In early 2020, there was no electronic payment culture beyond some incipient initiatives. It would have been impossible to believe that just a few months later, we would be using our virtual wallet to make all payments (accelerated by social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic). And now we want more. We need those levels of usability, simplicity, and convenience with all the transactions.

This is the first big wake-up call for the technological “do’s” and “don’ts” of 2023. There are no age limitations for app users, and they are more secure and more resilient to fraud and criminal attacks. Listen to this trend, and capitalize on the considerable evolution in data, artificial intelligence, and business intelligence. And figure out how these new technologies can impact your business and deliver what the consumer is asking for while working to make it better, better, and more accessible.

The era of data

Just as the biggest “do” is to capitalize on data, the associated “don’t” is not to embrace the “data fad” so quickly. An organization needs to understand the available data, its quality, and how it can use the data to achieve its business objectives.

Companies often sit on huge amounts of data that could easily be converted into business value. I always remember a meeting with a client who assured us he maintained a database with fifteen years of accounting transactions, sales, collections, invoicing, and customer contacts that they did not delete or clean because they feared it would break the system. It was an inexhaustible source of value with no supporting strategy that had survived for the wrong reasons. Today, analytical AI or machine learning-based tools can transform data into efficiency, profitability, and even new business models.

In its FutureScape report, IDC states that Latin American companies will have to act quickly to modernize their technology infrastructure to ensure data can be shared and not trapped in silos or servers disconnected from other parts of the organization.

Avoiding the technology hype

Every year, Gartner predicts the ten critical technologies of the following year. When you look back at these reports, you find that the level of accuracy is relatively high. What does 2023 have in store for us?

Technologies are grouped into four categories. The first category is optimization-oriented technologies: digital immune systems (a combination of security and automation to mitigate business risks), applied observability (the evolution of monitoring to keep everything under control), and the governance model for artificial intelligence AI TRiSM.

The second category comprises technologies that enable the business to scale to take advantage of new virtual opportunities: cloud platforms with industry-specific as-a-service propositions, platform engineering (packages that include tools, capabilities, and processes for developers and end users), and wireless-value realization (wireless networks for all services).

The third category brings together the most cutting-edge concepts: super apps (a platform with app features, a platform, and an ecosystem for third parties to develop and publish their mini-apps), adaptative AI (rethinks itself when the environment changes), and the Metaverse. Cross-cutting to all categories is sustainable IT. We recommend that you try out ChatGPT, a tool that has been in development for more than twelve years and which is capable of answering almost any question in English or Spanish, based on data and conversational analysis models one of the most extensive organized knowledge levels on the planet and use of colloquial language worthy of a human. This evolved while we were distracted by technological fads that lived and died without impact.

The fourth category is critical: the modernization of applications. Generally speaking, we live connected to applications with an average lifespan of over ten years. In some cases, they are three times as old, such as banking applications. Modernizing them was not a priority: the few times that work was done on the subject, it was done superficially and focused on the user experience. It is imperative to review what we need to improve so that they can be scalable, work in modern environments (such as cloud or containers), generate usable data, and, above all, are agile to face new challenges.

The “don’t” linked to new technologies, especially when they are so attractive and glamorous, is not to be tempted to adopt technologies just because they are trendy. It is wise to rethink the business and see how technology and data can help it, not the other way around.

Success with data and new technologies in 2023 is within reach: move forward with all the “do’s” and avoid most of the “don’t.”