As organisations move to adapt through emerging technologies while protecting themselves against potential risks, global IT research and advisory firm Info-Tech Research Group released its annual technology report highlighting seven data-driven trends and findings CIOs must anticipate in the next year.
According to Info-Tech’s 2023 Tech Trends report, the global trends reflect the current and emerging priorities within the APAC technology sector.
“In these uncertain times, it’s essential for IT leaders to understand the trends in order to be prepared to capitalize on new opportunities for their respective organisations,” Info-Tech APAC’s Senior Managing Partner David Banger said.
Brian Jackson, Research Director and one of the principal research leads for the 2023 Tech Trends report, stated that the report considers how leaders can explore new technologies while preventing or mitigating the risks.
“Our research insights expand on the previous year’s trends, focusing on how IT can enhance existing capabilities and create new ones while simultaneously considering the volatility of a world dealing with several major crises,” he said.
The findings of the research are said to help CIOs in their duty to enhance existing capabilities and create new ones while protecting the organisation from continued and expected volatility.
One of the seven trends and findings identified in the report is the emergence of the Metaverse. Info-Tech’s report stated that the metaverse is a convergence of mixed reality, artificial intelligence, immersive digital space, and real-time communications that stack together to create metaverse experiences.
While the use of metaverse for hybrid work is still a far-away concept, some technology leaders have been wondering if they should be scaling up or enact a widespread organisational adoption of such technology.
Another emerging trend is the use of Generative AI to create new content or interpret complex signal information.
According to Info-Tech, AI will receive the most net-new investment by organisations by the end of 2023, with 35% of organisations indicating they have already invested in it and 44% planning to invest next year.
This, along with the growing use of Generative AI, indicated that more AI models can be made to generate content that is similar to what people would create.
Industry-led data models were also found to be an emerging trend in the coming year. Info-Tech’s report shows a rise in investment towards data lake (or lakehouse) and data fabric or mesh, with both seeing a 5% increase in organisations who are planning to invest in 2023.
Since these platforms facilitate better access to enterprise data and enable real-time reporting, most organisations will be developing their own data analysis via in-house staff and data analytics tools.
However, the report warns that organisations who are keen to build the tools themselves may miss opportunities to gain the best-in-class approaches honed by technology vendors.
The report also revealed the emergence of sustained digital processes, as many organisations still continue to invest in digitalising tasks and processes. Survey data showed that there has been a lesser number of organisations who have digitalised 0% and 20% of their processes in the past year, with many looking to further evolve their processes for efficiency.
Another finding from the report is the public companies will be required to report on their carbon emissions by financial regulators in 2023. However, the report reveals that many organisations are still behind on this requirement, with less than a quarter claiming they can accurately report on the impact of their ESG initiatives.
Zero-trust security is also another trend that CIOs should be aware of in the next year. According to the report, having zero-trust security is especially important given the series of software supply chain attacks over the past couple of years.
As it is likely that a cybersecurity incident will disrupt businesses in 2023, organisations are starting to look towards the concept of a zero-trust network to defend against threat vectors.
Aside from the emergence of new technologies that bring both innovation and potential risks, the report also reveals a financial risk to the IT budget looming in 2023.
While this risk could reduce the degree to which IT can pursue growth opportunities and offer protection from regulatory burdens and bad actors, Info-Tech’s report states that most IT professionals should expect their budgets to increase in 2023 due to emerging threats.
The 2023 Tech Trends report, which includes insights in the form of case studies from technology experts, will inform the firm’s upcoming CIO Priorities 2023 report.
The upcoming report from Info-Tech is expected to take a deeper dive into the recommended capabilities that will help organisations respond to each emerging trend.
With AAP