Skip navigation
crystal ball Alamy

IT Leaders' Tech Predictions for 2023

More than a dozen IT leaders share their tech predictions (52 in all) for 2023.

Between the outbreak of a war and fears of a recession, not to mention massive layoffs and burnout in overworked employees, including IT professionals, it's good to finally put 2022 behind us. But many of these problems are still haunting us, and will continue to do so deep into 2023.

But the outlook isn't all grim. We at ITPro Today have made our tech predictions for 2023:

8 Proactive Cybersecurity Technologies to Watch in 2023
How Artificial Intelligence Will Evolve in 2023
3 IT Operations and Management Trends to Watch in 2023
3 Cloud Computing Trends That Will Improve Performance, Cost in 2023
Data Storage Market Trends to Watch in 2023
5 Key Kubernetes Trends to Follow in 2023
5 Software Development Trends to Watch in 2023
Top Programming Language Trends in 2023
AI, Data Science, and DevOps: Opportunities for IT Careers in 2023

Now it's the industry's turn. Not surprisingly, AI, cloud computing, sustainability, and ransomware continue to dominate the tech predictions, but IT leaders made surprising ones as well, some that could have a big impact on IT professionals this year.

What the Industry Expects from 2023

Featuring (in alphabetical order): athenahealth (AI) / Domino Data Lab (data science, hybrid and multicloud, AI) / Duck Creek Technologies (cloud) / Genpact (digital transformation) / GitLab (DecSecOps, AI, analytics) / ManageEngine (AI, 5G, ransomware) / Percona (platform engineering, data privacy, PostgreSQL, DBRE) / Pure Storage (AI, sustainability, cloud) / Rapid (APIs, no code, gateways) / RKVST (supply chain) / SAP North America (energy, green tsunami, multicloud, AI, robots) / Tricentis (cybersecurity) / WorkFusion (AI, pKYC) / Zscaler (cybersecurity)

athenahealth

Alicia Bassolino, vice president of analytics and AI:

For all the attention that has been paid to the potential for AI to revolutionize clinical care and diagnostics, we believe it has similarly transformational potential to alleviate elements of administrative burden that have driven burnout and the healthcare staffing crisis. We see AI playing a critical role in the following ways:

  • Virtual scribes that not only understand voice commands, but the entirety of provider/patient conversations to surface information to providers when they need it.
  • The ability to read through the insurmountable amounts of unstructured data that flows through the U.S. healthcare system each day and extract and link key information to patient charts automatically. This would allow providers to have access to the most up-to-date and relevant patient information without the burden of manually sifting through mountains of paperwork.
  • Helping providers close critical care gaps by understanding their clinical notes and generating necessary diagnoses and procedure codes.
  • Alleviating the documentation and administrative loads physicians and staff face, giving them more time to focus on patients.

Domino Data Lab

Nick Elprin, CEO and co-founder:

Early adopters will use hybrid and multicloud capabilities to leapfrog competitors. For global enterprises, achieving breakthrough data science innovation across distributed teams while adhering to growing data governance and privacy regulations may seem impossible. Today's skyrocketing cloud costs show us that unleashing data science at scale is not feasible without a mix of on-prem and multicloud infrastructure, and they're pushing AI/ML frontrunners to repatriate costly cloud workloads back to the data center. Entering 2023, the result is a rising urgency to give data scientists ubiquitous access to data, compute, and reusable code without sacrificing cost efficiency or compliance. Rather than lock in with a single provider, 2023's data science standouts will be those who now wisely choose to mix their data center's AI capabilities with the best ones from each cloud.

Economic uncertainty will expand the divide between model-driven enterprises and all others. Every company needs to be model-driven, but most are still "data science dabblers," treating data science as discretionary projects rather than core business strategy. Without the right talent, tools, or infrastructure, data scientists spend too much time on engineering or admin tasks instead of building breakthroughs. When economic uncertainty tightens budgets, these dabblers will inevitably shut down their data science projects to conserve cash. In 2023 and beyond, this dynamic will significantly widen the gap between those who try and those who succeed as model-driven enterprises.

