Revealing insights from Forrester, Gartner, IDC, PWC on the challenges and opportunities ahead
By Aaron Shepherd
Tis’ the season – not just for holiday decor and annual family gatherings and celebrations – but for the business world’s other sacred tradition: expert predictions for the year to come. These predictions are, of course, not a perfect science. If the last three years taught us anything, it should be to expect the unexpected (or should I say, the ‘unprecedented’). Nonetheless, it’s best practice for businesses, especially those with a consumer-facing offering, such as hospitality providers and retailers, to not only reflect on the learnings of the year past but prepare for the predicted demands of the year ahead.
This annual practice is especially important when we look at the technology landscape; after all, the continued embrace of technological innovation is, in many ways, a primary marker of success in our digitally-driven world. Post-pandemic, this proves especially true, as we witnessed a global shift towards the adoption of contactless, self-service tech that facilitates seamless, convenience-driven experiences. The future always comes faster than you think, and new technology’s introduction, and subsequent adoption, may feel overwhelming to brands that still need to look forward and prepare for the latest trends.
With this in mind, we’ve summarized analyst predictions to identify some technologies and trends expected to have the most meaningful impact in 2023.
Take it to the Cloud
It should come as no surprise that within Gartner’s Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2023, Industry Cloud Platforms are highlighted as an integral component. In fact, Gartner forecasts that in 2023, worldwide public cloud spending will grow 20.7% to total $591.8 billion, up from $490.3 billion in 2022. Cloud computing has, after all, completely transformed the world as we know it, allowing enterprises and consumers alike to benefit from applications made available as-a-service that may otherwise be too complicated or costly to utilize or manage by the user.
Industry cloud platforms, in particular, are defined by Gartner as platforms designed to meet the specific needs of vertical industry segments inadequately served by generic solutions. These platforms combine software, platform, and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) capabilities to “offer industry players a more agile way to manage workloads and accelerate change against the particular business, data, compliance or other needs of their segment.”
This is a modular approach to technology and one we’ve discussed at great length due to the nature of our service offering at Above Property Services (APS) [Insert link to a content piece]. Using this vertically-built, flexible infrastructure, businesses can leverage the “building blocks” offered by industry cloud platforms to create truly customized tech stacks that are far more innovative and agile than any legacy offering. Industry cloud platforms also provide reduced time to market. By 2027, Gartner predicts that more than 50% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives, and by 2025, enterprises will spend more on public cloud services than traditional IT solutions. Moreover, Forrester’s Infrastructure Cloud Survey, 2022, reveals that cloud decision-makers have implemented containerized applications Kubernetes (K8s). “In 2023, organizations will accelerate investment in K8s as a distributed compute backbone for both current applications and new workloads that can be run more efficiently in K8s’ environments,” the report reads. “These workloads will span a range of technology domains, including AI/ML, data management, IoT, 5G, edge computing, and blockchain.”
Moving into 2023, Forbes reiterates this sentiment with its prediction that cloud computing will become a paramount enabler of even more emerging technologies, including virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), the metaverse, cloud gaming, and even quantum computing.
Automation at Scale
Now, more than ever, it’s important to shift our interpretation of digital automation from replacing human-driven interactions to marrying platforms and people. Tech-driven automation provides a critical opportunity for businesses in almost any industry to do more with less, which is increasingly important as employers work to navigate post-pandemic staffing shortages. Digital automation empowers scalability while enabling an effective, hybrid customer service model across traditionally ‘high-touch’ and hands-on industries like hospitality. When in-person interactions are warranted, staff members can be more engaged and connected, while traditionally cumbersome and repetitive tasks can be championed by a digital ecosystem hard at work in the background.
IDC predicts that in 2025, 60% of infrastructure, security, data, and network offerings will require cloud-based control platforms that enable extensive automation and promise significant reductions in ongoing operating costs. Moreover, a survey from Asana reveals that employees report spending only one-third of their day on work they were hired to do, largely due to inefficient workflows. Finally, recent findings from Futurum Research and Automation Anywhere found that 61% of organizations are turning to automation to deal with staffing issues, and 94% say shifting employees to higher-value work is a priority.
Sustainability a Priority
Sustainability might be one of the most frequently cited trends for 2023 and beyond as consumers (and the world at large) become increasingly involved in the collective fight against climate change. “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,” says Gartner’s David Groombridge. Behind performance and quality, 80% of CEOs plan to invest in new products in 2022/23.
