2023’s Top 5 Tech Trends

There’s No Place Like the Smart Home

In the home, innovative technology will be integrated in ways that are unassuming and lifestyle-improving.

The smart home is becoming a health stronghold with an ever-increasing selection of domestic devices on offer, designed for the unobtrusive ambient monitoring of people’s health, helping them to make life-optimising choices. Take Californian sleep tech brand Ergomotion’s new connected mattress ErgoSportive, which gathers sleep data to provide customised recovery advice.

Another aspect of consumer lifestyles that smart home tech is supporting comes in the form of blue tech. With five billion people globally projected to face water stress or scarcity by 2050, blue tech will play a seismic role in ensuring the fair distribution of water and reducing related energy costs. The Amazon-assisted sleek showerheads from Orbital save both water and energy – the Swedish company claims the savings to be up to 90% – by letting users control the water temperature and flow, bathroom lighting, and even music with voice commands, turning a daily task into an immersive energy-saving experience.

But what does this tech trend mean for your business? Consider your brand’s place in the smart home: how can your products or services enable healthier, more comfortable lifestyles while addressing growing concerns amidst an energy and climate crisis?  

Micro-Mobility Takes Charge

Globally, 52% of consumers say their next vehicle will be electric or hybrid. Considering the anticipated mainstream adoption of e-mobility, are cities and systems ready for the infrastructure shift required to accommodate it?

This year will see an influx of micro-mobility options being embraced by cities to keep the momentum of e-mobility. A big tech trend for 2023 is mobility as a service, which will materialise through resources like ride-hailing and car and electric scooter sharing. As we journey through the year, expect to see government-led initiatives weave these micro-mobility concepts into existing transport networks – such as the planned autonomous e-shuttle boat on the Seine in Paris.

How will micro-mobility impact you and your business? Beyond the need to be green – or blue – industries from automotive to urban development should look at how they can leverage cost-efficient micro-mobility concepts into their offerings – and help accelerate the infrastructure needed for this tech trend to thrive.

The AI Robots Are Coming

A source of recent contention, the artificial intelligence (AI) model behind applications such as ChatGPT is fuelling the ongoing discourse surrounding the role of AI tech in the creative industries. With some suggesting this form of AI will replace search engines like Google, it’s no surprise that February saw the release of Google’s take on (Microsoft-backed) ChatGPT: Bard.

Moving away from the digital and into the phygital, AI robots are becoming less gimmicky and more useful. Look to Parky, a South Korean mobile electric vehicle-charging robot, designed for car parks with limited charging stations, that will find your car and bring charge to it. Another example of how AI robots can be used is the scouting SentiV, from French agritech start-up Meropy, that autonomously rolls through fields and measures soil conditions to determine potential risks.

The global AI software market is forecast to grow in the coming years, reaching $126bn by 2025. Now is the time to sit up and pay attention to AI possibilities. Start by listening to consumer desires this new AI tech is highlighting: better, faster, easier and more reliable experiences with the brands and devices that are promising to help them live optimised lives.

Reality, Extended

With the metaverse still in its early iterations, can businesses use mixed reality to satiate the accelerating commercial desire to improve day-to-day life through virtual worlds while we make the transition?

No longer a novelty reserved for gaming, mixed reality can – and already does – bring digital elements to everyday activities. In the age of Zoom fatigue, the Project Ghost phone booth, from Swiss computer manufacturer Logitech, produces immersive video call experiences by creating a lifelike 3D holograph of video call participants using a Victorian-era mirror technique in the wooden podlike structure – making it seem as if the callers are physically in the same room.

Discussions on how best to prepare for the internet’s next evolution will intensify – including how to pin down the concept of Web3, a still loosely defined term for a decentralised future iteration of the internet, built on blockchain technologies in which we’ll be ‘in’ rather than ‘on’ the web. Look to physical retail and brand environments that are helping to bring these big ideas to street level and moving away from omnichannel and social media channels towards the idea of ‘reality channels’. For example, the Outernet London’s activation with American Web 2.5 phygital luxury streetwear label Cult & Rain saw visitors either watch a livestreamed metaverse experience or, while in the very same space, participate in real life via onsite virtual reality headsets and tablets.

The Ascendant Assistive Tech Trend

Cutting through the noise of tech for tech’s sake, empowering assistive tech innovations are emerging that can change the quality of life for people of all abilities and ages. Moreover, the global assistive tech market for those with disabilities and the elderly is estimated to increase by 7.8% annually.

So, what’s the opportunity for businesses? The senior market is growing, with the average spending on tech among Americans aged 50 to 90 up 11% year-on-year in 2022. Hence, 2023 is the year to pull up a proverbial chair and enable underserved groups to have a seat at the table. Being inclusive of all ages and abilities should be front of mind when considering how to adapt your products and messaging to reach wider audiences.

Draw inspiration from South Korean company AlzWin’s Seven Point One, a gadget that employs simple-to-use machine-learning-based tests to determine if elders are at risk of developing dementia. Other assistive tech innovations with the senior market in mind include the RealSam phone – a voice-controlled smartphone designed to be accessible to those with visual impairments.