AI and the Metaverse in 2023 - Tech predictions

The Metaverse

The concepts and ideas around the term “metaverse” will evolve during 2023. Meta’s troubles, and more recently the stories from the world of crypto, have been well publicised, but it’s important to look beyond these troubles. The term metaverse is much broader than just one company, or one facet of technology.

If 2022 was the year that boards needed to begin to develop an awareness of the Metaverse, then 2023 is the year they need to begin to develop strategies and tactics for this evolution of the internet.

Whilst the term “metaverse” continues to be relatively loose (and often controversial) we are seeing exciting technologies that will form part of our digital future fall under the Metaverse umbrella. In a decade the Metaverse will almost certainly be different to how it is imagined today. By then, we will be enjoying the benefits of these technological advancements in the way we both work and play.

A lot of the focus around the Metaverse has been surrounding consumer and social, but I project 2023 will see further penetration of metaverse ideas into industry. For example, Renault announced in late 2022 their expectations that a digital twin across their production line will deliver savings of €320m by 2025, plus €260m in inventory savings, a 60% reduction in vehicle delivery time and a 50% reduction in carbon footprint across vehicle manufacturing.

Exciting, high-profile uses of the technology will provide inspiration for others, across a range of industries. There will be an exciting partnering of technology businesses developing the capability of the Metaverse, aligned with many industries looking to implement it and allow them access to a market that has been estimated as multi-trillion by 2030.

Board’s action plans should include deep consideration of the fundamentals tech trends seen today. We are talking here about the future of how society works, learns and socialises.

2023 is the year to upskill the team – starting with the C-suite. It is not just the Chief Digital Officer that has a role here, although their position will be key within the C-suite. Chief Marketing Officers will need to consider marketing strategy and Chief Financial Officers will need to be aware of how new technologies, such as blockchain, impact the financial reporting, tax and controls of the business. People officers may have the hardest roles of all, as they need to enact plans that develop the digital skillsets across multi-generational workforces and plot out effective, forward-facing recruitment. The CEO and COO will need to oversee the current and future impact of the Metaverse across the entire organisation.

It would do no harm to review operating models through a lens that considers the deep impact of the Metaverse. Ensure that you have factored in the fundamental changes to digital interaction at all levels in the organisation – from the internal structure of the business, all the way to revenue generating activities. Within these reviews there will be challenges – but also opportunity. The digital twin, outlined by Renault above, is planned to deliver both cost savings and positive environmental impacts.

Exciting developments in Artificial Intelligence across businesses

2023 will see further adoption and integration of artificial intelligence into our daily lives – and this includes within business. These tools will become much more sophisticated with broader, deeper capabilities. We have seen an example of its potential in late 2022 with the release of ChatGPT.

ChatGPT-3 (short for "Generative Pretrained Transformer 3") is a large and powerful language model developed by OpenAI. It is capable of generating human-like text on a wide range of topics, and can be used for tasks such as text summarization, translation and question answering.

The GPT-3 model is trained on a huge amount of text data, which allows it to understand the nuances and complexities of human language. This makes it very effective at generating text that sounds natural and human-like, making it useful for a wide variety of applications.

GPT-3 is often used in combination with other technologies, such as chatbots, to provide a more natural and engaging user experience. There are many potential use cases for AI-enabled chatbots in a business setting. Some examples include:

Automating customer service: AI-powered chatbots can be used to provide instant assistance to customers who have questions or need help with a product or service. This can help to reduce the workload on human customer service agents, while still providing high-quality assistance to customers.
Gathering information from customers: AI-powered chatbots can be used to gather information from customers, such as their preferences and needs, in order to help businesses better understand their customers and improve their products and services.
Providing personalized recommendations: AI-powered chatbots can be used to provide personalized recommendations to customers based on their individual needs and preferences. This can help businesses to improve customer satisfaction and increase sales.
Helping with account management: AI-powered chatbots can be used to assist customers with managing their accounts, such as by providing account information and allowing customers to make changes to their accounts or update their contact information.

Overall, the use of AI-powered chatbots can help businesses to improve their operations and better serve their customers, ultimately leading to increased sales and growth. If you want proof of the potential of this technology – all but the initial paragraph in this section above were generated by ChatGPT in response to the questions: