GenAI was inescapable in 2023. So where do we go from here? What is GenAI's role in 2024 and beyond? To answer this question, APMdigest is introducing a totally new predictions series — With a focus on GenAI, industry experts offer predictions on how AI will evolve and impact IT and business in 2024.

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Go to: predictions about AI in software development

AI IN EVERY TECHNOLOGY

I think we'll start to see nearly every technology company incorporating AI into their offerings. In fact, the growing availability of AI technologies and the ability to incorporate such technologies into their offerings will lower the barrier to entry for many companies while others will need to use AI in their business processes just to keep up with the market.
Lior Koriat
CEO, Quali

AI: A MATTER OF SURVIVAL

In 2024, generative AI will be a topic of important conversation in every board meeting, putting company survival at stake if business leaders are unable to meet board expectations. On top of that, customer expectations are evolving, and AI-driven technologies have become the norm, now making AI a prerequisite for competitiveness and survival. Until a company strategically harnesses AI, it will struggle to meet the new productivity standards set forth by the industry. As AI technologies become increasingly integral to a company's relevance, efficiency and effectiveness, organizations that don't embrace AI may fail to meet growing customer and market expectations and risk dissolution.
Gaurav Dhillon
CEO and Founder, SnapLogic

From luxury to standard: Businesses Will Embrace AI Across the Board in 2024 – Integrating AI into products and services will become a standard, not a luxury. With organizations pushing the boundaries of efficiency through AI adoption, 2024 will be the year that more than two-thirds of businesses will embed AI capabilities within their offerings. This shift signifies a pivotal transformation, with companies evolving from mere users of AI to becoming AI-centric in how they deliver their solutions to their users, both internal stakeholders and customers. This trend is not just about staying competitive; it's about survival, as AI becomes the engine driving innovation and customer value across all market sectors
David DeSanto
Chief Product Officer, GitLab

Prepare for certain AI features to become table stakes fast. Across the market, we're seeing generative AI rapidly move from a specialist technology into the mainstream, which will continue over the next year. This is the number one priority for most business leaders as they realize generative AI is too valuable to fade away, and it is triggering both productive, competitive innovation and a downright scramble to integrate certain AI features and functionalities into products fast. For this reason, and based on human nature, certain AI features are going to become expected across both personal and professional use cases ... The functionality, user experience and ease-of-use that AI will provide to products will become table stakes and expected across products — whether it's a tech titan or a startup, so being prepared to keep pace with evolving AI features and capabilities and integrating them into products routinely will be critical for business leaders and product managers looking ahead.
Hubert Palan
Founder and CEO, Productboard

SHIFT FROM REACTIONARY TO STRATEGIC

AI shifts from reactionary to intentional, unlocking opportunity while eliminating data collection-based roles — The year 2023 introduced AI, which caused knee-jerk reactions from organizations that ultimately spawned countless poorly designed and executed automation experiments. In 2024, AI will shift from reactionary to strategic, rooted in purposeful proofs of concept that bring more clarity and focus on business objectives. We'll see more business benefit-driven use cases leveraging AI and ML than ever before. As AI is paired with other technologies, like open source, we'll see new models emerge to solve traditional business problems. Generative AI, like ChatGPT, will also merge with more traditional AI technology, such as descriptive or predictive analytics, to open new opportunities for organizations and streamline traditionally cumbersome processes. As a result, AI will continue to eliminate redundant job roles that involve high levels of repetition, data collection and data processing, with customer service, retail sales, manufacturing production and office support expected to be most impacted by the end of 2024.
Mathias Golombek
CTO, Exasol

It will be important to develop a strategic POV to optimize the year of AI. By 2024, CIOs and CTOs better form an understanding of how AI might disrupt them, how it is an opportunity for them — or both. They will need to develop a point of view, and quickly. This is not just isolated to the tech industry, because AI will disrupt a wide range of areas from healthcare, law, finance, travel and more in ways we haven't yet imagined.
Arijit Mukherji
Distinguished Architect, Splunk

EXTREME HYPE SUBSIDES

Extreme hype around generative AI will diminish, true generative AI deployments will emerge — In the new year, we will also begin to see the extreme overhype around generative AI start to diminish. AI has always been prone to be overhyped. Having said that, I think we are going to see enterprises actually deploying generative AI in more measured and meaningful ways. As with most new technology adoption in the enterprise, it's going to take longer for these kinds of AI systems to become part of enterprise software in the ERP or HCM sense, but real value will start to be created next year. We will be able to calibrate our expectations appropriately once we begin to see its true impact.
Molham Aref
Founder and CEO, RelationalAI