Increased opportunities for deep learning will boost demand for GPUs. The biggest source of improvement in AI has been the deployment of deep learning — and especially transformer models — in training systems, which are meant to mimic the action of a brain's neurons and the tasks of humans. These breakthroughs require tremendous compute power to analyze vast structured and unstructured data sets. Unlike CPUs, graphics processing units (GPUs) can support the parallel processing that deep learning workloads require. That means in 2023, as more applications founded on deep learning technology emerge to do everything from translating menus to curing disease, demand for GPUs will continue to soar.

Duck Creek Technologies

Nag Vaidyanathan, chief technology officer:

In 2023, enterprises will be more bullish on embracing a cloud model. In fact, Gartner predicts more than 85% of organizations will embrace a cloud-first principle by 2025, and will not be able to fully execute their digital strategies without the use of cloud-native architectures and technologies. Cloud provides the needed elasticity and scalability to help enterprises navigate through a changing technology landscape and meet dynamically evolving customer needs. It allows companies to introduce value-added services and integrate with existing capabilities to streamline business processes — and reduce the risk and cost of change. With the ability to provide data and application security, subscription- and consumption-based pricing, resource pooling, on-demand services, and availability and resiliency, cloud technologies will allow enterprises to stay one step ahead of the market as their business needs change.

Genpact

Sanjay Srivastava, chief digital strategist:

Top 5 digital transformation trends that could unfold in 2023:

1. Moving from data poor to data rich. Data exists in many places, and it's no secret that companies struggle to use most of it. This concept is known as dark data. Essentially, data hides in plain sight but is unknown or inaccessible to business leaders, causing them to feel data poor. In 2023, I expect companies to move from data poor to data rich for two reasons. First, business operations have more digital devices embedded, so we have new and more visible data sources. Second, artificial intelligence can take previously unstructured data and easily convert, extract, and put it to productive use at scale. Some data-rich enterprises are already harnessing the power of data to create modern customer experiences. Consider the travel industry. With one app on your phone, you can view schedules, check if your flight is on time, buy tickets, view loyalty benefits, pick a seat, track your bag, complain or compliment — it's an experience that connects customers and the employees who serve them. 2023 will become a year for change for many other industries as well.

2. The shift from big data to big AI. Big data is often messy. To make the best use of data, data and analytics teams devote valuable time and resources to managing, governing, cleansing, and wrangling it. But as we see repeatedly, it's not the amount of data you have that matters; it's how you use it selectively and effectively. For example, large language models (LLM) — some of the most advanced deep learning algorithms capable of understanding conversational language — make data more usable. With LLM, an employee could ask for "a report comparing Q4 2022 sales to Q4 2021," and the LLM delivers the request instantaneously. Here, AI evolves from being directionally accurate to specifically correct. This is big AI — and as a result, enterprises are experiencing higher performance from out-of-the-box models compared to traditional models trained with big data. Consequently, big AI is reducing the need for big data.

3. Bridging the gap between business and technology with AI. As I explored in the second trend, big AI brings the power of artificial intelligence to everyone. In other words, AI is bridging the gap between business and technology expertise. Business leaders no longer need to speak the language of technology leaders and vice versa — but they can work together effectively. For example, now that AI can generate new content and create realistic images and art from a simple phase, we're entering an era where AI can write code for applications, and we will see next-generation applications accessible to everyone. The rise of intelligent applications will create the need for stronger controls and governance in order to keep shadow IT initiatives in check. However, rather than driving a wedge between business and technology teams, these AI-powered solutions lay the foundation for a data-driven enterprise where everyone can use AI to get work done quickly and efficiently.

4. Technology is the key to a sustainable future. Adopting sustainable business practices is no longer optional. Instead, it's something every employee, customer, and partner will consider when deciding which companies to work for, buy from, and work with. And this trend will become even more prevalent in 2023. In response, technology leaders are increasingly using advanced analytics and AI to support sustainability goals. They analyze their internal and external data to identify opportunities for carbon reduction, measure their carbon footprint, and use these insights to reduce their impact on the planet. Beyond tangible benefits, sustainable business practices are an opportunity for business and technology collaboration, as tech leaders can help business leaders measure and optimize their sustainability efforts. There is also a shift in how enterprise leaders view sustainability. Instead of seeing it as a drain on budget and resources, organizations can balance purpose with profit. What's more, as sustainability initiatives drive greater competitive advantage, innovation, and financial performance, sustainability investments will continue to grow.

