There’s a lot of fear-mongering surrounding technology and the future. Sure, AI can be scary. Especially if you’ve seen The Terminator or 2001: A Space Odyssey. But some of it’s going to be awesome for your business. And it looks like it’s going to be great for business very soon.
Whether your business has adopted the following technologies or not doesn’t change the fact that these trends will impact your business in some way. So, it’s an excellent idea to keep an eye on tech trends. Without further ado, here are tech trends that will make your business outlook brighter in 2024.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
We don’t know all the ways it’s going to help us, just as most people didn’t know how the internet would change our business and personal lives in the mid-90s.
What we can predict is that generative AI and other forms of AI will have a massive impact on the design and development of new web applications and apps. And it will create cost-savings for businesses thanks to the automation of routine tasks. Automation has already made dramatic changes to human resources and talent management, but AI will take this to the next level.
AI will also handle more decision-making, overseeing work streams and freeing middle managers to prioritize high-value leadership tasks. Data analysis and reporting could also make your life significantly easier.
It will also lead to a reduction in app development time. AI developer tools will make web development more accessible. Its ability to facilitate code generation is a major factor for businesses that need to generate code, significantly reducing costs and increasing agility.
AI Image generation may help you enhance your marketing efforts. It can also help draft marketing campaigns.
Finally, tech has already helped Talent management. AI will take this to the next level, with LinkedIn and Leadar among the firms leveraging AI to help businesses connect with potential customers, partners, advisors, and suppliers around the world.
Internet of Things (IoT)
We’ve already heard a lot about IoT, but we’ve not heard the last of it. Keep your eye on IoT developments as this is set to continue to transform logistics, manufacturing, agriculture, and healthcare, in particular.
As with other technology trends, even if the IoT doesn’t directly impact your workspace, it is likely to impact your supply chain, leading to increased efficiency and cost reductions. The IoT spells efficiency, data-driven insights, better decision-making, and optimized resources.
Cloud Computing and Increased Connectivity
Like IoT, we already have cloud computing, but its benefits for your business will increase dramatically through 2024.
Increasing storage capacity via the cloud will mean more businesses can benefit from big data and the facility to analyze and use data to make predictions, understand customers, improve performance, and much more.
Regarding connectivity improvements, Starlink is a good example. It has made the internet more accessible in the most remote areas, allowing businesses to reach talent and customers in more corners of the world than ever.
Cyber Security
Often when we hear about cyber security, it makes us want to grab hold of our wallets and purses. However, cyber security is not only becoming increasingly necessary — thanks, in part, to the increased connectivity we’ve just been considering — but also it’s getting faster and more accurate.
AI has made an impact here, too, providing businesses with ever-faster threat detection. AI can learn from historical data from cyber attacks but also from its own “experience” of cyber threats. This means that AI can even learn on the fly and adapt to an ongoing cyber attack.
Green IT
Don’t be surprised if more and more CIOs start incorporating performance metrics tied to IT sustainability. Gartner agrees that CIOs will be eyeing sustainable technology impact. However, it also suggests that this is too narrow a focus.
Rather, sustainable technology might be more accurately and usefully considered as a framework of digital solutions driving environmental, social, and governance outcomes.
This means looking into sustainability in IT via energy efficiency, as well as other issues like IT-based emissions management and analytics, and the safe, responsible disposal of hardware.
Augmented Reality
Whereas you could say that virtual reality replaces the real world with a digital vision, augmented reality adds a layer of information to what we can see and experience, often through the use of lenses.
The go-to use case is typically training. Augmented reality could be used to create realistic experiences in which workers can train, reducing costs and risks in the case of hazardous jobs. However, augmented reality could also add a layer of information that enhances learning while performing an activity, in a similar way to how an AR guided tour might trigger 3D audio and visual information according to the direction of the wearer’s gaze.
Furthermore, cameras, sensors, and displays can be used by AR apps to create rich, immersive experiences. Augmented reality offers your business the potential to create unique customer interfaces to dramatically improve the customer experience.
Blockchain and Web 3.0 (The Decentralized Web)
Blockchain’s popularity is largely due to its ability to reduce fraud and errors, while increasing transparency, making it transformative for the financial industry, in particular. However, there are other ways to use a fast, secure transaction ledger. Expect to see more of those in play in 2024.
Like blockchain’s decentralized model, Web 3.0 — the name for the developing, decentralized web — promises more efficiency, security, the shifting of power to users, and highly personalized, individual user experiences.
Web 3.0 uses AI, machine learning, and blockchain technology to provide a more secure web that fosters better communication and equitable rewards for content and time spent online. It will be a playground for marketers, helping them learn more about customers, generate more business, and build richer customer profiles.
Machine Customers
Splunk defines a machine customer as “a non-human entity that autonomously engages in transactions, like purchasing goods and services”.
IT experts at RST Software suggest that “by 2028, 20% of digital commerce is likely to be conducted through machine-based transactions”. They cite GM’s OnStar connected vehicle service as a great example. The system doesn’t only predict vehicular issues but also makes associated appointments with GM dealerships.
Today, humans lead transactions with machines making purchases according to our instructions and rules. Before long, however, we should see more humans and machines “working together”, with machines optimizing our purchasing choices by examining competing products, according to behavior rules.
Further in the future, machines are expected to take over purchases entirely, not only using rules but also using their own decision-making capacity.
Quantum Technologies
Quantum technology encompasses physics and engineering based on quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics can be described as the physics of sub-atomic particles.
To make it more digestible, it’s the science that led to various discoveries with which we are very familiar, including lasers, transistors, and brain scans via MRI.
We are now advancing toward the second quantum movement. Though it’s in its early stages, it has the potential to unleash massive calculating ability and revolutionize industries, including finance and healthcare.
Bottom Line: Take a Measured Approach
It’s probably not a good idea to invest in new technologies just because they are new. This post, however, should help you identify and stay up to date with the trending technologies that are most relevant to you.
Whatever you explore and invest in, ensure you have clear, specific goals and that you measure your ROI.
Finally, note that these technologies are not evolving in silos. Interconnected, their developments affect other technologies and all businesses, including yours, whether you are actively exploring them or not. Fortunately, these technologies largely mean good news for business in 2024, so make the most of your opportunity to get in early and grow, streamline, and/or secure your firm.
