The ICT sector will continue to grow this year, driven by innovations in fields such as Artificial Intelligence, the metaverse and sustainable technologies. As revealed in a recent report published by Gartner, it’s estimated that nearly 4.5 billion dollars will be invested in technology, software and IT services worldwide in 2023, up from the figure of 2.1% in the previous year. Meanwhile, Spain will increase its spending on technology by 3.4%, according to data provided by the IDC consultancy firm.
Therefore, in order to make the right technology-related investment decisions, understanding the ICT trends set to revolutionise the digital universe in 2023 will prove highly useful when it comes to planning the correct strategies and adopting the best tools within any organisation.
Superapps, the ICT supertrend
This concept comes from Asia, especially China. They’re applications that group together a large number of services to enable customers to have a single application with all the functions. The services range from a dedicated space for messaging to an area for bank transfers. They’re gaining prominence among companies, as they increase their competitiveness and promote customer loyalty.
These applications are expected to incorporate more innovative elements such as chatbots, the IoT and metaverse experiences over time. Looking ahead to 2028, according to the data provided by TechSci Research, the superapps market will expand at a rate of more than 23%.
Explosion of the metaverse in the business world
The metaverse isn’t a new idea, but it’s one of the most promising ICT trends in 2023. The virtual world has great potential and it seeks to excel in important fields such as the possibility of changing the way people work, shop and live, all of which will be achieved by means of the creation of virtual spaces capable of blurring physical barriers.
These new universes have brought with them new opportunities and business models that have been reflected in 2022, leading to significant changes in the economic market. These changes are related to the value chain, partner and customer relationships and the sales and cost models associated with products and markets.
The metaverse is a reality and a revolution in terms of connectivity and the digital economy.
Digital twins
Digita twins have been among the most innovative technologies for a number of years and they’re now closely linked to the metaverse and the industrial sector. This technology can not only design sets of digital replicas of elements, spaces and systems so as to obtain more precise products, reduce costs and manage errors. They can also study and simulate procedures, for example, at an industrial plant or in an operating theatre with the aim of adapting them to physical spaces and reality.
This technology makes it possible to change elements in the digital world that are complete and optimised in such a way that improvements can be made to the real-world versions. Without a doubt, this digital development will completely change the way procedures in the construction, aeronautics, health and education sectors are perfected.
MedTech, the revolution in medicine
MedTech, or medical device technology, has become a crucial element for the healthcare services and an economic engine of innovation. According to the data provided by MedTech Europe, the medical technology market will be worth more than 15 billion euros by 2021.
The combination of IoT and MedTech symbolises a major opportunity to overcome challenges and resolve conflicts in today’s healthcare sector with the incorporation of digital technologies such as virtual care, RPA, AI, etc.
Artificial Intelligence and cybersecurity
The ICT trends that will continue to grow this year include Artificial Intelligence or AI. This technology primarily aims to improve the security of data on smart networks and, for this purpose, optimising the security capabilities of smart devices must become a priority for companies.
AI provides cybersecurity solutions with a proactive approach, enables the effective automation of decision-making processes and creates patterns based on incomplete or modified data, as the AI algorithms learn from the data on real threats. This makes it possible to detect dangers more quickly, achieve a smaller margin of error, forecast threats and help cybersecurity experts to generate action protocols.
Blockchain, one of the most secure ICT trends
Thanks to its decentralised model, Blockchain technology eliminates the single control of information and the intermediation of parties and ensures that the veracity of data remains unchanged. Thus, the data are stored in an encrypted and highly secure manner to facilitate the automation of transactions and communications, an undoubted boost for digital identity.
In addition to speeding up verification processes and preventing fraud and cyberattacks, Blockchain is highly efficient, reliable and secure in a wide range of applications. It will therefore be highly important for businesses in the coming years, as it will improve data tracking, produce new billing systems, host patents, monitor sales processes, protect health data and so on.
2023 will be a year full of challenges, but also innovations that will improve the lives of millions of people. And many of these innovations can be found in the leading ICT trends.
