Industry Predictions for 2023

The need for “cognitive trust” is driving a deeper focus on enterprise resilience, but it may look different depending on the industry you are looking at…

Over the last few weeks, I am sure you will have been reading about the 2023 predictions from my friends and fellow Splunkers in the Technical Advisory Team.

You will have read about things such as security & IT convergence, digital transformation and the role of observability, bridging the operational gap and topics like AI and automation.

But, as not all industries will have the same priorities, what does this mean when you look at individual sectors? Given the massive differences in their relative maturity in certain areas, some industries may not have the same abilities, or risk profile, to deliver against some of these predictions.

To predict the future, we need to understand the past

To understand the focus across different industries in 2023, it is important to learn from similar times in the past. As we discussed in the reports, the current situation looks a little different from the typical asset boom-and-bust scenarios of the 2008 housing market and the 2001 dotcom collapse. The labour market is strong, company earnings are generally good, but we have other macro factors introducing uncertainty — from the effects of COVID-19 to Russia’s war against Ukraine. All of these factors can shift quickly, making the responses from different industries subtly different this time around.

What I can tell you is that there is one common element to the responses, and that is trust. But as opposed to the social trust that industries were trying to rebuild after 2001 and 2008, today it is cognitive trust that is required by brands and businesses. Let me explain…

It used to be all about “social trust”

Back in 2001 and 2008, it was generally accepted that if you asked your bank to transfer some money, then they would; if you ordered a car, it would be delivered; if you made a call on your mobile, the network was up and running. Back then, the challenge for organisations was to convince customers that they “had their best interest at heart”. This was because businesses and industries in general were seen as responsible for causing the challenges in 2001 and 2008 and had to win hearts and minds moving forward to succeed. And this is what social trust is all about.

Now it is all about delivering against cognitive trust

Fast forward to 2023, and we find that the reverse is pretty much true. With the pandemic, inflation, soaring oil and energy bills and a shift to remote working, all alongside increased cyber security threats from nation states and cyber criminals alike, just delivering a consistent experience to your end customer has become the challenge. What we want is for customers to know that when they engage with you, everything will be working as expected. So for businesses today, it is all about delivering against cognitive trust.

Cognitive trust is primarily how confident someone feels in a business's technical ability to deliver against what is being asked of them. Or, to use a widely-used phrase at the moment, how resilient they are.

This is why over the next couple of weeks you will want to read about how the predictions discussed already apply and adapt to individual industries, as seen by my team, Industry Advisory.

What’s coming up from the EMEA Industry Advisory Team

In Manufacturing, Ewald Munz will be discussing how they will be improving their security posture in 2023, in particular on OT Security. This is especially important when you consider that Manufacturing is now the most targeted industry for cyber attacks. This focus on security is there to ensure a consistent end-to-end supply chain and customer experience. Ewald will also discuss how the Manufacturing industry will be increasing their sustainability commitments, in particular reducing their CO2 footprints. He will also explain why AI will remain intangible for many manufacturing companies.

For Retail, Gaurav Gupta will discuss the importance of delivering frictionless commerce; ensuring a great customer experience regardless of if you are buying online or in-store, or both. He will also look at the rise of the machine and automation within the industry. These are all things that became increasingly important throughout the pandemic, when supply chains were disrupted, logistics got turned upside-down and just serving the customer in a timely way became one of the hardest challenges. He will also touch on topics such as the metaverse and LLM in Retail to see if it is just hype, or actually something we will see in 2023.

In the Public Sector, Sean Price will highlight the importance of taking a data-driven approach to delivering trust and confidence to citizens and businesses, and why resilient public services are more important than ever in today’s economy. All of this is needed from a data-driven government to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and transparency.

Finally, Financial Services, due to the heavy regulation it has had, has always been a resilient industry when it comes to ensuring one, consistent experience. And whereas the likes of retail and travel may only just be starting their journey towards better resilience, Financial Services is certainly maturing fast. That's why Charles Adriaenssens will talk about the increased focus on Operational Resilience maturity for 2023 in the industry, and more to deliver on industry commitments to Net Zero.

As you can see, topics like security & IT convergence, digital transformation and the role of observability, bridging the operational gap, and AI and automation, are all present in 2023 across different industries. But they might be called something else, or positioned in a slightly different way due to the nuances and needs of that industry as it strives to deliver better Cognitive Trust, or Enterprise Resilience.