Welcome to the December 2023 edition of Top Conversations in Technology, where we break down which topics are leading, rising and falling each month. Our monthly analysis is designed to help technology marketers maximize their relevance and adapt to changing market dynamics. This month’s data focuses on variations in news and blog citation volumes month-over-month (versus November 2023) and year-over-year (versus December 2022). In addition, we’re taking a full-year look at 2023 versus 2022, and calling out notable changes over the past five years. Quite a time!

Queue the holiday distractions: December is traditionally a quieter month, and this year was no exception. Of the 247 topics we track, 77% posted a decline in coverage volume versus November. Declines weren’t that substantial, though, with the biggest decliners coming from lower-ranked terms. Only 43 topics posted a decline greater than 25%, and only one of those was in the top 25:  #9 E-commerce declined 29% from November, based on a drop-off in media coverage following the Black Friday/Cyber Monday wave.

December’s top 10: #1 Artificial Intelligence (down 17%) and #2 Bitcoin (up 25%) held their positions at the top. #3 Drones (up 26%) moved higher in the rankings tied to ongoing coverage of conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. #4 Cryptocurrencies (down 8%) and #5 Smartphones (down 4%) each slipped a spot tied to the rise of Drones. Meanwhile, and despite volume losses, #6 Supply Chain (down 10%), #7 Blockchain (down 8%) and # 8 Cybersecurity (down 8%) each moved up one spot in the rankings. E-commerce showed the most movement dropping from #6 to #9. User Experience (up 1%) ranked #10 (up from #12), leapfrogging #11 Compliance (down 7%), # 12 Wi-Fi (down 15%, from #10), and #13 Generative AI (down 20%, from #11).

December Gains: Just under one-quarter of topics posted gains in December, with the average gain at 29%. Five topics showed over 90% gains in December:

• #227 Emotional AI – up 165%,
• #121 Unified Communications – up 132%
• #230 Voice Interface – up 125%
• #224 Procurement Software – up 98%
• #213 Humane Technology – up 93%

What’s interesting here is that most are up based on conversational ties to AI. This is apparent (of course) for Emotional AI and Humane Technology, which grew through discussions around helping companies deepen user connections, competitive products (Pi/Android), and Center for Humane Technology involvement in potential AI regulation. But the link is less obvious for Unified Communications, which increased visibility based on generative AI features getting integrated into communications platforms (e.g. Microsoft Copilot in Teams), and Procurement Software, which had emerging vendors Pivot and Procurify secure financing for their procurement intelligence products.

December Losses: With 190 topics posting declines, the lack of super impactful news made a big difference for many conversations this month. The biggest losses were at the bottom of the list, including topics like #231 Enterprise Browser (down 68%), #246 Utility Computing (down 65%), #205 Accelerated Computing (down 62%) and #241 Process Analytics (down 60%). Losses at the top of the list were less extensive. Only three top 50 topics had drops over 20%:

• #9 E-commerce – down 29%
• #45 Cloud Computing – down 21%
• #13 Generative AI – down 20%

Generative AI stands out because overall we’ve seen such growth this year in AI discussions. But it wasn’t the only AI topic to post a loss. AI overall dropped 17% from November, as did sub-topics like #60 AI+ Security (down 28%), #102 Conversational AI (down 14%) and #141 AI Ethics (down 9%). While AI has had a breakout year, the related conversations are not immune to ebbs and flows. As my colleague Dave Reddy says, AI is now table stakes – it’s ubiquitous and necessary to remain relevant, but it’s no longer the subject at the center of every story.

Year in Review: When did AI become an adjective? 2023. Looking at our year-over-year data, AI went from #11 in 2021 to #12 in 2022 to #1 in 2023, registering a 188% year-over-year coverage increase. It outpaced #2 Cryptocurrencies – which had ranked #1 in both 2021 and 2022 (but dropped 29% this year) – by a margin of more than 250,000 stories.

AI was the only high-profile topic to make such a splash. Though there were other moves in the top 10 year over year, only one topic fell out: 5G, slipping from #9 to #13 (down 22%). Others had some shifting ranks but remained in the top 10:

• #3 Smartphones (up 9%) and #5 Drones (up 33%) each gained one spot
• #8 E-commerce (up 8%) and #9 Cybersecurity (up 13%) each fell one spot
• #4 Bitcoin (down 27%) and #7 Blockchain (down 21%) each fell two spots
• #6 Supply Chain (down 29%) fell three spots
• #10 Wi-Fi held steady (up 9% from 2022)

Outside the top 10, AI-related topics recognized the biggest gains in 2023. Generative AI ranked below #200 from 2019 through 2021, moving up to 181 in 2022. In 2023 it entered the top 20 (#19). Generative AI + Security, two topics increasingly on everyone’s minds, literally did not drive any conversation in 2019 (0 stories identified). AI Ethics hovered around 10K stories per year five years ago, and then grew to more than 3,300 stories per month in 2023.

So What, Now What? 2023 was clearly the year of AI. Topics that demonstrated relevant AI links grew, while topics that declined were likely coming out of an AI-related news cycle. As an example, Quantum Computing experienced ebbs and flows based on various AI news announcements, but it ended as one of the top gainers in 2023 (up 103%). Contract Tracing – which had no AI connection – was the biggest decliner for 2023, down 80% because Covid’s over (it’s really not). Another big loss was Election Security (down 54%), but expect it to surge in 2024 in part due to – wait for it – AI.

Interested in seeing where your favorite topics netted out in 2023 versus 2022? We’ve set up a link to our searchable year-over-year data analysis, in addition to our usual month-over-month data tables. Check them out and let us know if you see anything that surprises you.

Questions? Comments? See a topic we are not tracking? Please share below, and we will address in future installments.