Navigating the way in 2023 and beyond with innovation at the core

India’s story in the 21^st century, particularly in the last decade, has been nothing short of spectacular. From being perceived as a technologically slow country, India has now become one of the fastest-growing economies, and this growth has been fuelled by innovation. Initiatives such as ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ have created a gold mine of opportunities for technology-driven research, innovation, and solution development. This was accelerated further by pandemic-induced implications, which assisted the world in navigating the challenges through various new use cases in manufacturing, healthcare, and the workplace, among other areas.

According to NASSCOM, the market share of the Indian engineering, research, and development market to the global market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12-13% to reach US$ 63 billion by 2025. Furthermore, the government is developing the India@2047 vision plan with the goal of making India future-ready and strengthening the national ecosystem of research, innovation, and technology. In order to achieve this, we must invest in Research & Development (R&D) to integrate existing technologies to solve the dynamic challenges of today's Brittle, Anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible (BANI) world.

As we approach 2023, the following are some of the key technologies that must be developed to boost our innovation quotient even further.

• Quantum technology – Quantum computing is often considered a highly advanced technology that is decades away from mass adoption. In reality, it is advancing fast. In fact, practical use cases have started emerging. There is still time to put these use cases in production. Quantum computing is one of the most important developments not only in physics but in all of science. It will have applications available that are not possible today and will lead to an influx of opportunities. However, before we reach that point, we must invest in education and development with the aim of closing the skills gap. To meet market expectations, a workforce for quantum computing will need to be continuously cultivated. A lack of knowledge of quantum computing and a shortage of qualified researchers in this field will dramatically slow global deployments. At a time of global economic volatility, businesses need to future-proof themselves and their operations – and having an appropriately skilled quantum workforce will be key. 
• Left shift of AI – AI has achieved some magnificent marvels from prediction systems used in businesses to defeating human players in game of Go/chess and even protein folding for better drug discoveries. AI however still suffers from a challenge. The challenge is the common sense that we humans possess. Would it ever become common sensical, I don’t think so, but the latest shift in AI is taking inspiration from the human brain and developing systems which use low data and are more robust to variations. Use cases where this helps are autonomous cars, rapid change of situations where AI models could adapt better.
• Humanizing the robots – Smart robots are already being utilized alongside humans in logistics, social settings, and safety applications. The pandemic has further accelerated this adoption. In the coming years, there will be advancements to make robots look and function more like humans. There will be an expansion of real-world usage of these smart robots, and one might see them as event hosts, waitresses at restaurants, at the concierge, and as companions for older adults. These robots would be capable of carrying out simple, pre-defined tasks such as watering the plants, attending to the door, contactless cleaning, and lifting objects, among others. Furthermore, Gartner predicts that demand for robotic goods-to-person(G2P) systems will quadruple by 2023. These systems will aid in the enforcement of social distancing in warehouses. With G2P systems, the robots will deliver the goods to a person who remains in one location. This further indicates the emergence of new use cases in industries such as logistics, manufacturing, hospitality, surgery, and agriculture.
• Metaverse– One of the most talked about technologies, metaverse, is now rapidly evolving with the development of new AR/VR technologies. It is predicted that the metaverse will be worth over $5 trillion globally by 2030, and this trend is expected to get a major boost in 2023. Companies are increasingly adopting it as a part of learning and development as well as corporate onboarding initiatives. Metaverse is a disruptive technology that has the power to revolutionize learning through immersive digital experiences. Having said that, it is a new technology, and much work remains to be done to fully identify and implement the technology's innovative and practical applications outside of gamification. 
• Web3.0 – Set to be the next frontier of the internet, Web 3.0 enables people to develop industry ecosystems and communities that facilitate end-to-end integrations and collaboration. The technology is ideal for creators, as it allows them to easily create and sell intellectual property and content, as well as create customized avatars for any personality. Having said that, Web 3.0 is still a developing technology with a significant need for a more general understanding. As existing Web 3.0 players begin to scale up, many predict Web 3.0 adoption will gradually increase over the next 3 to 5 years. However, it is critical to ensure that we have adequate resources and support to drive successful innovation through Web 3.0.
• Low Code/No Code – The technology industry is looking towards another revolution in the coming years. Signals of the same have started coming from applications like ChatGPT. While we are quite far from AI developing code, but the process has begun. From codex (open AI) to Git hub pilot to ChatGPT, we are slowly looking towards an age where human programmers would start taking substantial help from AI programmers in terms of producing robust, quality-oriented code pieces to solve business problems.

Overall, 2022 has been a fantastic year for setting the stage for a tech-driven post-pandemic future. It is now up to businesses and end-users to further build on this foundation and create game-changing innovations in various human-centric areas in 2023 and beyond!

The article has been written by Nikhil Malhotra, Global Head, Makers Lab, Tech Mahindra