What can we expect from Insights and Data in 2023?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen the demand from customers wanting to better leverage their data, a theme that continued into 2022. Whilst we start 2023 with some uncertainty in the world due to a number of factors including the conflict in Ukraine, the energy crisis and economic challenges, we expect that use of data to navigate these, and other challenges, will continue.

Where do we think this demand will drive the most benefits for organisations and what aspects of insights and data will drive this? Here is what we predict for 2023…

AI and ML will continue to mature

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have long been part of our Insights and Data business and their use in industry has grown considerably in recent years. In fact, they’ve become fundamental in transforming the field of analytics in recent years by offering a level of speed and scale that isn’t humanly possible. This has enabled organisations to make big changes in how they approach their core business or even, in some instances, transform their business completely.

However, whilst there has been progress, it is fair to say that the technologies haven’t fully reached the mainstream – we’re only starting to scratch the surface of their capabilities. The use of AI and ML within the data and insight industry is happening in pockets for now but it’s set to gather some serious momentum very soon. Just recently, we have seen the huge amount of publicity from the release of ChatGPT. With this, we expect these innovations to permeate in 2023, becoming more pervasive and happening on a larger scale as organisations gain more confidence around AI tools and begin to put more trust in using higher levels of automation in their solutions. That said, trust will be an important aspect in how the adoption of these technologies grows in 2023 and beyond.

Bigger shifts in data democratisation

In 2021, it was forecast that the overall amount of data created worldwide would reach 79 zettabytes. By 2025, this amount is expected to double. Data and how we handle it, therefore, will become an even bigger priority in the year ahead for most businesses and industries. At the same time, while many use its burgeoning nature as a selling point for what they need to do around data, we must remember that large volumes of data don’t necessarily mean that all of it is useful. A crucial factor here is that businesses can get a handle on their data and turn large volumes of it into value and get it into the hands of the right people.

With this in mind, we can expect a greater focus on data democratisation in the year ahead, with organisations making their data more accessible to their employees and stakeholders, educating them on how to work with it, regardless of their technical background, to improve internal processes. Most businesses will, therefore, be driven to better understand what data is important to them, not only what they own but what’s available to them on the outside as well, putting it in the hands of the people in a usable way to extract the most value.

Data ecosystems boosting business operations

Data ecosystems will be another trend we’ll see develop further in 2023, where a business can share data effectively across its organisational boundaries with a view that the value of that data will increase.

Ecosystems are interconnected sets of services in a single integrated experience and have emerged across a range of industries in the last few years or so, from financial services to retail to healthcare, transcending multiple sectors. Traditionally, ecosystems can provide a good opportunity for organisations to increase their influence and fend off potential disruption.

In 2023, we predict the share of data ecosystems will continue to grow as more businesses learn to trust it, putting greater faith in security and how their data will be handled when they do share it. To achieve this, there are some technology solutions which will help, most notably Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET).

While the technology barriers will be removed, the biggest problem with data ecosystems will be the cultural aspect. Will people be willing to share their data and trust other people with it? The focus in data ecosystems for the year ahead will certainly be on how an organisation can gain market share and advocate business value from it in a way that differentiates them from their competitors.

Data to be at the heart of S/4 Transformations

Another big theme we’ll see in 2023 is within the SAP space. Many of the software giant’s enterprise customers will be migrating their business software to the latest version of SAP’s enterprise resource planning software, S/4HANA. With support for the previous version (SAP ECC) ending in 2027 – with customers needing to migrate to S4 by then or pay premiums – we’re going to see many companies putting some serious effort into migration planning in 2023 so they can ensure a swift transition ahead of the deadline.

Data will play a hugely important role in the delivery of these S/4 Transformation programmes. For too long, the management and exploitation of data within SAP programmes have been of lower importance than other factors such as business process improvements. If organisations can move the focus to embed data management and exploitation into the business processes, then the opportunities for organisations will be exponential. This must include the data which is held outside of the core SAP platform. Organisations should start planning now how they will manage and govern data in their new S/4 implementations and look to use this data to bring about the huge opportunities this transformation can deliver.

Please click the link below to read more from our 2023 prediction series