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Computing's top tech predictions for 2023

Constraints and costs define the year – but it’s not all bad news

Global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's illegal war in Ukraine have shown the difficulty of predicting the future - but they've also demonstrated the crucial role technology has to play in solving these problems.

Today we have access to more data than ever before, and it's becoming more and more usable with developments in supercomputing and the cloud. We are, finally, starting to see glimpses of the future where we might take ourselves, using the developments of the last decade.

CIOs and other innovators are already building and using advanced technology in and outside the workplace, so what can we expect 2023 to look like from an IT perspective?

Click below for quick links to our predictions on:

Demand for tech workers will remain high, but the talent shortage will get worse

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Recent layoffs at massive tech firms have prompted talk of the technology bubble bursting, when it is more like the Silicon Valley bubble. The technology market remains strong, as seen in the shortage of skilled employees - a shortage that will only continue to grow more pronounced next year.

Since 2020, the majority of companies worldwide have been on a tech modernisation spending spree, creating huge demand for technologists. It has, for several years, been an employees' market, and while spiralling salary demands aren't sustainable in the long term, there are few signs of supply easing in the near future.

In fact, the labour pool is practically tapped out at this point. The move to remote working meant businesses could take on people from new locations and situations, like stay-at-home parents; but most of those with interest have been recruited in the last two years.

Prashanth Chandrasekar, CEO of Stack Overflow, said that rather than remaining stagnant - a problem in itself - the pool of available employees might actually be shrinking:

"The labour pool may actually be contracting due to...increasing insularity and anti-immigrant fervour around the world. In the US, for example, the number of immigrants holding a US H-1B visa and high-tech job fell 9% in 2021 from 2020, the highest drop in a decade. In 2022, with layoffs hitting H-1B holders who will now be forced to return home, the drop may even steeper."

The UK has already experienced this in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, and so far the Government seems to have little idea how to remedy the situation.

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Computing's top tech predictions for 2023

Constraints and costs define the year – but it’s not all bad news

Initiatives to increase tech diversity will increase, but results won't be seen in 2023

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Despite a great deal of discussion in tech and in society more generally, technology remains pretty homogenous in many respects including gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background in particular. There have been some notable exceptions, many of which Computing has celebrated, but on the whole, technology leadership remains unrepresentative of wider society - which carries a number of unwelcome implications.

A common approach by tech companies when challenged about their homogenous leadership teams is to lament the lack of girls taking STEM subjects at school. Whilst this is undoubtedly something that needs to change, it's also a very convenient way of avoiding taking responsibility for continually promoting the same type of person.

Much of the problem starts at the founding level. Atomico recently released its State of European Tech report, and the findings on diversity make for wearily familiar reading.

87% of all VC funding in Europe is still raised by men-only founding teams, and the proportion of funding raised by women-only teams has, almost unbelievably, dropped from 3% to 1% since 2018. None of Europe's existing unicorns have an all-female founding team.

Ethnic minority founders are also being discriminated against. Just 1.4% of European unicorns are set up by a founding team entirely made up of minority ethnic entrepreneurs, and those founders have raised 0.7% of total unicorn funding.

According to the Atomico report, just 35% of European tech companies have a recruitment programme in place to reach people from diverse backgrounds. 2023 should see this number rise, if for no other reason than the huge skills shortfalls that companies are experiencing.

Russ Shaw CBE, Founder of Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates commented:

"Once again, Atomico's report highlights the tech industry's shameful record on diversity and inclusion. It's not acceptable that women continue to be denied a seat at the table."

"The tech sector must double-down on tackling this critical issue. Over 65% of tech companies do not have a recruitment programme in place to reach people from diverse backgrounds. Enough is enough - the private sector has a responsibility to change this failure of inclusion, and tech investors must step up and demonstrate they can do better."

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