The new year has arrived, and it’s time to start picturing what it’ll look like. Somehow predict what tech trends we’ll be talking, reading, or thinking about. That’s why I’ve compiled some trends that will take a leading role this year, according to experts.
Artificial Intelligence
We start every single year discussing how artificial intelligence will soon conquer the world. And although I’m a techie, I don’t go around saying that AI will save or destroy us all.
But I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by DALL-E 2, MidJourney, and the conversational algorithms like ChatGPT that emerged in late 2022. It’s not often that we encounter such revolutionary technologies. It happened with broadband, the first iPhone, social media, and a couple of other times. And that’s it.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT and DALL-E, has said that we’ll soon see tremendous benefits and that they will make ChatGPT “look like a boring toy.” Sounds promising.
web3
After the downfall of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto world is going through a rough patch. But there are some fantastic blockchain-based technologies out there that have nothing to do with token prices or finance. Instead, they seek decentralization and want to provide greater power to users —taking some away from big companies.
That’s web3, the vision for a completely new internet that, as I said, will offer more power to users. It will supposedly allow us to walk away from the current model, where the internet is sort of “owned” by a small group of companies.
Why web3? The first iteration of the web was basically a read-only platform where users could access static websites, read them, and then head somewhere else. The second version of the web gave users more power, allowing them to create content and share it on different platforms. Blogs and social media are some clear examples. But the platforms where we publish our content still belong to a couple of big companies. Web3 goes a step further, enabling fully decentralized platforms that leverage blockchain to offer people control over their content.
Cleantech
One thing’s certain: People are increasingly concerned about the environment and strive to pollute as little as possible. And many tech companies, including some of the big guys, are supporting those efforts by attempting to reduce their carbon footprint.
“There are two megatrends, decarbonization and technological disruption,” said Rober Altes from BBVA Open Innovation. “The entrepreneurial ecosystem is the protagonist of the sustainable revolution,” he added.
These trends will probably continue to evolve during 2023. This explains why electronic mobility has gained such a major role or why companies like Tesla have grown so much recently.
Foodtech
Ventures related to food production and management have also boomed. These startups seek to solve one of humanity’s biggest issues: Hunger. Today, between 720 and 811 million people experience hunger, and this figure is expected to reach 2 billion by 2050.
Foodtech startups are closely linked to a global movement that seeks to raise food and health awareness and has grown in popularity in recent years.
The initiatives carried out by these startups range from energetic efficiency, lab-grown meat solutions, solar energy, and water purification to carbon compensation and much more.
Metaverse
The metaverse isn’t shaping up to be what we expected. Things are going relatively slow, most projects have a long-term vision, and the only big Silicon Valley player who seems willing to die on that hill is Mark Zuckerberg. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any progress. In fact, experts believe this technology will add $5 billion to the global economy by 2030.
Some elements of the metaverse are expected to become a reality by 2023, allowing not only early adopters and tech fans to enjoy them but also “ordinary people.”
And many companies are working on this. Apart from Meta, which has pretty much bet its future on this technology, Microsoft and Nvidia are developing metaverses that will allow users to work collaboratively online. They attempt to replace traditional offices, which have already become a thing of the past for many companies.
