Emerging Technology Innovations to Expect in 2023 and Beyond

Despite ongoing disruptions, technological innovation showed no signs of slowing in 2022. In 2023, organizations will continue to accelerate their digital transformation, striving to drive efficiency gains, improve the user experience, and meet sustainability imperatives.

In a recent article, I shared my predictions on how marketing technology, talent, and tactics will evolve, and I also spoke with my colleagues to get their thoughts on technology trends to be aware of in 2023 and beyond. Here's what to expect.

Quantum - Building the Foundation

After decades-long hype around quantum computing and quantum systems, the industry will start to realize their potential for creating new opportunities in fields spanning cybersecurity, materials creation, financial analysis, and military receivers. Proactive companies will start investing in quantum, fostering quantum talent within the next generation of workers through university partnerships, hackathons, and other projects. This will create an ancillary boost to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives resulting in much-needed diversity in the tech workforce. Recent research revealed that 74% of companies believe they will fall behind if they fail to adopt quantum. As a result, organizations will begin to shift their thinking that quantum is a futuristic technology and start addressing key challenges, including financial resources and operations, and developing real enterprise applications of quantum by 2026, if not sooner.

Electric Vehicles - The Construction Industry Goes Green

While EVs have been associated with climate-conscious consumers to date, expect adoption to come from some surprising sectors by 2025. For example, the construction industry stands to reap numerous benefits from utilizing EVs' excess energy to power machinery that previously required cumbersome generators or numerous extension cords to function.

Software Quality - Sustainability of Testing

Traditional test automation is based on the need to run many fixed tests at defined periods. The execution of each test requires significant computing power and thus has both an energy cost and an environmental impact. With the increase in energy prices and the greater awareness of sustainability, this legacy approach of "non-intelligent" test automation will be replaced by intelligent test optimization - in which the goal is to only run the tests that are known to identify a problem.

6G - New Olympic Sport: The Metaverse

The 2028 Summer Games will welcome 6G to the global stage. As a worldwide Olympic partner, expect Samsung to unveil a 6G deployment, which will be a pivotal part of how viewers consume events. For example, you can expect one of the two opening ceremonies to happen in the metaverse. The metaverse will also feature prominently in the user experience, enabling fans to participate in some Olympic events. We'll also see certain sports and, potentially, eSports run a 6G Metaverse Olympics in parallel with the actual Games, with at least one medal awarded within the metaverse. As brands draw inspiration from the Olympics, there will be a subsequent explosion of 6G use cases throughout 2028.

Product Development - DIY Digital Twins Will Drive Up Recalls

Faster 5G rollouts are accelerating demand and expectations for adjacent advancements in complex technologies like autonomous driving, new distributed IoT applications, and the rollout of metaverse capabilities. Products involving this level of complexity need to meet more compliance and connectivity standards, operate across a much wider range of often unknown conditions, and be backward compatible with other systems that are not yet in the market. As a result, I anticipate that product developers will be tempted to build - known as do-it-yourself, or DIY - vs. buy their digital twins. Those taking DIY shortcuts will be leading the spike in product recalls.

As I stated in Forbes, it's vital that organizations think big and make bold decisions

In conclusion, the year 2023 and beyond promises to be an exciting time for technological innovation. From the adoption of quantum computing to the use of electric vehicles in the construction industry, the development of sustainable software testing, the introduction of 6G technology at the Olympics, and the challenges of product development in a rapidly evolving digital landscape, organizations will need to adapt to stay competitive.

It's crucial for businesses to understand the potential impact of these emerging technologies and to start investing in them now. By doing so, they can gain a competitive edge, drive efficiency gains, improve the user experience, and meet sustainability imperatives.

The world is changing rapidly, and it's up to organizations to keep up with these changes. Those who embrace emerging technologies and make bold decisions will be the ones to thrive in the years ahead.