KPMG's latest study, the KPMG Global Tech Report 2023, shows that executives remain committed to digital transformation and that support for emerging technologies has grown substantially: 38 percent of leaders backed adoption of emerging technologies in 2023, compared with 10 percent in 2022. The survey polled nearly 2,100 senior executives and industry experts across 16 countries, covering nine sectors including energy, financial services, industrial manufacturing and retail.
Digitalisation continues despite economic uncertainty
According to the report, global economic uncertainty has not halted technology investment: digital leaders expect modern technologies to boost productivity across business functions. Sixty-three percent of respondents reported an acceleration in business performance linked to digital transformation efforts over the past 24 months. One in three said their technology investments delivered performance improvements of more than 10 percent, compared with around 2.5 percent last year.
KPMG emphasises that technology investments must be tied to strategy and deliver value quickly. Kulcsár Huba, senior manager at KPMG, warned that investing in technology for its own sake does not necessarily pay off; returns should be linked to clear business objectives and monitored closely.
Awareness and agility are essential for successful transformation
Companies need to execute transformation deliberately and collaborate closely with broader business functions. The report identifies 15 percent of respondents as digital leaders — organisations where the technology environment supports digital goals and contributes to business outcomes such as profit generation or performance improvement. These leaders are more likely to have adopted technologies such as XaaS or big data and AI-based solutions (66 percent).
An adaptable, agile approach is foundational: responding to market challenges, aligning products with customer needs, shifting to data-driven decision-making, breaking down silos and forming cross-boundary partnerships (for example XaaS). Lack of executive trust in empowering agile teams remains an obstacle: 47 percent of respondents see agility as the most important factor, yet leadership trust is often missing.
Kulcsár Huba suggests supporting senior executives to understand the potential of new technologies and analysing the productivity and financial cost of existing technology debt. He adds that every technology implementation must integrate trust, security, data protection and resilience, and support solutions for data governance, privacy, cybersecurity and ESG transparency.
ESG gains prominence in technology innovation
The research highlights growing influence of ESG (environmental, social and governance) considerations on technology innovation: 48 percent of respondents believe that over the next two years, innovation aimed at creating value in ESG commitments will shape the technology innovation agenda. Digital investments remain focused on customer engagement and cybersecurity, but technology-driven ESG innovation has become more prominent.
AI is the top short-term technology priority
More than half of the technology specialists surveyed (57 percent) consider AI and machine learning the most important technologies for achieving short-term (within three years) goals. AI ranks ahead of edge computing (42 percent) and robotics (41 percent).
The rapid advance of generative AI has forced many businesses to reassess their AI strategies. While executives recognise AI's potential, the swift progress of the past year has raised ethical and security concerns, prompting many organisations to slow adoption. Forty-five percent of respondents prioritise AI because competitors are already using it, and falling behind could lead to competitive disadvantage. KPMG highlights the need for awareness and agility in AI adoption, with the primary aim being better exploitation of business opportunities and achievement of corporate objectives.
Kulcsár Huba notes that data and AI together help organisations make better decisions and reveal previously invisible patterns: in the era of big data, human cognition alone is limited, but pairing AI with big data makes complex data structures visible and channels them into decision-making processes.
Conclusions
The KPMG Global Tech Report 2023 suggests that continuing digitalisation and adopting emerging technologies can provide organisations with an edge even amid economic uncertainty. Success requires deliberate investment linked to business objectives, agility, and integrating trust, security, data protection and ESG considerations into technology initiatives.
