McKinsey Quarterly 2023 Number 1

And in the digitally saturated world, frontier technologies (such as the metaverse) will begin to enter the mainstream. Focusing on AI in particular, the wide range of potential appli cations has led some to claim that it will underpin a Fourth Industrial Revolution. AI innovation, as measured by AI-based patent applications, grew at a rate of more than 75 percent a year between 2015 and 2022. Accelerating the preexisting trend, the COVID-19 pandemic propelled even faster adoption of AI and automation. - Technology may move to the forefront of geopolitical competition and power Technology is permeating nearly every sector of the economy, determining competitive dynamics. Geopolitics are shifting in unpredictable and potentially challenging ways, making strategic autonomy in critical technologies an ever-more-salient topic. A race for

Exhibit 2 Investment is flooding into 14 transversal technologies.

Total investment in transversal technologies, $ billion

2018

2021

Future of clean energy

Future of mobility

Next-generation software development

257

236

2

Quantum technologies

Advanced connectivity

258

166

139

3

1

212

<1

Industrializing machine learning

Applied AI

165

66

5

2

88

Cloud and edge computing

Future of space technologies

4

136

12

20

10

68

14

119

30

Immersive-reality technologies

37

Web3

109

Trust architectures and digital identity

Future of sustainable consumption

34

72

Future of bioengineering

Source: McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2022

On the cusp of a new era?

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