Top 10 strategic technology trends for 2024 according to Gartner

Acclaimed analyst and research firm Gartner has revealed its top technology trends for 2024. According to its representatives, these strategic trends will factor into business and technology decisions. In the age of fast-evolving artificial intelligence solutions, they can drive faster achievement of a company’s strategic goals. Careful and deliberate integration of even a few of these will help protect an organisation in today’s uncertain times, while generating value.

1. AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (AI TRiSM)
   The prevalence of access to artificial intelligence has made the implementation of what Gartner calls AI trust, risk and security management even more important. Without good safeguards, the impact of AI-based models can be negative and out of control, overshadowing the benefits that AI brings. According to Gartner’s predictions, companies that adopt AI TRiSM controls by 2026 will increase the accuracy of their decision-making, eliminating up to 80% of misinformation.
   
   
2. Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)
   CTEM is a practical and comprehensive approach to improving cybersecurity. It implies continuous monitoring and response to potential threats. It consists of several steps, including identification, discovery, prioritisation, verification and proactive countering of threats. Gartner predicts that organisations that prioritise investment in CTEM will reduce the number of cyber security violations by as much as two-thirds.
   
   
3. Sustainable Technology
   Sustainable Technology is a framework of digital solutions for achieving the best possible ESG performance. The use of technology such as artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies and cloud computing raises concerns about the amount of energy they consume and thus the negative impact on the environment. Businesses should therefore aim to use such technologies to reduce their carbon footprint. Gartner predicts that by 2027. 25 per cent of IT executives will see their personal compensation linked to their sustainable technology impact.
   
   
4. Platform engineering
   Platform engineering is about creating self-service development platforms within an organisation to deliver software and manage the product lifecycle. Each such platform is created and managed by a dedicated product team. The goal of platform engineering is to optimise productivity, user experience and delivery of business value.
   
   
5. AI-Augmented Development
   AI-augmented development refers to the use of AI technologies, such as generative AI or machine learning, to aid software engineers in designing, coding and testing applications. AI-assisted software engineering increases the productivity of developers and thus meets the growing demand for the results of their work. Artificial intelligence-based programming tools allow engineers to spend less time writing code, allowing them to devote more time to more strategic activities, such as designing and creating compelling business applications.
   
   
6. Industry cloud platforms (ICPs)
   These platforms address industry-relevant business outcomes by combining core SaaS, PaaS and IaaS services into a complete product offering (with componentised architecture capabilities). ICPs are industry-specific, but can also be tailored to the needs of a specific organisation. Gartner predicts that by 2027, more than 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives (in the current year, this percentage is less than 15%).
   
   
7. Intelligent applications
   These applications are about learned adaptation to respond appropriately and autonomously. Intelligent applications provide experiences that dynamically adapt to the user. They can in many cases be used to automate work (or augment it). There is a clear demand for intelligent applications – in the Gartner CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey 2023, as many as 26% of CEOs cited talent shortages as the most damagingrisk for their organization.
   
   
8. Democratised Generative AI
   Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) applications can provide business users with vast sources of information, both internally and externally. GenAI is becoming increasingly democratised – its models are quite widely available. The rapid implementation of GenAI will allow knowledge and skills to be distributed across the organization. Gartner predicts that by 2026, more than 80% of enterprises will use GenAI APIs and models and/or deploy GenAI-enabled applications in production environments, up from less than 5% in 2023.
   
   
9. Augmented Connected Workforce (ACWF)
   The Augmented Connected Workforce is a strategy for optimising the value derived from human workers. ACWF uses intelligent applications and workforce analytics to provide daily context and guidance to support the workforce experience, wellbeing and ability to develop its own skills. At the same time, ACWF drives business performance and has a positive impact on key stakeholders. By 2027, many IT departments will use augmented-connected workforce initiatives to reduce time to competency by 50% for key roles.
   
   
10. Machine Customers
    Machine-customers (also called ‘custobots’) are nonhuman economic actors that can autonomously negotiate and purchase goods and services in exchange for payment. In other words, they behave like customers. By 2028, 15 billion connected products will exist with the potential to behave as customers, with billions more to follow in the coming years. This growth trend will be the source of trillions of dollars in revenues by 2030 and eventually become more significant than the arrival of digital commerce. Strategic considerations should include opportunities to either facilitate these algorithms and devices, or even the creation of new custobots.
    

The full report ‘Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2024’ can be downloaded here.