Once again, a year is coming that will be marked by uncertainty, at least for the first few months. Inflation and possible recession in the U.S. are leaving thousands of people laid off in large technology companies, and the great Metaverse project is closer to becoming a failure than a new world. In that scenario, some revolutionary ideas could become the technology trends of 2023.
Most of them aim to generate greater efficiency in industry and provide a better quality of life for people. So let’s see what these technology trends of 2023 will be.
- Digital twins
The technology of digital twins began to develop a few years ago and is becoming more accurate, and more utilities are found. It consists of complete and complex digital replicas of objects, spaces, processes, and systems that can be used in different industries. These replicas allow us to obtain more accurate layouts and products. They also reduce costs and construction times, and thanks to trial and error in the digital world, the production of errors in real life are avoided.
To give you an idea, imagine that the government wants to build a hospital, and before starting, they could digitize everything to know the best design. First, they could put the operating room in one place and the patient rooms in another, the entrance, and the waiting rooms, among others. Then, they would study the traffic flow of doctors, nurses, and patients.
If they realized something was inefficient, they could modify the digital architecture of the hospital as many times as they wanted until they found the optimal model. And not only that, they could test the power supply systems, heating, water, and more.
If you want to see a real example, you can read what Siemens and the Technical University of Berlin are doing with a water pumping station.
- Blockchain
In traditional transactional models, such as when you buy something online and make the payment, a company or organization is dedicated to verifying the information of the seller and the buyer and allows the transaction to be done. This means a centralization of information with the risks that this can imply.
Blockchain technology works with a decentralized model of information; that is, this intermediary organization is eliminated. Instead, the information is stored in a much more secure encrypted form. This way of working facilitates transactions such as purchases and the signing of smart contracts and provides greater security to communications.
In addition to preventing fraud and cyber-attacks in the financial industry, more applications for blockchain technology are emerging. In the real estate sector, it is used to sign or write my papers like contracts or assurance; in the medical industry, to safeguard patient data, logistics companies can use it to track their deliveries, among others.
- Internet of Things
The internet of things will be one of the technological trends that will mark 2023, and it is becoming more and more established every year. There are more and more intelligent devices around us. It is no longer just cell phones, watches, refrigerators, and cars. Now, this technology is also being applied in all industries.
IoT (Internet of Things) technology collects and interprets the data generated by industrial machines to produce. It then provides feedback with process information. This makes it possible to improve the process’s efficiency and thus generate production savings.
The various devices connected to the IoT can be interconnected and therefore share information from millions of users, improving the understanding of how they consume and what preferences they have. This technology makes it possible to discover new business opportunities and consumer trends by obtaining all this information.
On the other hand, being present in industrial devices, IoT enables preventive maintenance, which reduces the likelihood of stoppages or interruptions due to technical malfunctions. Machine sensors also provide different types of alarms.
For example, in farms where animals are kept in sheds, the installed devices have sensors that measure temperature and can detect if there is smoke. In case they sense danger, they trigger an alarm that alerts the farm employees. As can be seen, this technology has many different uses, which are growing every year.
- Quantum computing
This is one of the segments of the technology industry destined to revolutionize our lives. For years, large companies have been investing in its development, which today is still far from becoming massive, but with new advances, it may become one of the technological trends of 2023.
Quantum computing is not an improvement on traditional computing but a completely different paradigm. Instead of binary bit and classical digital computing, it works with cubits and quantum mechanics. A bit can only be worth 0 or 1, but a cubit can take several values at the same time; this is known as quantum superposition. In addition, a cubit can alter the state of another cubit; this is known as quantum entanglement.
These characteristics make it possible to perform operations and cryptography that are not possible with the computation we have known up to now. Also fundamental is the ongoing development of quantum processors, which overcome the physical barriers of the transistors and processors of traditional computers.
All this sounds fantastic, but what is it for? Processing all the information faster will require fewer resources, making computational operations more efficient. Some of the possible applications scientists are working on are:
- Finding the optimal path between two points using the fewest number of steps and attempts among all possible paths.
- Improving cryptography to combat cyber attacks produced by ransomware.
- Accelerate the processing of genetic data used in DNA research.
- Energy solutions
These are not only technological trends of 2023; they are also social trends. There are more and more movements and organizations calling for less dependence on fossil fuels, and some governments are promoting and encouraging new energy solutions.
Artificial Intelligence and IoT can help improve the efficiency of renewable energies, such as wind or solar energy. How? Predictive maintenance reduces downtime and breakdown costs.
Another trend in this field is floating wind technology. Winds are more powerful at sea than on land, so taking wind power generators to the ocean was an important step, but with fixed structures, they could not be taken to very deep areas. This was solved with floating structures that are anchored to the seabed. These can be far from the coast, obtaining better winds and generating more energy. At the same time, this remains the same landscape of coastal towns and their lifestyle.
