Experts predict that automation will become more important this year and that companies will need to train their staff to try to adopt AI and launch new products.
The year 2024 is in full swing and exciting times lie ahead for businesses, with predictions from AI and automation experts.
Discussions around automation have increased as technology advances. For example, Keith Lynch, national director of Red Hat’s Irish operations, said last year that automation and digital transformation would “critical components» to improve future IT workflows and orchestrations.
A PwC report released in late 2023 claimed that most financial services firms still rely on manual risk assessments to combat financial crime and that automation is needed to solve this problem.
AI has clearly had a massive impact on the technology sector in the last year, with companies of all sizes rushing to launch new AI products for their customers – and to improve their own services.
As AI and automation technologies continue to advance, let’s look at some key predictions for how these business sectors will adapt this year.
2024 will be the year of automation
As some experts have said in their forecasts for the IT sector, tech teams are expected to face tighter budgets this year. Ian van Reenen, CTO of IT platform 1E, expects automation to take “center stage” in 2024 as IT teams will need to “do more with less and cut budgets”.
Van Reenen pointed to a Forrester analysis from last year, which predicted that only one in ten technology leaders would achieve good growth despite “clear calls for action from senior leaders.”
“I predict this figure will actually be much worse, so leaders need to look to automation to reduce operational costs and increase team efficiency,” van Reenen said. “One of the ways we will see automation in action next year will be within the IT help desk.
“If organizations can reduce the number of issues and incidents, it will reduce the volume of tickets arriving at the service desk daily, reducing costs and giving the user time back.
“Another solution is to offer personalized customer service. Being more intentional in the customer-client relationship and building a customer team capable of delivering concierge-style services will help providers overcome being asked to do more with current capabilities.
Massimo Pezzini, Head of Research at Workato, believes that CIOs will invest more in business automation to be better equipped to transform, scale and improve the agility of business processes to respond to uncertain environments .
Organizations will aim for complete automation
Various technology sectors have adopted automation to some extent in their workplaces, but Eric Johnson, CIO of cloud computing company PagerDuty, believes that 2024 will be the year when organizations focus on “transforming the “the whole organization so that it is more automated”.
“Historically, some areas of the organization did this, but with the pace of new innovative automation solutions, their adoption will increase,” Johnson said. “Automation from help desk and back office to go-to-market and engineering teams will be done in a much more integrated way.”
More AI training among staff
Chris Dimitriadis, director of global strategy at ISACA – a leading global trade association – said businesses are likely to adopt generative AI to innovate, optimize costs and increase productivity.
However, he said more staff training was needed before businesses could use the technology effectively.
“Our research suggests that only 7% of organizations provide AI training to all employees,” Dimitriadis said. “If employees are not ready to use AI, business investments simply will not pay off, at least in the medium to long term. »
Dimitriadis also suggested that companies will need to prepare for greater regulatory scrutiny in terms of the use of AI.
“As AI becomes more widespread, governments will seek to follow in the EU’s footsteps and create their own comprehensive laws around AI,” he said. “This translates into additional responsibility for businesses, who must comply with the new legislation to avoid regulatory breaches and ensure they make the most of what AI has to offer.”
AI products will be brought to market quickly
While some new AI products were already available in recent years, the launch of ChatGPT towards the end of 2022 saw many companies jump into the AI rat race to create a swarm of new products and services for consumers and businesses.
Andy Patel, senior researcher at WithSecure, predicts that this trend will continue and that AI-based services and products will be “rushed to market” as competition between start-ups and established companies intensifies, although this may create challenges for some businesses. .
“Not having AI functionality in your product will be the difference between its viability and its usefulness,” Patel said. “And that means little to no attention is paid to security, just as we saw with early IoT (Internet of Things) devices. “If it’s smart, it’s vulnerable” is about to take on a whole new meaning. »
Generative AI will lead to ubiquitous AI
Rodrigo Liang, CEO of generative AI software company SambaNova Systems, predicts that the focus on this sector will lead to “pervasive AI,” where AI will be deployed by businesses across all their functions and workflows .
“The key to achieving this will lie in developing platforms that address enterprise challenges around security, privacy and widespread adoption, as well as models that increase in value year over year, ultimately making AI a major asset for enterprise-wide transformations rather than a useful tool. to improve isolated and repetitive tasks,” Liang said.
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