Infographic: 11 Tech Trends to Watch Out for in 2023
It can be difficult to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation.
Each new year offers the full spectrum of progress, from game-changing breakthroughs to incremental breakthroughs in a wide variety of fields.
In a noisy media landscape fueled by hype and speculation, it can be hard to know where the real value is created. The infographic above, which is based on the recent CB Insights report on 11 tech trends to watch closely in 2023helps narrow down some focus areas:
- immortality as a service
- The Secret Invasion of the Super Apps
- Fintech’s rapid regeneration
- bots in the house
- virtual power plants
- The healthcare invisibility trick
- The smell goes digital
- Femtech turns to menopause
- The rise of biobased materials
- Technological rise of India
- Regenerative agtech takes root
The report pulls information from earnings transcripts, media mentions, investment activity, patents, and more to arrive at the listed trends.
We will examine three of these trends below in a little more detail.
Setting the stage: Clash of the super apps
The concept of a super app, an all-in-one smartphone app that integrates a wide range of services, is not new. In fact, for years now, WeChat has been the preferred app for many Chinese citizens to chat, request services, pay bills, and more.
A natural question comes to mind: why isn’t there an app like that in western countries yet? Well, there are a couple of key reasons:
- Both consumers and regulators are wary of providers with so much personal information and power. In China, WeChat actually had the support of the government, integrating public services into the app. Also, expectations of personal privacy are completely different in China than in Western countries.
- Unlike China, which was quick to adopt digital payments, North America and Europe had almost ubiquitous pre-existing financial networks. Super apps were a game changer for millions of unbanked consumers in China and beyond.
The tide is changing fast though, and 2023 could be the year the groundwork is laid for a clash of various Big Tech incarnations of the super app.
In late 2022, Microsoft was rumored to be building a super app using Bing as its foundation, and recent investment in ChatGPT adds fuel to that fire. Even Elon Musk hinted at his ambitions to turn Twitter into a one-stop-shop for just about everything.
There are still significant barriers to bundling a large number of services into a single app, but that doesn’t stop companies from competing to be the ones to do it. All the loot goes to the winner.
The resilience of life extension
The concepts of immortality and age change have been a concern of humanity since the beginning of time, so it stands to reason that technology that promises additional lifespan and quality of life will continue to be attractive to both individuals and consumers. the investors.
Players in this space can approach life extension and anti-aging from a number of different angles, from supplements to touch-ups on a cellular level.
Two high-profile examples in this space are Calicowhich is a subsidiary of Alphabet, and the one backed by Jeff Bezos High Laboratories. Other billionaires have also expressed interest in life extension, including Peter Thiel, who has definitive views on mortality.
I think if we could allow people to live forever, we should. […] I think it goes against human nature not to fight death. –Peter Thiel
In 2023, look out for more investment and news from startups focused on gene therapy, genome analysis, regenerative medicine, or “longevity in a pill.”
Beyond plastic: the rise of biobased materials
Public pressure is mounting for consumer goods producers to change the way they make their products.
The good news is that many of the largest producers of consumer packaged goods and apparel have some sort of plan to use more post-consumer recycled plastic in their products. The bad news is that not enough plastic is recycled globally for companies to get enough material to produce their products more sustainably. As a result, many companies are exploring the option of getting rid of plastic entirely.
For example, seaweed-derived materials are an active area of innovation right now. Fungi and algae are also commonly used materials from nature that are used to create biodegradable products. In one particularly interesting example, a company called MycoWorks recently began working with GM Ventures to explore the use of mycelium-based leather alternatives in GM vehicles.
While researchers and companies are barely scratching the surface of what’s possible, consumers are likely to see more tangible examples of bio-based materials appearing in stores. After all, the brands will be very eager to talk about their increasingly plastic-free product lines.
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