5. Digital transformation is 80% people, 20% tech. The most overlooked enabler of successful digital transformation is managing organizational change and culture. It's about how you build a business that constantly adapts to the external environment and never gets stuck in existing ways of doing things. And this is where people play a crucial role. I say that digital transformation is only 20% about the tech and 80% about the people. Why? Because you need an organization full of data-literate, AI-enabled, and innovative talent to turn your digital aspirations into a reality. As your business needs continue evolving, the skills of your employees must keep pace. For example, consider roles like SEO specialists, telemedicine physicians, and drone operators, which didn't exist until relatively recently. To thrive in this new environment, business and technology leaders must continue to seek, attract, retain, and develop technology talent across their organizations for success in 2023 and beyond.

GitLab

David DeSanto, chief product officer:

DevSecOps platforms will absorb IT service management (ITSM) platform requirements in order to continue shifting operations processes left. As uncovered by GitLab's DevSecOps survey, which found that 69% of respondents want to consolidate their toolchains, the broader industry is trending toward consolidated toolchains — ITOps tools and functionalities are no exception. To provide enterprises with much-needed visibility into their value stream, service management will become a critical part of the DevSecOps platform. This will allow service desk data to reside within the unified data model of DevSecOps platforms, expanding visibility across the entire SDLC.

AI-assisted workflows will gain popularity in application development. GitLab's 2022 DevSecOps survey found that 31% of respondents now use AI/ML as part of code review, and nearly half said they have full test automation. We'll continue to see this trend upward, as AI/ML will further enable rapid development, security remediation, improved test automation, and better observability.

As remote development becomes more and more commonplace, software supply chain security will play a more expansive role across the software development lifecycle. Security and compliance responsibilities will span from the IDE [integrated development environment] and extend to applications running in production, continuing the ongoing trend toward security as an organization-wide responsibility. GitLab's 2022 DevSecOps survey found that 53% of respondents across Dev, Sec, and Ops said everyone was responsible for security. Security and compliance functions will continue to integrate, becoming essentially synonymous over the course of the year.

Value stream analytics will extend past development workflows to provide a more holistic view of the value organizations deliver to their users (both internal and external). Executive leadership will seek out metrics that give insight into how digital transformation and technological investments are delivering value and driving business results. This is a shift from solely focusing on development efficiencies. GitLab's 2022 DevSecOps survey found that 75% of respondents are either using a DevOps platform or plan to move to one within a year, with one of the drivers of this change being better metrics and observability.

ManageEngine

Mathivanan Venkatachalam, vice president:

Enterprises will combat the IT skills crunch with AIOps. Amidst an ever-growing IT skills gap, enterprises are crunched for talent, while juggling budget cuts, heightened productivity KPIs, and a lack of qualified talent. In 2023, enterprises will rely on AIOps-driven automation to bridge the gap and enable them to deliver autonomous workspaces, simplifying IT administration and reducing dependency on skilled IT labor. Enterprises will increasingly lean on ununified endpoint management (UEM) to automate workflows to eliminate manual intervention across device management, security, and user experience. In addition, UEM solutions will leverage AIOps for data-driven automation with proactive detection and remediation of device performance and other manual processes.

5G will spur increased IoT adoption in 2023, which needs securing. The advancement of 5G networks and the subsequent improvement in performance and reliability of IoT devices will create an uptick in IoT adoption in 2023. In today's unpredictable market and business conditions, more and more enterprises are turning to IoT devices to allow employees to complete tasks remotely, without needing to be physically present across several sectors. With the number of 5G IoT endpoints expected to more than triple within the next year, we will also see an increase in the attack surface, exposing more corporate data to risk. Further, 98% of all IoT traffic is found to be unencrypted. IoT endpoints, like any other endpoint, require adequate encryption, identity and access management, compliance enforcement, and more, which can be provided via UEM solutions.

Ransomware as a service will see an uptick in 2023, causing widespread harm. Ransomware has been around for over two decades, but modern-day ransomware is more malicious and widespread than ever. It has evolved in complexity and distribution over the years, with the last couple of years debuting ransomware as a service (RaaS), a subscription-based business model that relies on the recruitment of affiliates to distribute the ransomware while the parent company takes a portion of the revenue. This enables malicious actors to scale rapidly, exposing more and more organizations to threats. The easy availability of ransomware toolkits has eliminated the need for technical expertise to build malware, providing cybercriminals with a way to make quick money. Over the next few years, we expect to see an increase in RaaS and therefore an increase in the number of enterprise breaches.

