8 Major AI Trends Shaping Business Transformation in 2024

In 2023, we witnessed the beginning of an AI revolution. Now, heading into 2024, it seems the artificial intelligence renaissance will continue to unfold, shaping our everyday lives, and businesses. For most companies, AI is now a core part of a comprehensive digital transformation strategy.

From companies investing in enhanced customer service, with generative AI bots in CCaaS platforms, tapping into productivity boosts with AI Copilots, or priming their cloud infrastructure for the age of quantum AI, the technology is everywhere.

Here at UC Advisor, we’re invested in empowering companies of all sizes to achieve their digital transformation goals. With that in mind, we’re sharing our predictions for the major AI trends that will influence your business strategy in the year ahead.

Let’s dive in.

1. Generative AI Proliferates Everything

Let’s start with perhaps the most obvious AI trend in 2024: generative AI. This technology, which can process and generate content with incredible levels of creativity, is revolutionizing the modern world. In fact, McKinsey suggests generative AI will contribute up to $4.4 trillion to the global economy each year in the years ahead. Generative AI was an exciting trend in 2023, but it had limitations.

Studies showed that around 80% of respondents to one study said they believe generative AI will “transform their organisations”, but only 6% were currently embracing the technology. Part of the reason for that was limited accessibility. While companies could access tools like ChatGPT for free, it lacked the security features and controls they needed to achieve real results.

Purchasing advanced generative AI solutions required extensive investment in computing technology (AI chips), and technical knowledge. Now, in 2024, the options are evolving. For instance, open source pretrained AI models are appearing to empower businesses to create their own custom solutions with private data and customizations. Just look at geospatial AI foundation model, created in partnership with NASA.

At the same time, major technology vendors are embedding open-source AI technologies and proprietary systems into existing platforms and tools. Microsoft now has the ever-growing Copilot portfolio, with solutions for employees, sales professionals, and service teams. Dialpad has DialpadGPT, and Salesforce has its own Einstein Copilot. This means more people can now access generative AI than ever before, with fewer roadblocks.

2. AI Customisation Becomes a Priority

The rising adoption of AI, and generative AI solutions has also led to an increased demand for customisation. While one-size-fits-all and pre-built models appeal to some companies, many are searching for more specific solutions that address unique cases. This has led to an influx in platforms and tools designed to support AI customisation.
For instance, low-code generative AI and GPT builders are becoming increasingly commonplace. OpenAI introduced its GPT Builder for ChatGPT Plus users last year, and Microsoft offered access to Copilot Studio, another no-code building platform.

Elsewhere, the growth of application programming interfaces (APIs) is further democratising access to custom AI solutions for business leaders. These tools allow companies to build complex AI-driven applications that link data and processes from various applications.

IBM even developed a suite of AI microservices for a retailer, using APIs powered by artificial intelligence. This suite enables the retailer to access solutions for inventory management, customer behaviour analysis, and personalised marketing, all in one landscape.

3. Companies Rethink Their Data Strategy

With enterprise AI customisation on the rise, the way businesses collect and manage data for their AI strategies is evolving too. One of the best ways to customise AI solutions today, is to create applications that are powered by proprietary data, to drive more accurate and relevant responses. With access to CRM, business, and other data, AI tools can adapt to the needs of each company.

However, business processes will need to be redesigned accordingly. Companies will need to rethink how they curate unstructured content, improve data quality, and provide their AI systems with the right variety of different insights. In one AWS study, around 93% of respondents agreed that their data strategy would be crucial to their AI future, however 57% hadn’t made any data changes yet.

Data is one of the most important factors shaping digitally-transforming businesses. The latest AI systems and chatbots, capable of synthesizing vast amounts of information, are disrupting the landscape. Used correctly, data can have a huge impact on the future of our AI experiences. However, companies first need to rethink how they gather and structure their data, their broader data architecture, and how they deploy technology tools to leverage data connections.

4. Ethics and Security Remain a Concern

Crucially, the focus for businesses won’t just be in collecting the right data to feed AI systems. They’ll also need to ensure they’re taking the right measures to protect that data, and adhere to evolving compliance guidelines. As AI becomes more integrated into our businesses and lives, the focus on safety and ethics is increasing.
Leading AI organizations are already collaborating to ensure AI systems can be produced to address common security concerns, such as the AI Safety Alliance. The Alliance, featuring input from industry leaders like intel, Oracle, IBM, and Meta is working to shape the future of AI development, according to crucial legislation and ethical guidelines.

