As a futurist, it's my job to look ahead -- so every year, I cover the emerging tech trends that will be shaping our digital world in the next 12 months. What technologies are gaining the most traction? What are the most important trends that business leaders should be prepared for? Read on for the ten essential tech trends you should be following in 2023. In 2023, artificial intelligence will become real in organizations.

Black Friday is almost here but retailers like Target and Best Buy kicked off sales early. It makes it easier to cross gifts off your holiday shopping list before December rolls around. Below, you'll find some of the best deals we've found, from discounts on the Xbox Series S to KitchenAid stand mixers. There's a chance you'll see even better deals on the big day for select items, so be sure to stay tuned to our Cyber Week coverage. Check out our other Black Friday coverage, including Deals on Google Devices, Sonos Deals, Deals on Microsoft Hardware, Best Early Black Friday Deals, Early Best Buy Deals, and our Black Friday Shopping Tips. Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-Year Subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off).

If you are looking for a smart home hub and security camera, consider the Aqara Camera Hub G3. It uses artificial intelligence and video to monitor a room, and its powerful sensor can capture razor-sharp video. It even has a night vision mode for night-time surveillance. The Amazon Echo Show 15 offers a bulletin-board style display with the familiar Alexa host. The screen can be used for organizing your household by adding appointments to your calendar, items to your shopping list, or a homework reminder. You can control your home devices with it and make voice chats with your family.

Artificial intelligence is a technology that many people still liken to something from a futuristic movie from days gone by. While to the uninitiated, the words artificial intelligence may conjure up images of humanoid robots, the reality is that AI is already all around and widely adopted throughout society. Almost everyone has some kind of contact with artificial intelligence on a daily basis. From using the face recognition function to unlock your cell phone to asking Alexa to play your favorite song. So, whether they know it or not, most consumers are already interacting with artificial intelligence and enjoying its benefits every day.

Your shopping carts may be full of fixings for stuffing and cranberry sauce, but Black Friday started early at Sonos, so make space for some of our favorite speakers, soundbars, and subwoofers. The sale runs through November 28, and with our favorite Sonos deals, it's a great opportunity to build a surround sound setup. Be sure to check out our other Black Friday coverage, including Deals on Google Devices, Deals on Microsoft Hardware, REI's'Get Up Get Out' Sale, Early Black Friday Deals, Early Best Buy Deals, and our Black Friday Shopping Tips. Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you'd like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

While you may have a big list of gifts to get for others over the next couple of weeks, now is a good time to pick up things for yourself as well. There's arguably no better time of the year to pick up expensive gadgets like robot vacuums since most of them will be on sale. Wellbots is kicking things off early this year in the smart home space by discounting both the iRobot j7 and j7 vacuums, bringing them down to $349 and $599, respectively, when you use the codes ENG250 and ENG200 at checkout. These are essentially the same robot vacuum, but the "plus" variant comes with a clean base. If you're unfamiliar, clean bases are basically garbage cans attached to the robot's charging base, and the vacuum will automatically empty its bin into the base after each job. If vacuuming is one of your least favorite chores, getting a robo-vac with a clean base makes it so you only have to interact with your cleaning robot once a month or so when you need to change out the base's bag.

Black Friday officially arrives next week on November 25, the day after Thanksgiving. But the deals aren't limited to just that Friday. In many cases, the discounts we see in the weeks leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday are nearly as good. Some stores--notably Best Buy and Target--even offer pricing guarantees, so you can shop now without worrying about missing out on even lower prices later. We've highlighted the best early Black Friday deals below. Be sure to check out our other Black Friday coverage, including Deals on Google Devices, Deals on Microsoft Hardware, REI's Get Up Get Out Sale, Early Best Buy Deals, and our Black Friday Shopping Tips. Updated November 19, 2022: We've added a new style section for handmade Irish sweaters, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and more. Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you'd like).

There's another opportunity to pick up Amazon's Echo speakers at their lowest prices to date as part of the company's early Black Friday sales. In many cases, they've dropped back down to the prices we saw during the fall edition of Prime Day. For one thing, the regular Echo is $50, which is half off the usual price. The latest Echo Dot is down from $50 to $25, and the fifth-gen Echo Dot with clock is a third off at $40. The Echo Dot kids' version is down 50 percent to $30 as well.

Amazon has kicked off another sale on its Echo Show smart devices ahead of Black Friday. Among the discounts are the Echo Show 5 down to $35, the Echo Show 8 down to $70, and both the Echo Show 10 and Echo Show 15 each down to $170. The Kids edition of the Echo Show 5 is also on sale for $40. We've seen all of these deals at various points in the past, but each match the lowest prices we've tracked to date, including the discounts we saw during the company's Prime Early Access Sale in October. There's a chance things drop lower on Black Friday proper, but since Amazon is advertising these offers as "early Black Friday deals," we'd expect them to carry over.

Black Friday is a special time of year when you can save on all kinds of cool stuff, especially tech. But why wait until Black Friday? We're dropping Black Friday deals early throughout November, so every Friday feels like Black Friday. If you've ever wanted a drone, this early Black Friday sale features two for the price of one. This Dual Camera Drone Bundle by Ninja Dragon is on sale for 67% off -- no coupon necessary.