What technology trends are most important to companies in 2023? New analysis by the McKinsey Technology Council highlights the evolution, usability, and impact of innovative technologies on the industry.
McKinsey’s report 15 outstanding technology trends in 2023 is evaluated based on many different criteria. To describe the status of each trend, development (based on patents and research) and interests (based on news and web searches). In addition, the report calculates investments in relevant technologies and assesses the level of adoption by organizations.
After a tumultuous 2022 in terms of technology investment and human capital, the first half of 2023 has seen a strong resurgence of potential factors that help drive the development of technology in business and in society.
AI deserves credit for ushering in this resurgence, but it is just one of many future advancements that can drive inclusive, sustainable growth and address complex global challenges.
1/ Applied AI
Models trained in machine learning can be used to solve classification, prediction, and control problems to automate activities, add or augment capabilities and offerings, and make better decisions.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 4 (0 = no; 5 = mainstream, Investment Barriers Index)
- Equity investment 2022: $104 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +6%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Postings (blue) to total Job Postings
– Ratio of Human Resources ( purple) to Market Demand
2/ Industrializing machine learning
A rapidly evolving ecosystem of software and hardware solutions is enabling practices that accelerate and derisk the development, deployment, and maintenance of machine learning solutions.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 2
- Equity investment 2022: $3 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +23%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
3/ Generative AI
Generative AI can automate, augment, and accelerate work by tapping into unstructured mixed-modality data sets to enable the creation of new content in various forms, such as text, video, code, and even protein sequences.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 2
- Equity investment 2022: $5 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +44%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
4/ Next-generation software development
New software tools, including those that enable modern code-deployment pipelines and automated code generation, testing, refactoring, and translation, can improve application quality and development processes.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 2
- Equity investment 2022: $2 billion
- Job postings difference: +29%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
5/ Trust architectures and digital identity
Digital-trust technologies enable organizations to build, scale, and maintain the trust of stakeholders in the use of their data and digital-enabled products and services.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 2
- Equity investment 2022: $47 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +16%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
6/ Web3 technology
Web3 includes platforms and applications that aim to enable shifts toward a future, decentralized internet with open standards and protocols while protecting digital-ownership rights. It’s not simply cryptocurrency investments, but rather a transformative way to design software for specific purposes. This shift potentially provides users with greater ownership of their data and catalyzes new business models.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 1
- Equity investment 2022: $ 62 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +40%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
7/ Advanced connectivity
Wireless low-power networks, 5G/6G cellular, Wi-Fi 6 and 7, low-Earth-orbit satellites, and other technologies support a host of digital solutions that can drive growth and productivity across industries today and tomorrow.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 4
- Equity investment 2022: $ 118 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +7%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
8/ Immersive-reality technologies
Immersive-reality technologies use sensing technologies and spatial computing to help users “see the world differently” through mixed or augmented reality or “see a different world” through virtual reality.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 1
- Equity investment 2022: $ 16 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +10%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
9/ Cloud and edge computing
In cloud and edge computing, workloads are distributed across locations, such as hyperscale remote data centers, regional centers, and local nodes, to improve latency, data-transfer costs, adherence to data sovereignty regulations, autonomy over data, and security.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 4
- Equity investment 2022: $ 84 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +12%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
10/ Quantum technologies
Quantum-based technologies could provide an exponential increase in computational performance for certain problems and transform communication networks by making them more secure.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 0
- Equity investment 2022: $ 2 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +12%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
11/ Future of mobility
Mobility technologies aim to improve the efficiency and sustainability of land and air transportation of people and goods using autonomous, connected, electric, and shared solutions.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 2
- Equity investment 2022: $ 194 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +15%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
12/ Future of bioengineering
Converging biological and information technologies improve health and human performance, transform food value chains, and create innovative products and services.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 3
- Equity investment 2022: $ 43 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: -19%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
13/ Future of space technologies
Advances and cost reductions across satellites, launchers, and habitation technologies are enabling innovative space operations and services.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 2
- Equity investment 2022: $ 6 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +16%
Demand and human resources by skills:
– Percentage of Job Posts
– Ratio of Human Resources
14/ Electrification and renewables
Electrification and renewables help drive toward net-zero commitments and include solar-, wind-, and hydro-powered renewables and other renewables; nuclear energy; hydrogen; sustainable fuels; and electric-vehicle charging.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 2
- Equity investment 2022: $ 228 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +27%
15/ Climate technologies beyond electrification and renewables
Climate technologies include carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS); carbon removals; natural climate solutions; circular technologies; alternative proteins and agriculture; water and biodiversity solutions and adaptation; and technologies to track net-zero progress.
- Adoption rate score 2022: 2
- Equity investment 2022: $ 86 billion
- Job postings difference 2021-2022: +*%
(By Michael Chui, Mena Issler, Roger Roberts and Lareina Yee)