RAPID INNOVATION

What we saw with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) this year was the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Given the amount of investment that has gone into progressing this technology, I expect to see rapid innovation in all aspects of LLM usage in 2024 — specifically at the foundational level, such as scale and efficiency. More importantly, we will see the emergence of very impactful use cases in industry verticals such as healthcare, learning, manufacturing, and automation. We will also see increased adoption of LLMs for the edge — LLMs, and AI will go where the data resides or is generated as against aggregating all the data to a centralized location. This will accelerate exponentially in addressing some of society's most complex and urgent problems.
Vinay Anand
Chief Product Officer, NetSPI

AI ASSISTANTS

AI will be your best work buddy. One of the most exciting ideas for workplace productivity is the deployment of AI assistants that help employees become — and continue to be — efficient and effective. For example, onboarding new workers is a complex process of educating the worker about systems, processes, and culture, alongside ensuring that they quickly gain access to only the right systems and projects. Looking forward, we can expect AI assistants tuned to specific departments and roles to provide that orientation, tied to their individual persona and accompanying them throughout their tenure at the company. As an organization's processes and needs become more mature, they can then train the agent to do the same thing on their behalf next time. And when they hire a new person into their organization, that person gets that full wealth of knowledge from the beginning. Taking it one step further, these AI assistants will start contributing to larger enterprise knowledge. By ingesting new documentation and thorough feedback from existing employees, scouring the internet for new ways to optimize processes, and more, these AI assistants will become every employee's best work buddy. This will quickly become the workplace standard and table stakes for increased productivity.
Sunny Bedi
CIO and CDO, Snowflake

HUMAN-ASSISTED AI

Human-assisted AI will start getting ground. So far, most AI tools are assistants that make a human more productive. It is likely that the more we understand and trust the capabilities of the AI the more there will be semi-autonomous AI agents that operate independently, seeking a human's advice when in doubt.
Esko Hannula
SVP, Product Management, Copado

AUTONOMOUS AI

In 2024, expect a move from humans directing GenAI tools to GenAI tools working on their own to optimize their work. For example, the transition from code-based to observation-based AI for Tesla's new autonomous driving is pretty breathtaking. Generative AI will not only be generative, it will also be perceptive. Generative AI will lean further into its ability to learn and discern what works and what doesn't to continually optimize. AI will get better at learning at an accelerated pace. The implications are likely inconceivable today.
Vipul Vyas
SVP of Go-To-Market Strategy, Persado

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Potential meets pragmatism: AI and ROI in 2024 — As IT leaders assess new technologies to help automate mundane tasks and optimize resources, they'll focus on modern platforms that include advanced AI capabilities, including generative AI, to achieve cost-saving. But as we dive into the new year, it's crucial for organizations to also take precautions to avoid shiny object syndrome, where exciting new opportunities turn from distraction to detriment. They must take into consideration the strategic prioritization of investments, for example through forming task forces such as investment committees, to optimize spending in the correct technology areas to reach their business goals. It seems inevitable that adoption of AI-enabled technologies will continue to expand and accelerate. But the reality in 2024, is that successful organizations will need to focus more time and efforts in first understanding where AI might actually provide maximum ROI. To control their IT roadmap, eliminate unnecessary spending, and with an eye on profitability, we'll see successful leaders accelerate their adoption of solutions and services to streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and liberate their teams to concentrate on strategic business operations.
Steven Salaets
EVP of Special Projects, Rimini Street

COMMODOTIZED AI MODELS

Major AI models will become commodities and the teams that can build the apps on top of these models will take all. When models like OpenAI became mainstream in early 2023, the focus around Generative was experimentation; we discovered a new tool that unleashed a wave of new apps and use cases to the market. In the second half of 2023, we shifted to solving end-to-end problems. Rather than building the foundational model — companies used AI as a piece to a more comprehensive solution. In 2024, as developers become more comfortable working with ML models and consolidating on the best tools to do so, the race will shift to figuring out how to build AI-enabled software into commercially viable products that provide immediate value to customers.
Jim Rose
CEO, CircleCI

Go to: 2024 AI Predictions - Part 2, covering the stakeholders driving AI.