In its latest set of 100 predictions for the technology landscape in 2023 and beyond, the CCS Insights Predictions report focuses on sustainability.
– By 2025, a new green certification will be displayed by websites using low-energy design and code. A new standards body enables websites, platforms, and mobile apps to sport a logo certifying their use of high-contrast colors, darker design themes, standard typefaces, and simpler, cleaner code.
– By 2027, mobile apps will enable users to track their carbon footprint in real-time
– By 2024, an international standard will be developed for calculating the carbon emissions of cloud services
While there will surely be costs associated with rejecting enterprise-level sustainability efforts, it’s important to note that there is also a great cost associated with ‘greenwashing.’ Greenwashing is defined as a form of (false) advertising in which green PR and green marketing ploys are deceptively leveraged to persuade the public that an organization’s products, aims, and policies are environmentally friendly.
To this effect, Forrester is predicting that greenwashing will become a serious business risk, with at least ten companies expected to incur $5 million or more in greenwashing fines. “The fines are just a harbinger of more critical business risks, however, including significant market valuation loss and employee and customer disengagement,” the report reads. “The 2022 German police raid on Deutsche Bank’s DWS proved that there are potentially millions more to be lost. To avoid greenwashing, CMOs must actively create sustainability communications messages with integrity.”
AI Everywhere
Forrester has highlighted the evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption from an emerging, nice-to-have trend to experiment with to a legitimate, must-do priority for enterprises. From smart assistants to self-driving cars, the writing is on the wall: AI isn’t just here to stay; it’s here to transform virtually every aspect of our personal and professional lives. According to Forrester’s 2022 Data and Analytics Survey, 73% of data and analytics decision-makers are building AI technologies, and 74% see a positive impact on their organizations from using AI.
Moreover, Forrester predicts that 10% of Fortune 500 enterprises will generate content with AI tools in 2023, AI will write 10% of worldwide code and tests, one in four tech execs will report on AI governance to their board, and AI in retail healthcare will reduce time to care by 25%. Accenture also reports that AI can boost profitability in various industries by 38% on average by 2035, and in the same year, AI is expected to witness an additional revenue gain for AI of $14 trillion. Not only that, but IDC states that worldwide spending by governments and businesses on AI technology will top $500 billion in 2023, and AI technology will support the processes and products of about 90% of the advanced enterprise applications by 2025.
IT Security and Digital Trust
Is your organization prepared to manage data-related privacy risks? According to a recent Gartner survey, the answer is no. Gartner’s research revealed 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. Similarly, PWC’s 2023 Global Digital Trust Insights survey revealed that fewer than 40% of Canadian respondents say they’ve fully mitigated the risks their bold moves have incurred since 2020, such as enabling hybrid and remote work, accelerated cloud adoption and increased use of Internet-of-Things technologies. Moreover, nearly half (46%) of Canadian enterprise respondents admitted they might sometimes use customer data without express consent, and 49% might not always vet all the third parties and partners with whom they share customer data. However, 46% of CEOs globally want to empower the CISO to collaborate with the C-suite on security in the next year.
Within organizations, employee privacy also becomes a point of contention, with many employees expressing concern regarding digital surveillance. In 2023, Forrester warns of more lawmaker attention on workplace surveillance and, subsequently, more employee backlash, strikes, and labor organizing in response to surveillance. According to the report, smart security and risk teams will prioritize privacy rights and employee experience if implementing any monitoring technology, whether it’s for productivity, return-to-office strategies, or insider risk management.
In 2023 and beyond, it is imperative for organizations to ensure model reliability, trustworthiness, security, and data protection. End-users must be able to trust that corporations are keeping their information safe and secure while still providing personalized, convenience-driven, and data-driven service.
Conclusion
After the undeniable trials and tribulations of the pandemic and the challenges of economic uncertainty, travel and hotel brands need to design a strategic technology adoption plan for the year to come. The technology topics currently receiving the most attention from industry experts not only align with changing consumer preferences – they also exist to enhance efficiency, decrease labor demands, reduce operational costs, and enhance scalability. As IDC analyst Rick Villars puts it: “For the next several years, leading technology providers must play a leading role in helping enterprises use innovative technologies to slide through the current storms of disruption.”
