Despite the fact that technological stocks are going to close a disappointing year on the stock market (the Nasdaq index accumulates losses this year of close to 30%), in 2023 the sector will experience a year of novelties: invest to overcome the adverse situation.
“Many startups will fail, but instead a strong digitization process will take place in the industrial sector from 2023,” predicts Josep Salvatella, from the consultancy RocaSalvatella. The consulting firm Gartner estimates that the IT section alone will grow by 5.1% next year, with investments that will exceed 4.6 trillion dollars globally. Which branches will experience the most marked changes?
Because if users may be tempted to tighten their belts, companies have no other way than to continue investing in digital to remain competitive. “Due to inflation, purchasing power has shrunk to the point that many are putting off 2022 purchases until 2023, which will drive device spending down 8.4% this year and down 0.6%. in 2023.”, commented John David Lovelock, from Gartner. Still, "companies will use digital technology primarily to reshape their revenue stream, adding new products and services, changing cash flow as well as changing the value proposition of existing products and services."
“You have to distinguish the decline in stock valuations from the fundamentals,” says Miguel Kindelan, executive director of the investment and advisory firm GP Bullhound in Spain and Portugal, which has just released its Technology predictions 2023 study. "You have to keep in mind that before credit became more expensive after the rise in interest rates, many funds raised money to invest in technology and now is the time to give it some outlet," he says. In the US alone, venture capital accumulates 290,000 million in search of opportunities, a record number.
In addition, Kindelan recalls, technological innovations tend to have deflationary effects. "For these companies, spending in this section is intended to increase productivity and contribute to cost savings and the slowdown in price growth." Something highly valued at this time when inflation has hit its highest levels in the last 40 years in Europe and the US.
Of course: most reports point to developments in technologies that are already present in the economic system. Few disruptive inventions or solutions appear on the horizon. Rather, it is expected that certain advances will achieve a turning point next year to accelerate and fully enter the expansion phase, something that will be possible precisely after the arrival of the new capital.
The ZDNET platform has compiled the concepts that appear most frequently in the most accredited studies. Among the most cited are advances in connectivity (5G, broadband), future developments in the metaverse, the growing adoption of Artificial Intelligence, the challenge of complying with sustainability and the regulation of cryptoactives.
Likewise, it is impossible not to see the reflection of the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine in the forecasts that point to the flourishing of applications to save energy, software to optimize value chains, and the requirement to protect oneself from cyber threats. The business will also be marked by the change in consumer preferences, which increasingly values technology that provides added value to their day-to-day life, but also with an eye on sustainable development.
In short, the world of tomorrow will continue to offer surprises. Because as Arthur C. Clarke wrote, "any advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