These groups aren’t alone in their concerns about AI’s impact on data security and privacy. Governments around the world are also exploring how innovations in AI will influence data privacy and security in the digital world. Going forward, companies will need to adapt rapidly to changing policies about how and when they use artificial intelligence.

This will be particularly important in highly regulated industries, that deal with large amounts of sensitive data, such as financial services companies and health providers.

5. AI Innovation Transforms Cloud Architecture

Investing in the next generation of artificial intelligence doesn’t just mean adapting your data strategy, updating security policies, or comparing solutions from competing vendors. Businesses will also need to think about how they develop their cloud architecture, to support AI.

As mentioned above, some vendors are already offering generative AI solutions built into their technology stacks, to reduce the impact on business bandwidth and computing systems. Companies like Microsoft, Talkdesk and many others provide access to AI solutions through the cloud, so business leaders don’t need to run and manage their own models.

Additionally, there’s a growing demand for “AI as a service” solutions, which allow companies to leverage generative AI and large language models on a pay-as-you-go basis. Alongside these new deployment options, we’re likely to see an increase in companies offering cloud storage and security systems, specifically tuned to the needs of intelligent models. AWS, Google, and Azure already have their own unique cloud offerings tailored to the needs of AI developers and inventors.

In the future, we may see more cloud services providers offering unique co-location, disaster recovery, and even managed backup options for AI environments.

6. Companies Invest in AI Training

As AI becomes a common part of the workplace, the training companies offer to their employees will need to evolve. We now know that (for the time being), AI won’t eliminate all human jobs. Instead, it will give employees access to tools they can use to improve productivity, collaborate more effectively, and even create more advanced products at speed.

However, before teams can take full advantage of the benefits these solutions have to offer, they’ll need to learn how to use them. Around 66% of millennial and Gen Z respondents in one study said they feel they desperately need more AI skills to maintain a competitive edge.

The good news is that AI can actually improve the training process too. With AI solutions, companies can build entirely personalised learning and training resources for team members, showing them how to use AI securely, leverage tools for collaboration, and even craft better generative AI prompts.

AI can even provide real-time coaching to employees, with bots that use data from your ecosystem to offer step-by-step guidance during different processes. For instance, Microsoft has shown us an example of this with its Copilot tools for Customer Service and Sales.

7. AI Shapes New Realities

In our previous trends piece focusing on AI trends, we looked at the connection between AI and the metaverse. Moving into 2024, the focus on this link between AI and new realities will be even greater, as innovators continue to invest in concepts like spatial computing.

We’re entering a world where we can interact with computers more naturally than ever before, using gestures, voice, and even eye movements to tell intelligent systems exactly what we want to do. In this landscape, artificial intelligence will play a crucial role in every interaction with have with digital technology, shaping the way we connect with computers, smartphones, and more.

At the same time, AI will be foundational in building the landscapes of tomorrow. Companies are already using generative AI systems to build spatial environments and metaverse spaces. This means companies can use extended reality to interact with customers in real-time during customer service strategies, or demonstrate products to customers in the sales process.

8. The Rise of a More Inclusive World

The evolution of AI in the last few years has grabbed the attention of various segments, with different schools of thought. Some are concerned that artificial intelligence will harm humanity, by hampering our creativity, eliminating jobs, and creating new problems with privacy and security.

However, others can see the value AI offers when it comes to creating a more inclusive, diverse business landscape. AI technologies, used correctly, have the power to break down barriers and empower individuals with disabilities. For instance, AI solutions can describe images to visually impaired individuals with incredible clarity, or create captions for those who are hard of hearing.

AI solutions can even support accessibility testing, providing businesses with granular instructions on how to make their content and experiences more accessible to everyone. AI could even change how businesses hire new staff members, eliminating common issues with unconscious bias. The right tools can remove personally identifiable information from resumes and cover letters in an instant, helping businesses to hire employees based on their skills, rather than abstract attributes.

Moving into the Future of Artificial Intelligence

Over the last five years, adoption of artificial intelligence has grown at an incredible rate. Now that AI tools and algorithms are more advanced than ever, demand will only continue to grow. For businesses investing in the constant process of digital transformation, the focus on AI will increase in the years ahead, shaping everything from their connectivity choices, to security strategies.

Fortunately, working with the right vendors can make it easier to navigate this complex intelligent landscape. Reach out to UC Advisor today, to find out how we can help you choose the right AI innovators to support your strategy, and even fund your digital transformation journey.