indochina with Opium.
And they earn money with our time, and we are the best worker, without a contract, social security, or rights, and meanwhile, they get rich while they steal our lives. Decentralization will turn time into a new currency. Although it has yet to develop fully, there are already browsers that pay you to use them or play to earn games that pay us for our time or digital schools that pay students and teachers to teach and learn.
4. Industry 4.0, IoT, RPA, and Intelligent Robotics
Robots take over everything; we no longer want humans working because robots are more efficient and don’t complain. And if they are not robots, they are automated programs that perform work routines with software that automates day-to-day tasks, the «Robot Process Automation» or Automation of Robotic Processes.
Automation of Robotic processes
RPA (Robotic Process Automation) solutions have been the great unknown of business automation. His approach proposes a different approach to automating processes because he no longer intends to change them but to automate them. It is not intended to address all processes, just one. However, it is an approach that, throughout the year, will allow valuable results to be obtained, not just monetary ones.
Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G
Another of the business trends for the coming years is the Internet of Things and 5G. Although in recent years, we have already witnessed how, through related applications, more efficient and intelligent information and knowledge networks are created. This technology will begin to reach its full potential in embracing 5G.
With the long-awaited arrival of 5G, a world of opportunities opens for a hyper-connected world. The data we will manage will be enormous and allow us to develop innovative solutions and improve management to a level never dreamed of.
Smart Companies
In 2023 we will see the explosion of automation combined with robotics, remote driving, and autonomous and solar vehicles, all managed with artificial intelligence and fed with lots of data. This converges in creating Smart Hospitals, Smart Universities, Smart Factories, or intelligent and fully automated Farms. Something that, by the way, has already existed since the 20th century in dairy farming, if you go any further.
Digital assistants with voice
Throughout this year, many people have needed to feel accompanied. For this reason, the desire to be attended will be essential during the next few years. Digital assistants will come to us. We can see them everywhere. Most likely, manufacturers will succeed in developing voice user interfaces with advanced emotion recognition and transfer capabilities. In addition to accompanying people, companies can use them to increase customer satisfaction.
At the same time, the neural systems for reproducing speech and text will not let us doubt whether the person speaking to us is a person or a program.
Today’s chatbots are more advanced thanks to artificial intelligence and are becoming more human-like. Now they are better suited to converse with customers as representatives of the company, offering more speed and efficiency.
Chatbots
Due to the growth of machine learning, chatbots have become extremely popular in small and large businesses. Chatbots are typically used in customer service. They are a set of immediate responses in chats or web pages that help to resolve doubts. They are simulations of conversations with more receptive, intelligent, and human conversational agents.
With the irruption of ChatGPT, we have achieved something that does nothing that was not done before. However, it must be recognized that it does it very well and has attracted the attention of the whole world. It is beginning to be understood that artificial intelligence and machine learning are business technologies that will transform how we work and do business.
Going to the highest level of sophistication, robots will acquire the ability to communicate commonly and inclusively with us, being a revolution in assisting the elderly or working at home.
Business datafication
Companies will satisfy everything, which will help make processes much more efficient.
We are often still determining why we save the data, but we know that one day, it will be helpful to you. The future will be data, and whoever has the data will dominate the market.
We will also satisfy companies to govern them based on data effectively and efficiently}}in what is known as «Data Driven Management.»
So that you know an example of the application of the data, we can talk about People Analytics, which consists of selecting personnel based on the data analytics of your best employees.
A generic profile is established by obtaining information from the history of your employees. With the pattern obtained, algorithms are created that can help you select better, prevent abandonment, or anticipate a «burnout.»
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity will continue to be a technological trend in 2023. As companies advance in digitization and address digital transformation, their systems are more valuable and, therefore, must be protected against cyberattack exposure.
If we look at the map of cyberattacks, more crimes are being perpetrated in the digital world than in the physical one. This is because we increasingly have more digital assets: databases, software, tokens, or money in electronic banking.
We must remember that the identities and devices of teleworkers must be reinforced with cybersecurity.
For this reason, Cybersecurity will continue to be «trending» during 2023, and it continues to be a great job. Entrepreneurship opportunity and training in cybersecurity is one of the best options for you this year.
5. A new type of organization and the Future of Work
Digital transformation is both technological and organizational, and culture is part of the technological trends in 2023.
How should companies be?
- Companies and people must put their purpose first.
- They must be agile and liquid.
- People-centered.
