A glimpse into the AI landscape of 2024, focusing on the rising importance of AI in the business sector.
The initial cultural fascination with artificial intelligence that started in late 2022, and flourished through 2023, is expected to yield tangible results for businesses in 2024. This technology, which right now has massive applications in generating text, voice and video content, is bringing rapid evolution in how companies enhance productivity, foster innovation and stimulate creativity. Projections by McKinsey & Company indicate that AI applications have the potential to contribute between USD 2.6 trillion and 4.4 trillion to the global economy in 2024 through various business scenarios.
Enterprise AI
Enterprise AI solutions had been on the rise long before OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public. In 2024, Enterprise AI customisation with businesses embracing tailored generative AI applications is expected to surge. The purpose of these AI applications is to meet specific business needs by integrating proprietary data and helping ensure accurate and relevant responses. This trend signals a move toward efficient and personalised AI-driven business solutions. For example, global retail chains are expected to adopt region-specific AI models that are trained on data, such as customer preferences and cultural nuances to offer highly personalised customer interactions.
Business reliance on AI is therefore expected to grow exponentially in 2024. Its effects will be felt in customer engagement, operational efficiency and market competitiveness, leading to a dynamic business landscape where AI fuels innovation and addresses specific market and operational challenges.
Open Source AI
The one name that stands out when ‘open source AI’ is used, is Hugging Face, an online AI community hosting and collaborating on models, datasets and applications. An example of a large open-source collaboration on the Hugging Face platform is a geospatial AI foundation model created in partnership between IBM and NASA. The model expands access to NASA’s earth science data, particularly for geospatial intelligence and advancing climate-related research. Open-source pre-trained AI models, similar to the NASA-IBM one, are expected to gain significant traction in 2024, empowering businesses to accelerate growth by combining these models with private or real-time data, enhancing productivity and cost-efficiency.
API and Microservices
In 2024, the proliferation of application programming interfaces (APIs) is expected to simplify the creation of complex AI-driven applications, boosting productivity across various sectors. For example, IBM has developed and is improving on a suite of custom AI microservices for retailers accessible through IBM APIs which include customer analysis, inventory management and personalised marketing tools.
AI-powered microservices are expected to be seen ubiquitously in ‘intelligent’ virtual assistants in online retail. These assistants, capable of handling numerous customer inquiries in real-time, will provide tailored responses based on individual customer data. Additionally, businesses will get summarised customer feedback and sales data enabling faster and more informed decision-making.
While virtual assistants have been around for a while, it has historically required human supervision to minimise error rates. This year, AI models are expected to be capable of being far more accurate, and on top of that, flexible, scalable, and rapidly adaptable to market changes.
Multimodal AI
The transition from text-based generative AI models like ChatGPT, Google Bard, and GROK, to multimodal language that integrates text, speech and images is expected to be fully underway by mid-2024. Google Gemini is an example of multimodal AI where it can take any form of input (text, image, audio, or video) and produce any form of output. These forms of multimodal AI are expected to make their way into business applications as well, especially during customer service calls. Multimodal AI in 2024 will be able to analyse a client’s spoken request, interpret their financial documents and assess their facial expressions in a video consultation. These data points can be synthesised to provide personalised services that are as satisfactory as any other human being a client would be communicating with to receive assistance.
National Priority, Safety, and Ethics
Nations worldwide are expected to prioritise AI development in a race to secure a groundbreaking lead in the AI race. As a result of this heightened focus, research efforts are expected to see significant funding, leading to advances in science and economic growth, firmly establishing AI as a strategic global asset. The wheels have already been set in motion in the European Union, which demonstrated its commitment to elevating AI as a national priority by progressing toward the finalisation of the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act). This legislation represents the world’s inaugural comprehensive legal framework for AI, categorising AI systems into different risk levels, and imposing corresponding obligations.
It can be said with certainty that the world in 2024 will be AI-driven and will enable innovation, growth and societal advancement at even more accelerated rates as AI evolves. AI’s centrality in the business world is clear, and 2024 will mark a significant change in how companies use intelligent technologies for efficiency and innovation.
