Charting enterprise tech’s outlook in 2024, ETCIO SEA
Technology is transforming our lives by the minute, and enterprises are reaping its benefits to further operations like never before, by upending a complete overhaul of the business environment. According to Gartner’s report on technology predictions for next year, by 2026, generative AI will significantly alter 70 percent of the design and development effort for new web applications and mobile apps, and by 2027, 80 percent of CIOs will have performance metrics tied to the sustainability of the IT organisation.
At large, the trends for 2024 deliver more key benefits — protecting investments, optimising the rise of intelligent solution builders, and delivering increased value.
AI to dominate most technology trends in 2024
Be it cloud computing or open source, democratised generative AI is accelerating the accessibility of these models to workers across enterprises worldwide. In fact, Gartner predicts that over a whopping 80 percent of enterprises will have used generative AI APIs and models, deployed generative AI-enabled applications in production environments, which is up from less than 5 percent in early 2023!
This democratisation of a powerful technology like AI has obviously made way for stronger AI trust, risk, and security management, or TRiSM, implementation. Without guardrails, AI’s usage can spin out of control, especially while used in enterprise applications and confidential business settings. With the introduction of ModelOps, proactive data protection, AI-specific security, and model monitoring, AI TRiSM can help manage a more governed, monitored, and ethical usage of AI in enterprises. Gartner also predicts that by 2026, enterprises that apply AI TRiSM controls will increase the accuracy of their decision making by eliminating up to 80 percent of faulty and illegitimate information.
AI-augmented development is also expected to rise as AI will be used to aid software engineers in designing, coding and testing applications. AI-infused development tools will allow software engineers to spend less time writing code, so they can spend more time on more strategic activities such as the design and composition of compelling business applications.
Senior C-suite leader Hikmat Iskandar, the Chief Technology Officer at Airo Malaysia, a global fintech solutions firm, shared his thoughts on what enterprise tech should look forward to most in 2024.
Admittedly, nothing else dominates this year’s enterprise outlook other than AI, rightfully so. I’d think next year might be even more exciting as the next phase of Generative AI matures (and with the current drama with Sam Altman’s oust to his entry into Microsoft), we might be seeing a lot of interesting developments as the competition heats up. We might even be seeing the follow up of Siri / Google Assistant’s next generative AI iterations, which could be pretty exciting! And with the release of Co-pilot for Microsoft 365, it’s a matter of time before Google officially releases Enterprise AI tools for Google Workspaces!Hikmat Iskandar, Chief Technology Officer, Airo Malaysia
He brings up an interesting point, as earlier this August, Google unveiled a swath of fresh AI technology and partnerships that were geared toward bringing more of the growing technology to large businesses. To bolster Google’s enterprise cloud service, it added 20 AI models to its collection, bringing the total to 100, and it’s only a matter of time before we can see how more enterprises propel AI innovation going forward next year.Reinforcing ‘tech for good’ through sustainable technologies
A framework of digital solutions used to enable environmental, social and governance (ESG) outcomes that support long-term ecological balance and human rights are perhaps the only need of the hour to put tech to use for the ultimate good. The rapid use of technologies such as AI, cryptocurrency, the Internet of Things and cloud computing is driving concern about their related energy consumption and environmental impacts.
It has never been more critical to ensure that the use of IT becomes more efficient, circular and sustainable. A recent UiPath study earlier this month found that greater IT-sustainability team synergy is key to improving ESG reporting, and that only 36 percent of business leaders in Singapore are currently seeing occasional collaborations between IT and sustainability. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2027, 25 percent of CIOs globally will see their personal compensation linked to their sustainable technology impact.
The global rate of decarbonisation remains far too slow, a recent PwC research released last month finds that the world needs to decarbonise seven times as fast as the current rate to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages. Technology will play a critical role in bending the decarbonisation arc, but in the International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) net-zero scenario, just over one-third of the emissions reductions occurring in 2050 depend on technologies that are currently only in development. Innovation capital, in much larger amounts than today’s sums, will therefore be vital for decades to come, and next year will be crucial in their collective development.
Technologies to focus on cybersecurity resilience
The ever-expanding cybersecurity landscape sees itself stuck in a cyber rut almost everyday with more sophisticated cyber attacks, evolving threat actors, and increased exposure across growing digital environments. A large increase in cyber incidents, related fines, investigations and engagements between policymakers and the private sector has elevated the perception of regulations as a critical influence on organisations’ cyber resilience.
Gartner expanded in its report that continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) is a pragmatic and systemic approach that allows organisations to evaluate the accessibility, exposure and exploitability of an enterprise’s digital and physical assets continually and consistently. Aligning CTEM assessment and remediation scopes with threat vectors or business projects surfaces not only the vulnerabilities, but also unpatchable threats. According to the report, by 2026, organisations prioritising their security investments based on a CTEM programme will realise a two-thirds reduction in breaches.
According to Acumen Research and Consulting, the global AI in cybersecurity market size accounted for $14.9 billion in 2021 and is estimated to reach the market value of $133.8 billion by 2030. Using AI-enabled software to augment human cybersecurity expertise by rapidly identifying new types of malware traffic or hacking attempts, will largely contribute to the cybersecurity resilience in enterprises. The research unveils that because of recent advances in computing power, AI in cybersecurity is now becoming a good reality with comparatively small datasets.
Conclusively, we can sense that 2024 will be key to enterprises’ transformation through new technologies and their disruptions, with the growing emphasis on scaling business, automating functions, and utilising technology to make way for more efficient and strategic business decisions, while highlighting the next chapter of growth for businesses.
- Published On Nov 27, 2023 at 05:00 AM IST
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