Capgemini today published its 2023 TechnoVision report ‘Right the Technology, Write the Future’, highlighting the top technology trends to help leaders answer some of the key questions they have when making technology-driven business transformation decisions. The report makes “a call to action” to be mindful of the increased scarcity of resources. It is also the first of its kind with AI-generated visuals throughout.
With every business now being a technology business, tech is infused into all business scenarios. Yet in 2023, the range of options to choose from is more overwhelming than ever before, in areas as diverse as creative / generative AI, cloud, edge computing, the Internet of Things, AI, intelligent process automation, autonomous systems, the Metaverse, Web3, and even biotechnology and quantum computing. TechnoVision is a framework that helps business leaders, CIOs and technology practitioners navigate key technology trends and make smart choices, from a business value perspective, but also from the broader perspectives of sustainability or ethics.
The right technology choices with a positive societal impact
With an increased pressure on resources (energy, water, raw materials, chips, reliable supply chains, low-interest money, skilled talent), TechnoVision 2023 makes a plea for selecting the right technology solutions and innovation initiatives that not only contribute best to the organizational future but also have a clear, positive societal impact.
“TechnoVision 2023 offers actionable answers to some of the key questions business leaders, CIOs and technology practitioners have whenever making technology-driven business transformation decisions: whether we aim for resilience and agility, new ways of growth, sustainability, frugality, or doing things differently, we know technology is an integral, indispensable part of the equation.” said Pascal Brier, Chief Innovation Officer at Capgemini and member of the Group Executive Committee.
Created by Capgemini’s Technology, Innovation and Ventures (TIV) council, TechnoVision leverages an international network of experts who monitor, assess, synthesize, and deploy technology evolutions across various domains. The 2023 edition remains true to its vision: a trusted, accessible, insightful and actionable guide that helps in making the right choices and devises technology-enabled enterprise strategies and transformation plans.
Seven trends highlighted this year:
- Internet of twins: Enabling different simulations of different kinds of objects that communicate together, such as cars interacting in traffic, requires the interconnection of digital twins with the right supporting protocols, which turns the Internet of Things (IoT) into an Internet of Twins. This twin network will be key to reducing the complexity of operational challenges, easily exploring and testing alternatives, and converging virtual and real-world experiences.
- No leaders: In the world of token-enabled, tamper-proof global entities called DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations), distribution of power is collective and ‘heterarchical’: cooperation without subordination to central leadership, solely focusing on value creation and achieving joint purposes. DAOs lead to unique, lightweight yet robust governance models, with a group of committed contributors, driven by common values.
- Net Ø data: Data is key to delivering net-zero ambitions, but data itself needs to be sustainable: the battle against data waste is on. For this, businesses need to build skills, tools, and culture to measure, forecast, and act on their emissions levels across the whole value chain. Collaboration with their supply chain ecosystem is critical to access reliable data, especially scope 3. It’s a matter of being smarter about what data is really needed, picking up the quest against data waste, and realizing that ‘big’ data is not always ‘better’ data.
- Little green app: Engineering applications need to be less demanding in terms of resources and energy, but also with superior performance. Software does not consume energy or emit harmful discharges on its own. The issue is with how software is developed for use – and then how it is used.
- My industry, my cloud: Clouds that are specific to a particular industry, domain or even region, bring together all an organization needs for its sector-specific activities, neatly packaged as ready-to-use, yet adaptive data, solutions, and infrastructure services. When leveraged in a stepwise way, industry clouds bring benefits in terms of speed-to-market, cost and resource reduction, accelerated growth, and regulatory compliance, while also capturing industry best practices and driving collaboration between industry partners.
- Creative Machine: the quick breakthrough of generative AI models provides tantalizing opportunities to deal ‘out of the box’ with the scarcity of people, even in terms of knowledge-intensive and creative work. However, to fully leverage this spectacular AI augmentation, a renewed focus on AI ethics will be indispensable.
- Do good, do less, do well: Not everything that is technologically possible is socially desirable. As tempting as technology business initiatives might seem, many of them demand a great deal of energy, time, and scarce natural resources. Consider the total social, ethical and environmental impact of initiatives and look for technology that actively benefits societal purposes.
