16 Changes Coming To The Web That Businesses Need To Prepare For

The Web may feel like a familiar space to businesses, but like everything else in tech, it’s evolving. What may now seem like a series of buzzwords— “Web3,” “blockchain,” the “metaverse” and more—will soon be the everyday technologies and concepts that dominate how businesses operate online.

Understanding what’s coming can help businesses plan a strategy and be among the vanguard of organizations thriving in a fresh online world. Below, 16 members of Forbes Technology Council share revolutionary changes that are coming to the Web in the next few years, and how they will affect businesses.

1. User Ownership Of Data

There will be a move toward privacy and data centricity. “Web3,” the term coined to describe the new internet, will revolve around user ownership of data, decentralization and permissionless access. Rather than gaining access in exchange for companies monetizing our data (the Web2 model), users will be able to access the internet while maintaining ownership over their data and how it’s used. For businesses, this means a focus on accountability and transparency. – Iman Bashir, Craftly.AI

2. A Better Balance Of Power Between Users And Platforms

Today, the Web is centralized. Tremendous wealth and power have been generated for corporations such as Facebook and Amazon that own and control content, instead of for users. Now, a transformation is taking place with the advent of Web3. Over the next decade, the Web will be built on permissionless blockchains with open standards. This will allow for a fair balance of power between users and platforms. – Balaji Sreenivasan, Aurigo Software Technologies Inc.

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3. The Rise Of The Metaverse

We’ll soon see the rise of the metaverse, a platform where entire societies live, interact and transact exclusively online. Imagine 3D virtual commerce, workplaces, real estate, events, currencies and economies. From the infrastructure providers building its foundation to the financial institutions that manage wallets and payment systems, to the retailers and experience-makers themselves, every business will benefit. – David Xie, Zenlayer

4. A Move Toward Zero-Party Data

One of the major changes brought by the Web was the creation of digital advertising. Today, businesses are using it to interact directly with consumers through honest dialogue rather than spying. This move toward zero-party data will create a new foundation for the Web. It will be a vast improvement and should lead to more transparent interactions between businesses and consumers. – Tod Loofbourrow, ViralGains

5. An Additional Focus On Data Privacy

As we prepare for the next phase of the internet, businesses need to prepare for decentralized data and additional focus on data privacy. The internet’s evolution will be built on innovations such as the blockchain—innovations that will increase security and control for internet users. Today, businesses can start by understanding their data-sharing policies and tightening how and why they collect user data. – Edwin Huertas, Shockoe | Mobile by Design

6. New Ways For Brands To Reach Consumers

Catalysts including artificial intelligence, the metaverse and decentralization will bring about very powerful ways for consumers to interact with businesses over the next few years. With Web3, self-sovereign identity brands will have the opportunity to reach consumers with unprecedented levels of precision, all while maintaining the highest levels of privacy, which is really the desired end state. – Fabrizio Blanco, Viant Technology

7. Increased Use Of Augmented And Virtual Realities

Augmented reality and virtual reality will be part of our Web experience; as such, businesses will need to learn to implement these concepts to attract the new generation of customers. AR/VR is already being used for varied applications, including online movie viewing, training options and social events. – Michael Hoyt, Life Cycle Engineering, Inc.

8. Embedded 3D Experiences

All the talk about Web3 has people predicting the evolution of the internet into a sort of “3D amusement park” with all of the users in VR headsets. That’s not what will be revolutionary about it. In the near future, the Web will feature collaborative 3D experiences that are embedded in websites, Zoom, Slack and other existing platforms. This will allow businesses globally to gain entry to and scale such experiences. – Sam Glassenberg, Level Ex

9. The Spread Of Blockchain Technology

The dissemination of blockchain technology will change the speed and transparency of business once it’s included in all transactions and processes. I believe it will be a net positive effect that will lead to business transparency and integrity. – David Astoria, Pranos

10. A Move From Proof-Of-Work To Proof-Of-Stake In Blockchains

There will be an evolution around the consensus algorithms used in blockchain technology, with a move away from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Not only is this a more sustainable approach to validating a block of transactions within a blockchain, it is also more efficient and scalable, thus allowing blockchain technology to be more widely adopted and expanding its uses outside of nonfungible tokens and crypto into more corporate applications. – Amanda Dorenberg, COMMB

11. Increased Usage Of Voice-Powered Devices

Over the next few years, we will see even more people use voice-powered devices to search online. I believe this will cause Google to put a stronger emphasis on voice search friendliness. This change could dramatically shift the way websites rank for existing keywords. If you’re not optimizing for voice search, now is the perfect time to get started. – Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster

12. The Power Of Quantum Computing

In 2019, the Google quantum computing team did a calculation in three minutes that would have taken current supercomputers 10,000 years. Trying to fathom what quantum computing could do is the equivalent of envisioning a smartphone in 1966. Many of us will see artificial intelligence programs running on quantum computers accessing data on 6G networks. – David Moise, Decide Consulting

13. The Decline Of Account Passwords

Expect your standard practice of juggling account passwords across the internet to move behind the scenes. Soon, businesses will replace passwords with alternatives such as biometrics, PINs and multifactor authentication and turn to third-party password managers and automated security solutions to own user authentication, ending the painful process of creating new, complex passwords for all of us. – Mikael Berner, Edison

14. A Focus On Sustainability

There are two topics that will impact our Web experience in the coming years: data sovereignty and energy usage (that is, sustainability/green energy). Data will need to appear to be consistent across the globe but be stored in separate containers. And people will be more aware of the energy needed for all the code that’s being written. Companies will be sharing their energy usage to show they care about the Earth. – Laureen Knudsen, Broadcom

15. More And Better Accessibility Solutions

Revolutionary change will come from more effective technologies that increase internet accessibility, including for those individuals who are hard of hearing or visually impaired. Improved screen reading and speech recognition software products and solutions will open brand new doors for those who have faced limitations in the past. – AJ Abdallat, Beyond Limits

16. The Impact Of Digital Twin Technology

“Digital twin” has been one of the more highly hyped terms recently. As technologies, tools and skills mature, we are now starting to see meaningful applications of digital twins at scale. Moving forward, digital twins will have a big impact on business, including monitoring operations and predicting behavior of machines, people, buildings and cities. – Maciej Kranz, KONE