CNN —
The late management guru Peter Drucker once said that “Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights, while looking out the back window.”
When it comes to anticipating new trends in technology, change is happening so fast that the back window may as well be fogged up.
2022 saw NFTs go from flavor of the month to yesterday’s leftovers; cryptocurrency experience a long cold winter; and nuclear fusion take its first steps from the realms of science fiction towards becoming science fact.
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But for those who follow the latest developments in innovation, it is possible to see patterns in where societies are heading, and forecast which technologies will take them there.
As we begin 2023, CNN asked four experts to predict which technologies will shape our lives this year – here’s what they said.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become part of our daily lives, found in everything from e-commerce to social media algorithms. Ayesha Khanna, co-founder and CEO of Addo, an AI and data solutions firm, predicts an explosion of AI-generated images and music in 2023. She adds that while it will not replace humans, “AI will become the new team member for humans in many jobs, contributing ideas and drafts.”
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Bernard Marr, a futurist and author of books including “Future Skills” and “Business Trends in Practice,” also anticipates that this year, “a focus of AI will be the augmentation of workers, as new tools become available to enable workforces to fully leverage AI.”
But Khanna warns that more work will be needed to ensure that generative AI co-pilots – such as GitHub’s Copilot, a tool designed to help developers code – are accurate and unbiased, especially in industries like healthcare, where there could be serious consequences to an AI assistant recommending the wrong treatment to a doctor.
The metaverse
Despite Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, losing billions of dollars on its metaverse efforts, the idea of spending time in virtual online worlds is increasingly becoming part of the public consciousness, and the buzz is set to grow in 2023, according to Khanna.
“Retail and entertainment companies will launch increasing pilots on how to build customer engagement and loyalty in the various metaverses, especially game platforms like Roblox,” she says.
“Metaverse natives who have grown up gaming and socializing in alternate digital realities will drive companies to host concerts, fashion weeks, customer journeys and edutainment activities in 2023.”
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Marr adds that more small companies will join the bigger organizations that have already established “outposts” on metaverse platforms.
“The metaverse will also become more mobile and accessible through devices such as headsets and smart glasses, and businesses will need to consider how they can leverage these opportunities to create immersive and efficient experiences,” he says.
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What is the metaverse?
03:16 – Source: CNN
Sustainability tech
“The entire field of sustainability, underpinned by technologies, will play a monumental role in 2023,” says Abishur Prakash, co-founder and geopolitical futurist at the Center for Innovating the Future (CIF), in Toronto, and author of “The World is Vertical: How Technology is Remaking Globalization.”