Percona

Donnie Berkholz, SVP of product management:

Platform engineering will go mainstream. In 2023, platform engineering will move beyond the very early adopter phase and get adopted by more organizations that make heavy use of open source software. Gartner has predicted that platform engineering and self-service stacks will reach mainstream adoption by 2026, but I think it will be faster than that. Platform engineering helps developer teams manage their experience and improve efficiency, based on the lessons learned across DevOps, site reliability engineering, and cloud deployment. It covers how teams can deliver the right kind of developer experience using automation and self-service, so developers can get to writing code and implementing applications rather than having to wait for infrastructure to be set up based on a ticket request.

Data ownership, sovereignty, and control will continue to expand. Rules on data privacy and digital sovereignty are continuing to expand. Following on from the GDPR, CCPA, and EU rules on data privacy, more countries have adopted these rules and regulations to protect their citizens. Countries want to prevent too much control over data by foreign companies. For the EU, this includes looking at how to manage this when U.S. companies effectively own the cloud computing market and what this means for the future. This is a problem for businesses that have to operate across regions and countries, as they will have more restrictions on where they can and can't process their data. Open source database communities are responding to this — for example, PostgreSQL 15 launched in 2022, with its improvements to Logical Replication, so you can set limits and geo-fence subsets of your data so it is restricted to specific locations and can't be replicated outside where it is needed.

PostgreSQL will continue to take over the world. PostgreSQL continues to grow as a project and as a community. It will eventually take over the position that MySQL holds on the DB-Engines ranking and become the most popular open source database, but this will be awhile. There are lots of new projects being launched that base themselves on PostgreSQL and then offer their spin on top. The reason for this is that it is easy to make PostgreSQL do what you want it to, and the license it is released under makes it possible to build businesses on this, as well. For users, it is simple to implement, and the community is a strong one.

Database reliability engineering will make a comeback. Following on from the success of site reliability engineering in the past five years, there was a move to apply the same methodology to database management. However, database reliability engineering (DBRE) did not catch on in the same way. For many companies, their existing database teams were enough, or they wanted to shift their approach to the cloud. However, the DBRE approach seems to be picking up again now. More people want to apply those lessons to how they manage database instances, reducing overheads and improving resiliency. The growth of database deployments on Kubernetes is partly responsible for this new wave of interest, so there should be more demand for DBREs in 2023.

Pure Storage

Amy Fowler, VP, Strategy and Solutions, FlashBlade:

Growth of machine-generated data. While spending may slow down amid a recession, data generation will not. In 2023, more companies will use machine-generated or synthetic data to help train their AI models. One of the advantages of this type of data is the ability to be generated with the precision that data scientists need, saving time and eliminating bottlenecks in the training process such as data sanitization needed for human-derived data. This path will generate more data that can be used to feed their AI training engines faster, consequently creating more demand for fast data storage.

  • Use Case: When building autonomous cars, companies need to simulate numerous combinations of possible events on the road which can't be achieved just in practice. So they're simulating them, which means they're generating test cases and they're feeding that into their AI engines to try to train their self-driving systems.

Escalating the conversation around technology's role in ESG. The macroeconomic trends and geopolitical landscape globally resulted in a dramatic increase in energy costs in 2022. Energy costs will continue to remain high and potentially accelerate in 2023 and will likely coincide with an increase in the regulatory landscape around data center power and cooling. In 2023, the conversations around corporate sustainability initiatives will escalate and will reshape how enterprises evaluate and make purchase decisions when choosing which technology solutions to invest in. In fact, savvy customers will look at not just their suppliers, but the entire supply chain to see where and how goods are manufactured and sourced.

Dan Kogan, VP, Product Management and Product Marketing:

The next phase of the cloud era in 2023: Leveraging best-of-breed technologies to drive a competitive, differentiated cloud strategy. Initial enthusiasm for the public cloud has given way to a more cautious, strategic approach. Those who are just beginning their transition hope to avoid the mishaps of first movers, while organizations that are now proficient in the cloud are looking for ways to "de-risk," such as driving cost efficiencies, improving their infrastructure, and ultimately making better use of the cloud. The next phase of the cloud era will hinge on creating a purpose-built public cloud presence by working with third-party, best-of-breed ecosystem vendors, supported by innovative technology differentiators, to serve and enhance the business while gaining an edge over the competition. In fact, we're already seeing hyperscalers like AWS and Azure open up their offerings, enabling users to differentiate with vendors that can bring critical value to a public cloud environment to best suit their needs.

