Metaverse, Adaptive AI Top Tech Trends for 2023

The metaverse, adaptive AI and AI risk management are among the top strategic technology trends organizations need to explore in 2023, according to Gartner.

The analyst firm published a list of tech trends at its recent IT Symposium/Xpo. The list is designed to outline which technologies are likely to be most relevant to businesses in the coming 12 months.

The trends are “built around three themes — optimize, scale and pioneer — where technologies can help organizations optimize resilience, operations or trust, scale vertical solutions and product delivery, and pioneer with new forms of engagement, accelerated responses or opportunity,” said Frances Karamouzis, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner.

Monetizing the Metaverse

Since Facebook became Meta in late 2021, the business world has become infatuated with the metaverse, looking for ways to enter this new market. 

This infatuation is set to continue into 2023, according to Gartner, describing it as “persistent.”

Gartner analysts say they expect the metaverse to be device-independent and not owned by a single vendor. 

“It will have a virtual economy of itself, enabled by digital currencies and NFTs,” the company said.

By 2027, Gartner predicts that more than 40% of large organizations worldwide will use a combination of Web3, AR cloud and digital twins in metaverse-based projects aimed at increasing revenue.

Adaptive AI

Adaptive AI systems are designed to retrain and learn new tasks in real time depending on deployment needs.

According to Gartner, Adaptive AI should be among the top trends for 2023, as such systems can “change their learning dynamically and adjust goals.”

“This makes them suitable for operations where rapid changes in the external environment or changing enterprise goals require an optimized response.”

AI Security and Risk Management

As companies increasingly adopt AI, they need to be prepared to manage the potential risks that stem from deployments.

A recent Gartner survey in the U.S., U.K. and Germany found that 41% of organizations had experienced an AI privacy breach or security incident. However, that same survey found that organizations that actively managed AI risk, privacy and security achieved improved AI project results.

Going into 2023, Gartner analysts suggest that enterprises must implement new capabilities to “ensure model reliability, trustworthiness, security and data protection.”

“AI trust, risk and security management requires participants from different business units to work together to implement new measures,” they said.

Sustainability

According to Gartner, sustainability “traverses all of the strategic technology trends for 2023.”

This year brings the impending climate crisis another year closer. To reach sustainability goals, organizations need sustainable technology frameworks, according to Gartner.

The frameworks should increase the energy and material efficiency of IT services while also enabling the deployment of technologies like traceability, analytics and AI to help customers achieve their own sustainability goals.

“In 2023, delivering technology will not be enough,” said David Groombridge, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner. “Every technology investment will need to be set off against its impact on the environment, keeping future generations in mind. ‘Sustainable by default’ as an objective requires sustainable technology.”