AI dominates Gartner's 2024 tech trends

By 2026, over 80% of enterprises worldwide are expected to have deployed generative AI APIs, models or generative AI-enabled applications, Gartner is predicting.

The research firm has released its list of the top 10 strategic technology trends that businesses will need to explore in 2024, forecasting that the rapid adoption of generative AI will significantly democratise knowledge and skills in the enterprise.

But Garner also said the democratisation of access to AI has made the need for AI trust, risk and security management even more urgent, arguing that this is a technology trend businesses will also need to explore in the coming year. Gartner predicts that by 2026, enterprises that adopt such controls will increase the accuracy of their decision-making by eliminating up to 80% of faulty and illegitimate information.

Continuing the AI theme, Gartner’s third strategic technology trend for 2024 is AI-augmented development, involving the use of technologies such as generative AI and machine learning in designing, coding and testing applications.

Gartner also said there is a clear emerging demand for intelligent applications, capable of autonomously adapting to respond to the requirements and habits of their users. Intelligent applications can be seen as a catch-all term that includes AI-based services such as machine learning, vector stores and connected data. Such applications will be required to address the ongoing technology talent shortage, Gartner said.

Also as a result of the talent shortage, Gartner expects organisations to explore the strategy of the augmented-connected workforce, which aims to optimise the value derived from human workers by using intelligent applications and workforce analytics to provide guidance to support employees’ experience, wellbeing and ability to develop new skills. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 25% of CIOs will use augmented-connected workforce initiatives to reduce time to competency by 50% for key roles.

Gartner’s sixth strategic technology trend for 2024 is continuous threat exposure management, a security paradigm that the company said has the potential to reduce data breaches by two-thirds among organisations developing the strategy by 2026.

Another emerging technology trend is the prevalence of ‘machine customers’, or connected devices capable of autonomously negotiating and purchasing goods and services in exchange for payment. Gartner expects that by 2028, 15 billion such products will exist, and that the growth trend will be the source of trillions of dollars in revenues by 2030.

Gartner predicts that sustainable technology will be an increasing focus for businesses as concerns about energy consumption grow, with 27% of CIOs to see their personal compensation linked to their sustainable technology impact.

Gartner also expects growing focus on platform engineering, the discipline of building and operating self-service internal development platforms, in the coming years.

Finally, Gartner is predicting that by 2027, more than 70% of enterprises will use an industry cloud platform to accelerate their business initiatives. Such platforms combine SaaS, PaaS and IaaS services into a single product offering with composable capabilities.

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