The adoption curve: Dual application architecture will rise to the top in 2023. Both virtual machines and containers use virtualization to create isolated environments for running applications. The key difference lies in the granularity of virtualization they provide — VMs virtualize at the OS/machine level, while containers virtualize at the software level. While both are complementary and aim to improve IT efficiency, today's modern organizations are often challenged by the question of, "What should be a VM / what should be a container?" The traditional decision of when something should be virtualized compared to bare metal was much easier. Containerization, however, is a different question altogether. In 2023, we'll see organizations move from proof of concept to adoption and truly understanding how to manage VMs and containers together under a dual application architecture.

Customization and back-end access will be key. While there has been a shift toward fully managed services over the last few years, the reality of actually providing fully managed services may not be realistic for all businesses due to the technical and business limitations it can provide. Today, organizations are looking for more flexibility and choice and are focused on finding the best ways to deploy technologies in their cloud environments. As a result, it will become more important for cloud vendors to provide more access to back-end capabilities (such as running back-end scripts, creating larger storage volumes, adding more performance capabilities, etc.) while still providing a service-like experience for their cloud solutions.

Rapid

Andrey Bukati, CTO:

The external API marketplace will become a common enterprise offering. In 2023, we will see many companies start releasing external API marketplaces for both increased visibility and the monetization of APIs. Traditionally, these external marketplaces were only common for specific companies such as eBay and Salesforce, but this is quickly changing.

Increased investment in developer tooling for better developer experience. With the rise of APIs as products, we are stepping into this gray zone of API implementation, which is far from being great. People are still spending days and weeks on learning and implementations. Companies will start to invest more and more in the form of no-code, low-code tools that will allow developers to integrate faster with those APIs.

Gateways will become a commoditized service. Open source tools or cloud vendors are providing their gateways next to free. With that, we will begin to see a tumultuous time for legacy gateway vendors no longer able to rely on vendor lock-in driven by table stakes API management functionality. Separating the winners and the losers will really come down to who focuses on delivering a seamless developer experience that offers a path for utilizing multiple gateways.

RKVST

Jon Geater, chief product and technology officer:

Controlling risk: Software vendors can no longer hide their shortcomings, and software users can no longer hide from their responsibilities if they choose to deploy something inappropriate. Although there's still a way to go, we are definitely now on a road on which the digital supply chain is recognized as being as critical as the physical one: Suppliers must supply quality, and consumers must take control of their own risk.

2023 trends: Businesses in 2023 will gain a greater appreciation for what's possible when they implement integrity, transparency, and trust in a standard, automated way to decrease their software supply chain risk. And they will take that understanding and experience to begin exploring how they can then apply this same model to the physical world in areas such as nuclear waste tracking.

Supply chain attacks: It's not all about "supply chain attacks." Actually, most of the problems come from mistakes or oversights originating in the supply chain, which then open the target to traditional cyberattacks. It's a subtle difference, but an important one. I believe that the bulk of discoveries arising from improvements in supply chain visibility in 2023 will highlight that most threats arise from mistake, not malice.

SAP North America

Lloyd Adams, president:

The energy sector X-factor. Today's technology is optimizing production and consumption of energy. This will only increase and democratize in the coming years. AI approaches will help homes buy energy generation devices and track and buy energy-efficient devices. So far, only a few industries have had access to this. In 2023, there will be off-the-shelf products, both in software and hardware, to make this available everywhere. Quantum computing will be used to discover new materials for efficient storages. IoT will proliferate and granularize planning of energy generation and transportation. Rooftop solar is already common in all nations. Moving forward, communities will put up solar farms to get off the grid. Only simulation software will help communities plan better.

The "green tsunami" will hit and the path to sustainability will travel through the cloud. Companies of all industries — including oil and gas and utilities — will chase zero and decarbonize. Business leaders have traditionally focused on top- and bottom-line performance indicators. But as changing consumer demands — coupled with stricter government regulations around ESG reporting among other laws — push companies toward greener practices, organizations will increasingly consider their green line as the leading indicator of long-term, sustainable business success. As a result, more companies will leverage the efficiency of the cloud to meet their sustainability goals in 2023, with a focus on achieving not just financial performance but also steering positive environmental and social impact through their sustainability metrics.

