The end of the year is critical for entrepreneurs. It’s the time to reflect and plan ahead — and that’s when understanding business trends come in handy.
Trend analysis serves as a useful guide to serve decision-makers, business professionals, and entrepreneurs in knowing where the wind is blowing. Meaning, it prepares their plans and strategies to stay ahead of the curve.
It helps identify upcoming industry changes, strategize market plans, and prepare for new opportunities. Keeping an eye on business trends can help entrepreneurs stay ahead of the competition and position themselves as industry leaders.
For example, in the case of small business trends, “the top three priorities business owners reported for 2022 were increasing staff (51.04%), expanding or remodelling their business (41.02%), and investing in digital marketing (39.70%).”
From technological advancements to new market opportunities and shifts in consumer behaviour — business trends are indicators of what is going on in the world of business.
In this article, we discuss some of the top business trends that will mould 2023.
1. Blockchain
Blockchain technology is here to stay — and its future is looking brighter than ever. To accelerate this trend, exchanges have made it more than easy to buy BTC today.
Whether you wish to buy via debit card, credit card, or simply a wire transfer, buying and selling BTC is only becoming easier.
Moreover, as the technology continues to evolve we may see the use of blockchain technology grow beyond financial and cryptocurrency applications, to encompass a variety of uses.
For example, data storage, smart contracts, digital identity management, healthcare, governance, and the digital asset management industry. With its potential to revolutionize how we handle and store information; blockchain will continue to as the go-to technology for the digital world.
2. Hot shot insurance
Hot shot insurance is quite in demand of late as more and more insurers are realizing the importance of having the right policy for the right job.
This type of insurance is mainly used by businesses that transport large loads over long distances — like freight companies and oil and gas companies. As we know, the demand for goods and services is ever-increasing, and for that simple reason, so is the need for hotshot truck insurance.
Moreover, this demand is fired up by growing regulation of the transportation industry, which requires supplementary protection for not only businesses but also the public.
Hotshot truck insurance provides coverage for property damages, cargo losses, medical expenses, and —even legal defence if required.
Plenty of insurance companies around the US are taking steps to ensure they provide a stable, reliable, as well as comprehensive policy that fulfils the requirements of truckers. And the best part is that certain companies may offer discounts too. They could be on the basis of safe driving records, or additional coverage for special types of equipment — and other incentives to encourage businesses to choose their product.
3. AR/VR
In 2023, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are expected to become more sophisticated, with more applications and immersive experiences possible.
Per BCG and Mordor Intelligence survey, ‘the current market value for AR/VR/MR is around $30.7 billion, and the market size worldwide of the AR/VR/MR market is to rise to $300 billion by 2024.’
Some of the breakthroughs in 2023 could include the ability to virtually experience events and places around the world — for example, historical landmarks or concerts, or interact with virtual objects in real-world environments. For example, controlling robots or manipulating elements within virtual reality. Moreover, users may be able to use their own bodies as controllers to interact with 3D objects in the virtual world.
4. Collaborative or sharing economy
In 2023, the sharing economy will continue to see growth and innovations that spur its development as an integral part of the larger global economy.
Put simply, sharing economy is an economic system in which individuals and businesses share resources and services with each other on a decentralized platform.
It covers a wide variety of activities, like car-sharing, bike-sharing, co-working spaces,home-sharing, grocery/food delivery short-term rentals, peer-to-peer lending, crowdsourcing, and freelance work.
While the sharing economy is currently in a nascent stage — it is expected to continue to grow and evolve in the coming years.
Per Sharing Economy Market Report “Sharing Economy market size was valued at USD 113000.0 million in 2021 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 32.08% during the forecast period, reaching USD 600000.0 million by 2027.”
Businesses and organizations can participate in sharing economy to outsource a variety of services and processes, and in turn, save costs and improve overall efficiency.
5. AI-driven automation
AI-driven automation has been a game changer in 2022 and will continue to improve the efficiency of businesses in the upcoming year via more sophisticated automation tasks like natural language processing (NLP), image recognition, as well as predictive analytics.
Exploding topics revealed that “The AI market is expanding at a CAGR of 38.1% between 2022 to 2030. By 2025, as many as 97 million people will work in the AI space. AI market size is expected to grow by at least 120% year-over-year. 83% of companies claim that AI is a top priority in their business plan”.
More and more routine operations could be automated by AI — customer service operations, automating scheduling and inventory management, and enterprise resource planning are some use cases.
Furthermore, AI-driven automation will also be used to recognize patterns that drive customer decisions — which will enable more precise predictions of customer behaviours, and help business plan and strategize better.
6. Gamification
The reason is simple — incorporating elements of game mechanics into non-game contexts can improve engagement, encourage users, and ultimately boost user retention. For example, companies may use points, leaderboards, and badges to engage and motivate customers to use their products and/or services.
Moreover, by pairing it with behavioural science and personalisation techniques they can customize rewards and content to individual users.
More and more companies are prioritizing the implementation of gamification in corporate learning too.
Per Gamification trends, “gamification enhances employee productivity by up 50% and employee engagement by 60% (eLearning Learning).”
7. Voice search optimization
AI and machine learning are at the helm of voice search optimization.
They will allow search engines to better understand natural language, giving users more accurate and relevant answers to their queries.
Moreover, voice search optimization will focus on enhancing UX by showing users individualized and contextualized results — and this would be done with the help of certain data points. For example, location, context, and previous search history.
In fact, conversational AI is expected to become more sophisticated too by deploying NLP and deep learning tech.
Conversations will become even more human-like in nature, and AI will be able to identify complex text, reply instinctively to multiple conversation threads — and respond differently to unique users.
From automating customer service inquiries to recommending products and services or giving financial advice — conversational AI is full of surprises.
