Yes, software is considered technology. It fits squarely within the broadest and most widely accepted definition: technology is the application of scientific knowledge to practical aims. Software applies knowledge from computer science, mathematics, and engineering to solve real-world problems, making it technology by any standard measure. The more interesting question is how software fits into the technology landscape, and why the answer isn’t always as straightforward as it seems.
What Counts as Technology
Technology doesn’t require a physical form. Britannica defines it as “the application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life, or to the change and manipulation of the human environment.” That definition covers everything from a plow to a spreadsheet. Software clearly qualifies: it takes structured knowledge and uses it to accomplish tasks that would be difficult, slow, or impossible without it.
People sometimes associate technology exclusively with hardware, gadgets, and machines. That’s understandable, since the word’s Greek root (“techne”) originally referred to craft and skill applied to physical materials. But modern usage has expanded well beyond that. When someone says they “work in tech,” they’re just as likely writing code as designing circuit boards.
Software as a Pillar of Information Technology
In the IT industry, software is one of five foundational components of any information system, alongside hardware, databases, networks, and the people who operate them. UC Berkeley’s School of Information describes software as providing “a list of commands and functions that guide hardware through various processes,” handling everything from input and output to storage and data processing. Without software, hardware is inert. A laptop with no operating system is an expensive paperweight.
This is why “information technology” as a field treats software and hardware as co-equal. Enterprise IT budgets, government technology classifications, and industry analyst firms like Gartner all categorize software spending as technology spending. There’s no conceptual gap between buying a server and buying the database platform that runs on it.
Hard Tech vs. Soft Tech
The tech world does draw a practical line between “hard tech” and “soft tech.” Hard tech involves physical hardware, complex engineering, and manufacturing. Think robotics, biotech devices, or advanced materials. Soft tech refers primarily to software, where you can launch a basic product, iterate, and add features over time without retooling a factory.
This distinction matters for investors, entrepreneurs, and engineers because the development cycles, capital requirements, and risks differ enormously. But it’s a distinction within technology, not between technology and something else. Calling software “soft tech” still puts the word “tech” right in the label. The categories describe different kinds of technology, not whether something qualifies as technology in the first place.
The Patent Law Nuance
One place where the question gets genuinely complicated is patent law. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office doesn’t automatically treat a software program, on its own, as a patentable invention. A product claim for a software program “without any structural recitations” has “no physical or tangible form” and doesn’t fall within the statutory categories for patent protection. Most standalone software is instead protected by copyright law.
However, this doesn’t mean patent law considers software “not technology.” Software can absolutely be patented when it improves the functioning of a computer, works in conjunction with a specific machine, or transforms data in a way that goes beyond routine computing. The legal test asks whether the software does something technologically meaningful, not whether software itself is technology. The USPTO explicitly notes that “software is not automatically an abstract idea, even if performance of a software task involves an underlying mathematical calculation.”
So patent law creates a higher bar for what counts as a novel technological contribution, but the underlying premise is that software operates within the technology domain.
Software Inside Physical Technology
If any doubt remains, consider how deeply software is embedded in machines most people would call “technology” without hesitation. Modern cars rely on embedded systems for automatic braking, lane-keeping, adaptive cruise control, and in Tesla’s case, autonomous driving. Industrial robots use embedded software for programming, control, and precision tasks. Medical devices, smart thermostats, and satellites all run on software fused with hardware into a single system.
In these cases, removing the software doesn’t just degrade the technology. It eliminates it. A self-driving car without its software is just a car. The technological leap, the part that makes it meaningfully different, lives in the code. This makes it difficult to argue that software is somehow separate from technology when it’s the component doing the heavy lifting in so many technological systems.
The Academic View
Philosophers of technology and computer science reinforce this classification. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes fully implemented computational systems as “technical artifacts,” meaning human-made systems designed and built to fulfill specific functions. That places software in the same ontological category as bridges, engines, and telescopes: things created with intent to solve problems.
One particularly striking argument from this academic tradition is that software and hardware aren’t as different as they appear. Any physical object displays patterns, and any definite pattern can theoretically be read and executed. This blurs the boundary between the tangible and intangible components of a computing system, suggesting that the distinction between “real” technology (hardware) and “virtual” technology (software) is less meaningful than it seems at first glance.
By every practical, legal, industrial, and philosophical measure, software is technology. It’s not a metaphor or a loose usage of the word. Software is one of the defining technologies of the modern era.