Tech predictions for 2023 - AI/ML, cyber security

As Steve Jobs said - ‘Let’s go invent tomorrow instead of worrying about what happened yesterday.’ Advancements, inventions, and improvements in the technology world is progressing at breakneck speed. It takes a lot for our modern workforce and enterprises to keep up with the pace of technology. Geo-political and macroeconomic factors have an impact on tech trends as well.

At this very moment, certain economies around the world are either in a state of recession or on the path of slowdowns. Global wars are continuing with no end in sight, and with winters underway, oil and energy prices can shake the fundamentals of nations. Several countries are hit by severe political instability, and lest we forget the pandemic is not yet behind us. There has been significant change in the supply and demand of talent as well. If you recall, there was a period popularly known as ‘The Great Resignation’, followed by a period of unrealistic demand and thereby inflated cost of talent.

Very recently, we have begun seeing considerable reduction in the workforce, across several global firms. Add to this, the complexities associated with remote work. Another important factor is the proliferation of the internet and mobile devices, where the rollout of 5G will further accelerate its usage and associated applications. These macro factors can have its say on speed, quality, and cost of innovation.

When I look forward to 2023, I feel cost will be a major factor - value for money, combined with creative and incremental innovation, without compromising on stability, is going to be the key. Businesses will need to conserve and preserve cash, while making progress on key offerings without having stability issues or application/security outages. Have a future-ready and stable workforce, including a good pipeline of talent from top tier universities, can be potent combination for success.

My top picks for 2023 tech trends, would be:

AI and ML will finally enter mainstream – AI & ML is the blue-eyed wonder boy waiting in the wings for his chance to make it to the playing squad. Come 2023, with the several offerings by various cloud providers and other open-source platforms, enterprises and engineering teams will finally start integrating AI & ML into the heart and soul of their functional offerings.

At the same time, it would be better to err on the side of caution to not overdo it either. As Stephen Hawking said - ‘Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.’

Cyber security and criticality of security – Cyber security incidents have been on the rise over the past few years. With several enterprises shifting their strategy to public clouds or multi clouds – the focus on secure ecosystems and secure code is also at an all-time high. In addition, if you consider the cost and legal aspects, enterprises will want to have this under complete control. Advanced tool usage and tighter integration into the development lifecycles using modern CI/CD toolsets will become the norm.

Low code, no code, to cloud functions – Low code and no code offerings have been very attractive to the small enterprises, start-ups and companies that leverage this offering very competitively. However, the large enterprises have banked more on their global talent focusing on customized and personalized development, leveraging paid and/or open-source offerings. Irrespective of size of the organization, the shift to use more cloud functions is imminent.

It helps them run their code in the cloud with no servers or containers to manage- with very scalable, pay-as-you-go functions as a service (FaaS). This flexibility, speed and modern architecture will accelerate the use of cloud functions. Hopefully, the developer fraternity see it as a better developer experience and the speed of deliverables should start looking north as well. The customer and market will benefit with the speed to market and innovative solutions.

In addition to the above, I would also bet big on:

• Rapid evolution of the Metaverse
• IoT will become more accessible and mainstream
• 5G rollout in developing nations will accelerate innovation and more startups will play in this space
• Electric vehicle manufactures will invest a lot more resources on research and patents
• Autonomous and ADAS systems will become more cost efficient, and will roll out in lower segments as well
• With cost a factor for 2023, several products in cloud cost optimization and management will take center stage.

As Stewart Brand said, “Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road.” This means all enterprises will want to stay ahead of the game and keep a certain part of their roadmap dedicated for Technology Transformation. Technology will continue to play a pivotal role in the evolution of nations, economies, enterprises, and start-ups. So may these tech trends blossom and bloom and will help mankind move forward. Best wishes for a cracking tech year ahead.

-- Monish Matthias, Senior Director of Software Engineering, Sabre.