Multicloud will become table stakes for enterprises. 2023 will be the year that businesses realize the advantages of diversifying their services across several cloud providers. With economists predicting a recession this year, business leaders will look to multicloud for scalability and capability to open the door to growth and real competitive advantage. With this shift, will also come increased investment in learning and development, as businesses look to develop comprehensive training programs to upskill, reskill, and train employees on multiple cloud technologies.

AI will be brought more heavily into the low-code equation. Artificial intelligence will increasingly enable software development processes that are more proactively guided and written by other software. This will allow business users to create new applications using text prompts with the assistance of the application development tools. Software developers will become adept at enabling this evolution by learning how to provide the right prompts to an AI tool to generate the code that a no-code application developer will need. Also, generally at a fundamental level, AI, AR+VR, and simulation software are going to rule. To support this necessary backbone, trends in improving compute, network, and storage are going to take an exponential leap in the next three to five years. So, tech changes will be driven at the compute, storage, and network level! IT departments will increasingly rely on the "business technologist." Low-code options have created a new persona in the workplace: the business technologist — also known as "citizen developer" — who can participate in the application development process. As of now, the IT department still does the heavy lifting of application development, but in 2023 and beyond, business users will increasingly be able to create applications end-to-end with relatively little intervention from developers. This shift will allow developers to focus on maintaining large-scale strategic projects while monitoring the long tail of the applications being built by business technologists.

More robots will enter daily life.  Many countries will need robots to survive the future, especially China, with its aging population. Already we have robo vacuums, washing machines, etc. A humanoid form will enter factory assembly lines to alleviate labor shortages in certain areas. Robots will be tightly integrated in bringing parts from the warehouses to assembly lines. Data centers already are efficient, but disk replacements will see large involvement of humanoid/non-humanoid robots. Also, given the instability around the world, [in the United States] we may see more military-related innovations and spending with the federal government and the Department of Defense. Robotics for the military will be the first real-world use case of machines.

Tricentis

Kevin Thompson, CEO:

As the amount of data grows with the rise of 5G and IoT connections in 2023, so does the need for investment in secure solutions. The general public has become more aware of the access companies have to their personal data, leading to the impending end of third-party cookies and other similar restrictions on data sharing. However, security issues persist. The persisting influx of new data across channels and servers introduces greater risk of infiltration by bad actors, especially for enterprise software organizations that have applications in need of consistent testing and updates. The potential for damage increases as iterations are being made with the expanding attack surface. Now, the reality is a matter of when, not if, your organization will be the target of an attack. To combat this rising security concern, organizations will need to integrate security within the development process from the very beginning. Integrating security and compliance testing at the upfront will greatly reduce risk and prevent disruptions.

WorkFusion

Adam Famularo, CEO:

Our predictions look at broad technology trends and home in on what our financial crime experts anticipate the year ahead will bring to the banking and financial services industry. 

A new type of "hybrid" work emerges as humans and AI work side by side. As the labor crisis extends into 2023 and beyond, employees will move beyond the fear of AI "coming for their jobs" and more readily adopt AI as their alternative colleague to form "fusion teams." These fusion teams will have humans and AI working together. As organizations have struggled to fill open job requisitions, existing employees have had to pick up the slack, leading to burnout and mistakes. By leveraging an AI/ML-enabled digital workforce, both businesses and employees will reap the benefits.

AI gets responsible and explainable. AI is being used increasingly to make all types of decisions. Some of these decisions have more impact or importance on society than others. If a tool doesn't write perfect copy (see ChatGPT) or an app doesn't recognize a face, it's not ideal and can impact a user experience — however, it has minimal impact on society. On the other hand, if AI is deciding what crops to pick, deciding who gets a loan from a bank, or deciding if someone committed a crime, these types of decisions can wreak havoc on people's lives. Increasing regulatory scrutiny (Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and The AI Act) means that AI will need to be explainable. Explainable algorithms help organizations understand how the AI makes its decisions. For example, among financial institutions, practices like model risk management are about reducing the risk to the business and helping explain the AI. With explainable and responsible AI, you reduce the risk of litigation or compliance issues.