- We are in the cloud.
- What should leaders be like?
- They must have rapid and continuous learning.
- Have advanced digital skills.
- Creativity in management
- Culture transformation
On the other hand, the benefits of the cloud are becoming evident. From the first moment, the pandemic emerged, and we began to telework, those companies that were already using the cloud could react quickly to the situation and move forward in the face of the uncertainty that was being experienced. For this reason, during the next few years, the use of a cloud will be paramount and one of the most important trends. Flexibility and agility are one of the reasons why using a cloud is recommended.
Teleworking and decentralization
Workers have grown accustomed to the benefits of working remotely, and this is creating tensions between companies and their employees. Unfortunately, not all companies have been able to adapt to teleworking and are looking for formulas that balance teleworking with face-to-face.
However, there is no doubt that teleworking is here to stay and will coexist with new hybrid forms of collaboration.
Those companies that correctly adopt teleworking and know how to manage the organization remotely will have significant competitive advantages, although there will also remain challenges to face. Hybrid solutions in the medium term will make it possible to solve the problems that teleworking causes in some workers and companies.
Future of Work: towards a better world
According to the World Economic Forum, by 2025, 50% of jobs will be carried out by machines. Companies are aware of its benefits, so they will put the fifth gear into applying these technologies to their business production processes.
From now on, all work that can be automated will be automated, and all low-value jobs will disappear. Assignments will not be lost; they will be transformed.
Robotics and artificial intelligence are beginning to be felt in the loss of low-skilled jobs. As a result, the less privileged classes suffer and will start to be unpopular with them.
It will undoubtedly be a negative aspect in the short term. It will surely bring more than one general strike in the working world due to the number of jobs lost with the application of automation and artificial intelligence. But we are sure that employment is neither created nor destroyed; it is only transformed, so we will finally see how the future of work is rosy, and we have nothing to worry about, or rather, not so much. Technology is driving us headlong into higher productivity and shorter hours to compensate for job losses, so we hopefully predict an optimistic future.
4.-Business Sectors that will be a trend in 2023
Golden Economy
We grow old, and each time, we will live longer. But getting old is not easy; we see it in our elders, and we don’t want to spend our lives working to end our last days badly.
The attention in this sector is growing due to the large volume of business it represents and because it will probably be the sector that produces the most in the developed world. In addition, the needs of older people who are increasingly taking care of themselves and do not want to be dependent are getting older. They will also invest in prevention solutions and keep an eye on biotechnology and digital health developments. Because why not? Maybe soon, instead of getting old, we can start to rejuvenate,
Health-tech economy
Research in prevention and cell regeneration is advancing faster than we imagined. In addition, it is no longer only in the hands of hospitals and doctors. Still, mathematicians in startups improve our lives with solutions focused on longevity, quality of life, diabetes, cancer, prevention and genetics, women, etc.
Without going any further, the other day, I bought an NFT that promised you eternal life by synthesizing your intelligence in a computer and, perhaps in the future, when society advances, resurrecting you in a bionic body as happened in «Altered Carbon.» If it sounds like a joke to you, it seemed like it to me too, but it exists.
So, if you want to create a next-generation company and compete in a vast market, you may have a problem in mind that you can solve and start making the next Latin unicorn right now.
Biotech, Martech, Traveltech and Edtech
Now we put Tech into everything, and we create a new sector. Still, sectors such as biotechnology, technology applied to marketing and business, investment in the digital transformation of the tourism sector -so crucial for many countries- and educational technology are sectors that will remain buoyant after the pandemic.
Sustainability will be a trend in companies in 2023.
Sustainable development goals are increasingly taking root in companies and consumers who are becoming aware of the need to care for the planet on which we live. Energy efficiency, investment in renewable energy, and getting closer to the zero-carbon goal are no longer something we need to do to convince our clients of how «cool» we are. Still, it is also profitable for the organization.
Renewable energy
The hope of getting a cheap and abundant energy source is getting closer. Controlled hydrogen fusion was recently achieved, and there is less to perform on a large scale, an estimated ten years. But in the meantime, the need to have energy autonomy from oil or gas producers means that companies investing in developing sustainable energy will be in fashion during 2023. And the massive adoption of this technology at home will boost its development.
Now it’s your turn to get the most out of these business technology trends for 2023. Suppose you want to take your company to another level or train to be a manager that changes the world. We present our Online MBA for management technology and digital companies in that case.