10 Channel-Impacting AI Predictions for 2024
Channel Futures' AI predictions for 2024 include a forecast for business adoption and how the channel will play a role.
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"One size doesn’t fit all: Customization is coming to enterprises. Companies won’t have one or two generative AI applications — many will have hundreds of customized applications using proprietary data that is suited to various parts of their business.
"Once running in production, these custom LLMs will feature RAG capabilities to connect data sources to generative AI models for more accurate, informed responses. Leading companies like Amdocs, Dropbox, Genentech, SAP, ServiceNow and Snowflake are already building new generative AI services built using RAG and [large language models]."
“2024 will probably see the emergence of a new approach to interaction between information systems, thanks to the arrival of a new consumer: the AI-powered assistant. The progress and democratization of generative AI tools will create new uses. And OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, wants to create a competitor to the iPhone. They want to put ChatGPT in your pocket, making it the ultimate advisor.
"It's time to rethink digital interactions. In the 2020s, we understood that we had to move from a vision of technical APIs to business-oriented digital products. The coming year will force us to reassess these products and their marketing to adapt them to the new consumers of services: the AI generatives!”
"Businesses will lean on strategic partners to expand AI capabilities: In 2024, demand for enterprise AI solutions will continue to surge as companies recognize the immediate impact that AI will have on their bottom line. The coming year will witness an increase in partnerships and acquisitions, with the objective of expanding capabilities and building capacity to meet the demands for AI solutions. Businesses that forge strategic alliances around AI and combine resources, talent, and ideas will be at the forefront of driving innovation forward.
Supporting proof point: Nearly half of C-suite leaders agree AI will impact their bottom line in 2024, while an additional 36% predict its financial effects will be realized in the next two to five years."
“Customers are shifting away from traditional infrastructure partners towards working with more innovative channel partners. These can help them adopt dynamic cloud and enterprise software models where they can better understand both their structured and unstructured data and dynamically manipulate and innovate using it.
"Generative AI offers a huge opportunity for enterprises to adapt their existing business models and digital transformations. Companies are actively seeking insights and advice – from vendors and their partners alike around these strongly emerging trends.
"In particular, we are seeing the rise of leading hybrid cloud vendors that commit to working strategically and for the long term with expert channel partners. This approach gives enterprise customers a very clear Generative AI proposition, a risk-managed approach, cutting-edge technology support with business transformation and implementation strategies that will enable them to achieve their business outcomes.”
"Generative AI-focused data compliance regulations will force customers to look to the channel for help. For all its potential use cases, generative AI also carries heavy risks, not the least of which are data privacy concerns. Right now, most regulatory bodies are focused on how existing data privacy laws apply to generative AI, but as the technology continues to evolve, generative AI-specific legislation is sure to come.
"As legitimate business use cases for generative AI grow, organizations will need help from the channel in the coming year to both implement data compliance and governance tools that address current generative AI issues and also in moving beyond free generative AI tools to more robust commercial AI platforms that have data privacy guardrails in place by default. While many organizations face these new challenges with little internal expertise or experience, the channel must be prepared in 2024 to meet this need."
"Enterprises prioritize flexibility: While cloud and colocation providers aggressively pursue new deployments to meet demand, organizations with enterprise data centers are likely to diversify investments and deployment strategies. AI is a factor here as organizations wrestle with how best to enable and apply the technology while still meeting sustainability objectives.
"Businesses may start to look to on-premise capacity to support proprietary AI, and edge application deployments may be impacted by AI tailwinds. Many organizations can be expected to prioritize incremental investment – leaning heavily on prefabricated modular solutions – and service and maintenance to extend the life of legacy equipment. Such services can provide ancillary benefits, optimizing operation to free up capacity in maxed-out computing environments and increasing energy efficiency in the process.
"Likewise, organizations can reduce Scope 3 carbon emissions by extending the life of existing servers rather than replacing and scrapping them."
"AI-operated social engineering to increase during the 2024 Presidential election year: The concept of fake news isn’t new, but typically this type of news has been driven by humans. However, we expect to see a greater number of AI-operated attacks using fake news to disseminate disinformation during a Presidential election year.
"The media industries – print, film, streaming, etc. – are all highly regulated, but the internet itself isn’t. This allows bad actors to take advantage of the influence of celebrities and world leaders to create AI-generated versions of these public figures to disseminate fake news and give it a sense of legitimacy without ever having to be fact-checked. Without any governmental legislation to clamp down on these tactics, bad actors will be able to socially engineer behavioral changes in society."
"Generative AI’s negative impacts will be hard to manage early on — including job loss, deep fakes and a deepening digital divide. Although generative AI is reimagining how we interact with machines, there are some immediate concerns that will be particularly challenging in the early years of widespread AI and language model adoption.
"For a lot of people involved in what we loosely call 'knowledge work,' quite a few of their jobs are going to vaporize. Rapid change makes it hard to quickly absorb displaced workers elsewhere in the workforce, and as a result both the private sector and governments will need to step up. Deep fakes are also another hurdle, and we can expect increased attacks on what we humans collectively think of as our reality — resulting in a world where no one can, or should, trust a video of you because it may be AI-generated.
"Finally, advances in AI will exacerbate the digital divide that has been happening over the past 20-30 years between the haves and have nots, and will further increase inequality across the globe. I can only hope that by making information more accessible, this emerging technology leads to a new generation of young adults who better understand the issues and potential, and can counter that risk."
"Mass adoption of AI. While there was a lot to be excited about this year with the launch of ChatGPT and other AI technologies, most companies were caught flat footed and have yet to harness AI’s true potential. That will begin to change in 2024 as companies adopt new AI tools to help clients understand their customers better, customize messaging, predict future trends and improve the customer experience."
"Current contact center AI adoption is limited – but growing rapidly. None of the nine AI capabilities we polled for had an adoption rate higher than 35%. Sentiment analysis led the way with 34% adoption, while accent neutralization had an adoption rate of just 6%. Despite the low rate of adoption at the time of polling, AI investments are top of mind for many of the organizations surveyed. Within the next 12 months, the survey shows AI adoption rates will see significant growth – in some cases doubling or tripling."
"Current contact center AI adoption is limited – but growing rapidly. None of the nine AI capabilities we polled for had an adoption rate higher than 35%. Sentiment analysis led the way with 34% adoption, while accent neutralization had an adoption rate of just 6%. Despite the low rate of adoption at the time of polling, AI investments are top of mind for many of the organizations surveyed. Within the next 12 months, the survey shows AI adoption rates will see significant growth – in some cases doubling or tripling."
Enterprises will soon go from having zero to few generative AI applications to hundreds of customized applications that will help their businesses. And as the business case for generative AI grows, companies will need help from the channel to both understand this new technology and to implement data compliance tools since gen AI is so data-intensive.
Those are just a couple of the AI predictions that we have compiled from leaders throughout the channel and the tech industry as a whole. If 2023 was the year everyone was talking about AI, then 2024 will be the year that companies doing business in the channel will actively incorporate artificial intelligence into their infrastructure.
Furthermore, it won't be long before we all have AI-capable PCs on our desktops. Canalys (Channel Futures' sister company) earlier this year predicted that 60% of PCs shipped by 2027 will be AI-capable.
But before we get too many years into the future, see what industry experts have to say about AI predictions for '24 in the slideshow above.
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