Generative AI  

At the end of last year we witnessed the explosion of ChatGPT onto the scene which has got many marketers, recruiters and just about everyone else sweating a bit. With the platform hitting 1 million users in 5 days, it may feel like it could pose a threat, but in reality, 2023 will be the year generative AI becomes an integral asset and tool in many people’s work lives and acts as a propellent in their career. Generative AI and tools like ChatGPT are likely to have a meteoric rise this year, with applications in marketing, banking, education, healthcare and beyond. It’s likely to become more commonplace in many businesses, so we need to master it, rather than shy away from it. For one, gone are the days of sitting and staring at a blank Word document: recruiters needing to write up a job advert, marketers looking for blog ideas, founders looking to write engaging LinkedIn copy, can now simply type in a prompt and receive a slew of ideas which they can use as a spring board.    

The metaverse  

Everyone’s talking about the metaverse. It’s predicted that the metaverse will add an insane $5 trillion to the global economy by 2030, and the coming year will most likely be the year that defines its trajectory for the coming decade. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology took off in 2022, with the number of VR startups increasing by 14% in less than a year. In 2023, it’s likely their applications will expand even further into a vast number of different sectors. It’s going to have a pretty huge impact on the practise of hiring too. We’ve already seen some companies use AR and VR technology to conduct training and onboarding, and this is likely to grow in the coming year. For instance, Accenture has created a metaverse called the Nth floor, which features replicas of actual Accenture offices, so both current employees and new hires can carry out HR tasks from the comfort of their own home. Further than that, companies like Microsoft and Nvidia are developing metaverse environments for collaborating on digital projects, so we’re seeing applications in immersive collaboration tools.   

Digital twins  

So, digital twins are essentially just virtual simulations of real-world products or operations designed to test new concepts in a safe digital environment. It means all kinds of processes can be tested under every possible condition without incurring the astronomical costs of real-world experimentation. You can imagine how many applications this kind of technology has. In 2023 we’re likely to see a huge take-off in this technology, with a focus in healthcare, cybersecurity, and the energy sector too. We also previously predicted the rise of climate tech in 2023, and digital twins are likely to be a key part of this in the year to come: research found that 57% of organisations believe digital twin tech is central to improving sustainability. It can provide a way to model and subsequently understand how to minimise emissions and consumption so businesses can test scenarios to meet their climate targets without huge spending costs – which will be a great incentive for businesses to get on board.  

Progress in Web3 and the blockchain   

There’s been some ups and downs with Web3 and blockchain technology over the past few years, but we’re likely to see some significant advancements in 2023 as companies look to prioritise decentralised products and services. Currently, the public store just about everything in the cloud, but decentralising data storage and encrypting our data using blockchain technology could lead to our information being safer overall. Alongside decentralised finance platforms (DeFI), other Web3 technologies that are likely to proliferate are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs). These technologies are being used to create new types of online marketplaces, applications and social networks such as Minds and Mastodon that strive to be more transparent, secure, and fair.  

ClimateTech  

We keep saying that ClimateTech is going to be a critical part of the tech world in 2023, and we’re feeling pretty sure of this one. We’re likely to see significant progress in the development of decentralised power grids and the proliferation of smaller systems of power generators/storage which can provide power even if the main grid is offline or not available. Currently the UK’s energy system is monopolised by gas and energy conglomerates, but the use of decentralised power grids could be so important in both reducing carbon emissions and democratising power. There’s also likely to be more progress in green hydrogen – this is a clean-burning source of energy which produces close to zero greenhouse gas emissions. We’re already seeing investment from major companies such as Shell, TotalEnergies, and Adani: and several large-scale green hydrogen projects will reach their final investment stages in 2023 and begin construction by the end of the year. It’s going to be a big year for ClimateTech!  

This is only a small fraction of the technological advancements we’re likely to see in 2023 – there’s so much more exciting and ground-breaking growth to come! If you’re looking for a role in tech startups, head to our Jobs Board to see our live opportunities.