Tech Predictions for 2023
by
Matt Senter, CTO & Co-founder of Lolli
2022 in tech has been a year defined by key economic and industry shifts, namely hot inflation, tech layoffs, and the arrival of crypto winter.
Expect to see a wave of innovations emerge from bear market conditions in 2023, as companies double down on building strong, scalable solutions, especially by leveraging AI and blockchain.
1. Traditional Financial Firms Will Forge Into Fintech and Crypto
Leading financial firms from banks to card providers will launch revamped app experiences to offer modern consumers the seamless digital touchpoints they have come to expect. Offering support for digital assets, including custody services for crypto or NFTs, will become a new standard for financial services firms in 2023. With an estimated 320 million crypto owners in 2022, these firms will look to launch their own exchanges and adjacent services in 2023 to steal market share from existing crypto companies.
We will also see a wave of M&A across finance and technology as legacy financial firms absorb crypto companies weakened by market conditions.
2. People Will Seek Out Tech That Helps Them Manage Their Money
As the economy slows into an expected recession, companies that help people earn, save, and manage their money are positioned to see strong growth in 2023. To this end, products that make financial services and benefits accessible and user-friendly will become more popular. High-yield savings accounts, shopping rewards programs, and rebates will be major beneficiaries of the market downturn.
3. The Rise of Generative AI
The public paid more attention to AI than ever in 2022, particularly due to the proliferation of AI-powered avatars on social media and the buzz around ChatGPT, an AI-powered interactive encyclopedia. To stay competitive, Google will likely recommence its own initiatives to build an AI search engine in 2023.
AI will become ubiquitous for functions beyond its novelty in 2023, including automating mundane daily tasks. The market size of generative AI is expected to grow by over 30% over the next 8 years, driven in part by its use by financial services to automate existing services, maximizing efficiency and minimizing costs and service fees.
4. Payments Infrastructure Will Get a Modern Makeover
In 2023, with an economic downturn on the horizon, companies will focus on strengthening and modernizing baseline payments infrastructure rather than investing in experimental offerings. Improving existing payment infrastructure will mean adopting low-risk, high-value products like one-click purchasing, Apple Pay and Buy Now, Pay Later tools. A growing number of companies will also offer cryptocurrency payments, following the lead, and leveraging the technology of companies like Shopify and PayPal.
The enterprise payments space is also poised for disruption as the Federal Reserve gears up to launch its instant-payment service, FedNow. With the Fed’s entry into B2B payments, enterprise payments, which have typically lagged behind consumer-facing payments, will innovate to new standards of ease, convenience, and speed.
5. Tech Layoffs Will Generate a New Pipeline af Startup Talent
This year’s tech layoffs from the likes of Meta and Coinbase left a vast population of high-skilled tech workers jobless, laying the groundwork for a new class of talent to build new startups. The result of the layoffs will be a wave of innovative products and business models across tech.
We will see a particular focus on web3 applications, fintech, healthcare, cloud, and AI applications. In this competitive landscape, weaker business models won’t survive, which will ultimately strengthen the technology sector.
6. More Sites Will Adopt Seamless Sign-Ins and Webauthn
Websites will adapt to new standards for seamless authentication in 2023. We will see more websites adopt WebAuthn, a flexible, highly secure standard for authentication through methods like security keys and biometric sensors.
We will also see greater use of web3 wallet authentication, which lets users login and interact with websites using their web3 wallets. By storing a users’ credentials directly within the wallet rather than on discrete servers and by using public key encryption, web3 wallets enhance security and privacy. Users can also seamlessly leverage wallet connectivity to buy and sell digital goods or receive site airdrops, making the web3 authentication a holistic solution for interacting with a website or app.”
