Information Technology Trend Watch

Foundry reports that 91% of CIOs expect to maintain or increase their tech budgets through the next year. Technologies driving these investments include data analytics, AI, and other means to improve the customer experience, as enterprises seek to drive new revenue to modernize legacy environments. Security and risk management also top the list for most CIOs this year, while developers are skilling up in cloud, blockchain, and machine learning.

• Technology supply chains will remain a critical concern, and to avoid major delays in digital product launches, decision makers will push for quantifiable outcomes from their cloud providers, invest in supply chain intelligence, and adopt multi-sourcing strategies.

Many countries and businesses are attempting to diversify supply chains to mitigate the shortages still being experienced post-COVID. Add to that the labor shortages in many industries and regions, and 2023 is seeing growing use of AI and robotics as many industrial processes become more automated.

• Robotics process automation is already playing a major role in commercial manufacturing and logistics, and the year ahead will see increased use of adaptive AI as decision-making is becoming more connected, contextual, and continuous.
• AI, robotics and drone technology will also push innovation in the agricultural sector for large farming operations and urban greenhouse projects, automating processes such as weeding, fertilizing and harvesting and pushing the industry into more sustainable and efficient operations.

As sustainability and clean energy technology become a key focus and businesses and governments around the world evaluate clean energy source generation, including solar, wind, and hydropower, battery technology will become more important to store this energy. Additionally, AI-based power management will be trending upward in order to manage power consumption for many commercial, industrial and mission-critical data center buildings.

Advancements in rocket-launch service technology has pushed the development of mega-constellations in Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) to make satellite-based internet widely available globally. Last year, SpaceX’s Starlink launched more than 3,500 satellites in LEO to create the world’s largest constellation, making satellite-based broadband internet available in more than 40 countries with more than 50 million subscribers worldwide. In the year ahead, expect rapid global progress in the creation of constellations and satellite-based internet.

IT leaders are increasingly improving business outcomes on the intelligent use of data, and as industries rely more and more on data, large machine simulation power will be critical.

• Quantum computing hardware and software development will be a major focus for large-scale data analysis and simulation.
• Millions of times faster than supercomputers, quantum computers can help address growing industry needs, providing great leaps forward in cancer research, DNA analysis, space exploration, nuclear simulation and safety, and autonomous driving.
• Organizations that can successfully act on their data insights will thrive, embracing the latest data mining, data analysis, and analytical tools to avoid being mired in an Excel conundrum.

Yet another trend for the year ahead is organizations rationalizing the technology estate, addressing tech debt and reallocating resources toward building more powerful, lower maintenance systems. Many organizations have added cloud-based services to their portfolios yet have been reluctant to retire many of the legacy systems these new tools were meant to replace, creating a complex web of redundant applications and systems. There is an industry-wide push to rationalize the tech estate to reduce unnecessary cost and maintenance and minimize security risk.

• Establishing trust in automation is critical to tech success and will require a greater focus on the dynamics of human/organizational behavior in initiatives where automation plays a major role. Salesforce predicts at least 80% of organizations worldwide will move toward hyper-automation to optimize productivity and improve customer satisfaction.

A top priority for tech leaders in 2023 will be leveraging technologies that will allow the enterprise to move faster and nimbler with a significant focus on cost optimization via technology. The challenge is finding ways to achieve these goals in an era of constricted budgets.