New technologies and digitalisation are transforming many industries at an increasingly fast pace, and capital markets are no exception. The quest for talent, cybersecurity and the focus on green tech are likely to shape tech priorities and developments in 2023 and have a big impact on businesses across sectors.

The Great Resignation, a popular way to refer to the record number of people who have left their jobs since the beginning of the pandemic, has also touched IT professionals. While it was challenging to find specific tech competences before the pandemic, this challenge has now spread to cover all areas across IT departments. As companies are accelerating their digitalisation efforts, more tech profiles are needed and they are harder to find. The lack of tech talents is a global phenomenon that is likely to be high on the agenda of business leaders everywhere.  

Partly as a result of this, end-user computing is gaining traction. Low-code or no-code developments are increasingly seen as an alternative to more complex software developments. Low-code and no-code developments do not require extensive knowledge of software design and programming language, and allow employees outside of IT departments to find ways to automate basic tasks that are part of their daily work and thereby accelerate the digital transformation on their level. This saves time, costs and resources, without requiring the involvement of tech profiles.

Cybersecurity

The second big trend for 2023 is cybersecurity. While cybersecurity has been a priority for IT departments for some years already, the stakes are becoming a lot higher. Cybercrime has grown into a well-structured business and is extremely profitable, with potentially devastating consequences for the victims.

Financial institutions are popular targets for cybercriminals, but all companies and institutions need to consider this risk. This threat means that businesses need to adapt in terms of how they protect their systems and data, in terms of the authentication rules that they put in place, and they must be stricter when analysing access rights to prevent cybercriminals from gaining access to all a company’s servers by hacking the password of one employee.  

Green tech

The third trend is green tech. Green tech has two dimensions. The first one is the developments of clean tech or digital alternatives to high-emitting activities. The prime example here is the carbon emissions avoided when organising a meeting or a conference via a video conferencing tool as opposed to flying in delegates from across the world.

However, there is another aspect of green tech which is gaining momentum, and which is about optimising the emissions of IT operations and activities to make IT more sustainable. This includes looking at the manufacturing, use, management and disposal of IT equipment with the objective of reducing its negative impact on the environment.  To make IT more sustainable, we need to look at the infrastructure, how we build applications and, importantly, how employees consume and use IT equipment and tools.

Fostering awareness and changing behaviours across departments and industries will be a central theme in 2023, whether it means encouraging non-technical employees to take a more active role in driving the digitalisation of their tasks through end-user computing, mitigating cyberthreats or contributing to making IT more sustainable.