The technological trends that will mark 2023

After a 2022 that did not stop surprising us, brands and manufacturers have already begun to teach us in the first days of 2023 some of what may be the main trends.

The last few months have undoubtedly been busy in the technological field. The fall in the shares of the main companies, the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk, the advent of Generative Artificial Intelligence or the development of the metaverse are just some of the great headlines that we can cite. But all of that is part of the story. With the turn of the year, it is time to ask yourself: what will be the technological trends of 2023?

Knowing what this new course will bring us is impossible – in fact, surely none of the things we have mentioned before could have been predicted a year ago. However, in the technological world, CES, the Las Vegas consumer electronics and gadgets fair , marks a sort of crystal ball every January. And that, added to many other indicators, does allow us to draw some guidelines about which we will probably talk a lot – even more than we expect – over the next 12 months.

One of the great technological trends of 2023 will be one of the protagonists of 2022: Artificial Intelligence

In 2022, the potential of Artificial Intelligence was exposed to everyone’s eyes, first with DALL-E 2 (and other imaging-based AI such as Midjourney or Stable Diffusion) and then with ChatGPT. The question that follows those achievements is quite simple: how will it have evolved a year from now ?

Microsoft’s plan to incorporate ChatGPT into its services may be an important test bed. This, for the first time, poses a real alternative to something we’ve been doing in a similar way for a long time: searching the internet, where Google is the vast dominator.

The other question related to Artificial Intelligence – one of the great technological trends of 2023, without a doubt – is: to what extent should it be regulated? The European Union is studying this issue, with already obvious implications for copyright. How could they be used for good or bad? If the rise of these tools in 2022 showed us just how far creative AI can go , 2023 will be the first year we collectively take a look at just how far they should go.

Will the metaverse and augmented reality take off for good thanks to Apple’s long-awaited entry?
If 2022 was the year in which Meta deepened its metaverse proposal – with less secure things than they would like, probably – this will be the year in which other brands make their point of view on Virtual and Augmented Reality clear.

Apple didn’t attend CES, but it’s always the elephant in the room. The rumors about the launch of its mixed reality (XR) glasses could become, if materialized, one of the great technological trends of 2023. It would be the device that has just made it clear that the commitment to these new realities is unilateral on the part of the bigger.

The maturation of home automation

Another of the great technological trends of 2023 aims to be Matter. The standard developed by Apple, Google, Amazon, Zigbee and other manufacturers in 2021, must demonstrate this year that it fulfills its role in an ecosystem that is still highly fragmented. Its premise is promising: a single standard based on Wi-Fi – or Thread – that brings together compatibility with Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri and SmartThings, among others. A key standard for the rise of home automation.

At CES we saw plenty of gadgets rushing on the bandwagon, including new lights and Matter-compatible smart plugs or connected roller blinds. By the end of the year, when the next version of Matter arrives, other types of devices, like robot vacuums and smart home cameras, should also appear.

That said, the most interesting thing about Matter’s march may not have been the new devices, but the old ones ; specifically, older generation devices from brands that adopt the new standard.

More folding screens: a technological trend that in 2023 seeks to go further

The screens are always that component that determines in the eyes of anyone when we are going through a transition to something new or not. And, in 2023, it seems that news may come on both the big and small screens.

Rumors that Apple is considering a laptop with a touch screen would mean, if it materialized, a paradigm shift for the Cupertino firm that could affect many other brands, where, however, they are already used. At CES, without going any further, Lenovo presented a new proposal for a laptop with two screens, both touch screens.

At CES we also saw Samsung double (pun intended) its commitment to folding phones with a device that folds in more ways than one. Of course, do not expect this to appear soon for sale, since it is a prototype of the Samsung screen division, and not of the smartphone one. But, like almost everything at CES, the Flex Hybrid (as it’s been called) does shed light on the future of one of the possible technology trends of 2023: folding screens.

Streaming platforms seek their definitive place

2022 was also the year in which, after spectacular growth since the pandemic, streaming platforms began to suffer and even experience their first subscriber losses.

This course remains to be seen how the imminent merger of HBO Max and Discovery Plus looks, how streaming fits in with companies like Disney now that the theaters seem to be finally returning to normal, or what the current bets on plans with ads remain.

We have 12 months to go to see how many of these 2023 tech trends really are, how many end up being overshadowed by others that will come along the way, and which others ultimately didn’t make any sense. In any of these cases, what seems clear is that it will be an interesting path.