The demise of the financial crime analyst. With the rise of machine learning and intelligent automation and its increasing adoption in financial services, we anticipate the demise of the "Level 1" operations analyst. Day-to-day, these positions consist largely of repeatable, monotonous, and time-consuming tasks — in other words, the exact processes that are ripe to be automated. This will have two major effects. Firstly, cost savings and efficiency gains will be enormous. Secondly, and perhaps not so obvious, is that those "Level 1" analysts will now be redirected to more valuable work streams and create more value for the business.

Perpetual Know Your Customer (pKYC) finally realizes its potential. Financial institutions need to know who they are doing business with to limit their exposure to bad actors. Historically, huge case volumes were expensive and required global coordination, while manual approaches often generated poor customer experiences. With that said, whether it is for cost efficiency, customer experience, regulatory compliance, or a combination of all three, in 2023 traditional banks, challenger banks, and fintechs alike will recognize that a continuous review cycle (pKYC) is necessary.

Companies earnestly lead with purpose. While there are already shining stars of ESG like Patagonia, more companies will define their purpose in the products and solutions they bring to market. People, and without question Gen Z, want to buy and invest in companies that show a demonstrable impact on improving the world. For banking and financial services organizations, this means that in addition to digital transformation efforts and a great customer experience, cracking down on AML [anti-money laundering] and limiting the reach of bad actors, including Russian oligarchs, will demonstrate corporate responsibility.

Zscaler

Deepen Desai, global CISO and head of security research:

Six hurdles and opportunities the cybersecurity industry will face in 2023.

  1. Attacks will be harder to catch. During this last year we saw the threat group Lapsus$ appear in headlines, using a unique range of scrappy tactics to compromise organizations and exfiltrate valuable data with a rapid smash-and-grab approach. This should be a wake-up call for defenders and security leaders that time has run out on the previous luxury of building strategies around tidy linear attack chains with numerous events to detect, known indicators, and predictable adversarial techniques. The time is now to prepare for this new wave of potential threats that will surely come in 2023 and the years to follow.
  1. Supply chain attacks will increase as adversaries compromise partner and supplier ecosystems. The world's top organizations often have the best security in place — but the same may not be true for their suppliers and partners, with third-party access to supporting networks, systems, and information. We saw this in the recent compromise of Okta by the rogue hacker group Lapsus$, and in REvil threatening Apple via Quanta Computer, a top manufacturer of Apple products. These groups and many others used supply chain attacks to access sensitive upstream information using supplier access without ever having to breach the hardened security measures of their final targets.
  1. Organizations will need to beef up security beyond endpoint protection. Ransomware groups will increase use of tactics to bypass antivirus and other endpoint security controls. Organizations will have an even greater need for defense-in-depth rather than relying solely on endpoint security to prevent and detect intrusions.
  1. Securing and reducing power consumption will become more of a priority for all businesses. A shortage of gas and electricity will focus companies on reducing their power consumption and cost. Also, on the producer side, we will see a huge push on securing new renewable infrastructure such as solar and wind. Organizations will strive to reduce their energy use and will look for cost-effective mechanisms to inform them about consumption, with IoT monitoring providing a means. Energy reduction will be an important part of ESG objectives, which will have a high priority not just for investors but also brand reputation as companies strive to establish their progress towards carbon neutrality.
  1. Encrypted data exfiltration for extortion will surge. As more ransomware adversaries adopt multi-extortion tactics to make victims pay, you can expect to see rising incidents of sensitive data theft. To bypass firewalls and other legacy security technology, adversaries encrypt data troves before transferring them out of the target's environment.
  1. Cybercriminal interest in ransomware-as-a-service marketplaces will result in more attacks over encrypted channels. Criminals can now simply pay for powerful malware and attack resources, allowing them to wage sophisticated attacks regardless of their own technical prowess. As the as-a-service model gains further popularity, more and more attacks will include evasive tactics, including encryption.

Do you agree or disagree with these tech predictions, or do you have some of your own that didn't make this list? Let us know in the Comments section below!

About the author

Rick Dagley headshotRick Dagley is senior editor at ITPro Today, covering IT operations and management, cloud computing, edge computing, software development and IT careers. Previously, he was a longtime editor at PCWeek/eWEEK, with stints at Computer Design and Telecommunications magazines before that.
Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish