Diamond IT Blog

Tech Trends 2024: A Focus on Generative AI

Written by Martin Thurgate | December 13, 2023

AI is not just a tool for solving problems, but also a source of creativity and innovation. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of AI that can create new content or data based on existing data, such as text, images, audio, or code. 

This opens up new possibilities for various industries and applications, such as entertainment, education, healthcare, and business.

In this blog we highlight the Tech Trends 2024 Report, from Info-Tech Research Group, that identifies six key tech trends that IT and business leaders must consider for success. These trends, especially in AI, are poised to significantly impact business strategies and IT operations.

"AI-based business strategies aren’t just for those on the cutting edge. In our Future of IT survey, about 1 in 5 IT leaders told us they are already using AI to help define business strategy." - Info-Tech Research Group, 2023

 

6 Tech Trends Centred Around AI for 2024

  1. AI-Driven Business Models: Essential for business innovation, this trend highlights AI's role in new product and service development, key for competitive market positioning.

  2. Autonomised Back Office: Focuses on improving operational efficiency and cost reduction through AI, crucial for modernising business processes.

  3. Spatial Computing: Important for its immersive interactions, it's set to transform various industries with enhanced spatial awareness and user experience.

  4. Responsible AI: Stresses ethical AI deployment, emphasising transparency and fairness to maintain public trust and avoid system biases.

  5. Security by Design: Highlights the necessity of integrating strong security in AI systems from inception, crucial for countering cyber threats.

  6. Digital Sovereignty: Underscores effective data and AI technology management, key for maintaining national and organisational control in the digital landscape.

 

Seize Opportunities and Mitigate Risks

The report offers an equitable perspective on the opportunities and obstacles posed by Generative AI in the business landscape. We take a look at some examples from each category that IT and business leaders should be aware of. 

 

Opportunities

  1. Deploy AI to your own infrastructure - With open-source models available and integration partners also offering help bringing AI models on-premises, many enterprises are choosing to avoid the risk of their data falling into the hands 
    of third parties by operating models on their own infrastructure. This can also improve performance, where deploying a model close to the edge will allow it to react to different contexts more quickly.
  2. Monetise data stores - In light of the need to train large AI models on various types of data, it’s possible that your data stores hold new value for AI builders. While considering data sensitivity and privacy always remain paramount, organisations may be able to license their data to earn revenue. Read more from KPMG on this opportunity here.
  3. Build Trust with Vendors - For many organisations, some aspects of AI service delivery will take place on a third party’s server. Create trusted relationships with vendors by taking control over contractual language about how your data is used, and seek additional practical measures, such as isolated infrastructure and encryption, to ensure it. 

 

Risks

  1. Adopt Protective measures against AI - The capability of AI model training requires that organisations re-evaluate what data they are exposing publicly and where they can deploy new measures to protect that data from being ingested into training. Protective measures will range from changing configurations to adopting new preventive security measures.
  2. Prepare for close scrutiny on Customer Data - Regulators are just beginning to consider the implications of AI capabilities for data privacy laws. In the meantime, data ethics has proven to be fertile ground for activism, and companies that act too aggressively may face a reputational backlash.
  3. Seek out your data in massive data sets - Is your data sitting in a massive data set like Common Crawl that is used to feed into the large AI models of different vendors? Seeking to have it removed where possible can further reduce the 
    risk of your intellectual property moving beyond your control.

We hope this blog post has given you a brief overview of the key points from the report, and we encourage you to read the full report to understand how Generative AI and related technologies are reshaping industries. 

How Can Diamond IT Help?

Our Business Technology Consulting team are experts in helping ours customer with strategic planning to ensure leaders are well-equipped to adapt to the rapidly evolving technology landscapes and to help businesses maintain competitive advantages in their respective fields. Talk to us today: 1300 307 907.