We’ve arrived at this year’s trends through both primary research and lived experience, interviewing both industry and public sector leaders who have developed innovations in everything from resilient manufacturing and data repatriation to digital and biometric credentialing. Their input helped us shape the six trends chronicled in Tech Trends 2023.
As we prepare for launch, I’d encourage a moment of perspective-cum-humility. Futurists are secretly historians. And as Mark Twain reportedly said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”3 Having worked in all things newfangled for 25 years, I’ve seen literally thousands of self-styled “world-changing technologies,” but none that have marked “the end of history.” It’s a sobering thought to realize that today’s white-hot innovations will indeed become tomorrow’s legacy applications—that our pioneering advances might one day be dismissed by the new generation as “the old way.” This is not meant to depress, but to embolden. It might be said that success for us as makers is building something significant and sustainable enough that our successors take notice and flag it for further modernization. Our job, dear reader and fellow leader, is not to hubristically chase “future-proof,” but to humbly target “future-friendly.” Onward, Mike Bechtel Chief futurist Deloitte Consulting LLP Comments are closed.
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