Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2024
- Democratized Generative AI predicted to have over 80% enterprise adoption by 2026
- AI Trust, Risk and Security Management can increase decision-making accuracy by up to 80%
- AI-augmented development improves developer productivity
- Intelligent applications deliver personalized experiences
- Augmented-connected workforce reduces time to competency by 50%
- Continuous Threat Exposure Management can reduce breaches by two-thirds
- Machine customers will generate trillions of dollars in revenue by 2030
- Sustainable technology becomes a focus for CIOs
- Platform engineering optimizes productivity and delivery of business value
- Industry cloud platforms will be used by over 70% of enterprises by 2027
- None.
Analysts Explore Industry Trends at Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2023, October 16-19
“Technology disruptions and socioeconomic uncertainties require willingness to act boldly and strategically enhance resilience over ad hoc responses,” said Bart Willemsen, VP Analyst at Gartner. “IT leaders are in a unique position to strategically lay down a roadmap where technology investments help their business's sustenance of success amidst these uncertainties and pressures.”
“They and other executives must evaluate the impacts and benefits of strategic technology trends, but this is no small task given the increasing rate of technological innovation,” said Chris Howard, Distinguished VP Analyst and Chief of Research at Gartner. “For example, generative and other types of AI offer new opportunities and drive several trends. But deriving business value from the durable use of AI requires a disciplined approach to widespread adoption along with attention to the risks.”
The top strategic technology trends for 2024 are:
Democratized Generative AI
Generative AI (GenAI) is becoming democratized by the confluence of massively pretrained models, cloud computing and open source, making these models accessible to workers worldwide. By 2026, Gartner predicts that over
GenAI applications can make vast sources of information — internal and external — accessible and available to business users. This means the rapid adoption of GenAI will significantly democratize knowledge and skills in the enterprise. Large language models enable enterprises to connect their workers with knowledge in a conversational style with rich semantic understanding.
AI Trust, Risk and Security Management
The democratization of access to AI has made the need for AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (TRiSM) even more urgent and clear. Without guardrails, AI models can rapidly generate compounding negative effects that spin out of control, overshadowing any positive performance and societal gains that AI enables. AI TRiSM provides tooling for ModelOps, proactive data protection, AI-specific security, model monitoring (including monitoring for data drift, model drift, and/or unintended outcomes) and risk controls for inputs and outputs to third-party models and applications.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, enterprises that apply AI TRiSM controls will increase the accuracy of their decision making by eliminating up to
AI-Augmented Development
AI-augmented development is the use of AI technologies, such as GenAI and machine learning, to aid software engineers in designing, coding and testing applications. AI-assisted software engineering improves developer productivity and enables development teams to address the increasing demand for software to run the business. These AI-infused development tools allow software engineers to spend less time writing code, so they can spend more time on more strategic activities such as the design and composition of compelling business applications.
Intelligent Applications
Intelligent applications include intelligence — which Gartner defines as learned adaptation to respond appropriately and autonomously — as a capability. This intelligence can be utilized in many use cases to better augment or automate work. As a foundational capability, intelligence in applications comprises various AI-based services, such as machine learning, vector stores and connected data. Consequently, intelligent applications deliver experiences that dynamically adapt to the user.
A clear need and demand for intelligent applications exists. Twenty-six percent of CEOs in the 2023 Gartner CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey cited the talent shortage as the most damaging risk for their organization. Attracting and retaining talent is CEOs’ top workforce priority, while AI was named the technology that will most significantly impact their industries over the next three years.
Augmented-Connected Workforce
The augmented-connected workforce (ACWF) is a strategy for optimizing the value derived from human workers. The need to accelerate and scale talent is driving the ACWF trend. The ACWF uses intelligent applications and workforce analytics to provide everyday context and guidance to support the workforce’s experience, well-being, and ability to develop its own skills. At the same time, the ACWF drives business results and positive impact for key stakeholders.
Through 2027,
Continuous Threat Exposure Management
Continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) is a pragmatic and systemic approach that allows organizations to evaluate the accessibility, exposure and exploitability of an enterprise’s digital and physical assets continually and consistently. Aligning CTEM assessment and remediation scopes with threat vectors or business projects, rather than an infrastructure component, surfaces not only the vulnerabilities, but also unpatchable threats.
By 2026, Gartner predicts that organizations prioritizing their security investments based on a CTEM program will realize a two-thirds reduction in breaches.
Machine Customers
Machine customers (also called 'custobots') are nonhuman economic actors that can autonomously negotiate and purchase goods and services in exchange for payment. 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 create new custobots.
Sustainable Technology
Sustainable technology is a framework of digital solutions used to enable environmental, social and governance (ESG) outcomes that support long-term ecological balance and human rights. The use of technologies such as AI, cryptocurrency, the Internet of Things and cloud computing is driving concern about the related energy consumption and environmental impacts. This makes it more critical to ensure that the use of IT becomes more efficient, circular and sustainable. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2027,
Platform Engineering
Platform engineering is the discipline of building and operating self-service internal development platforms. Each platform is a layer, created and maintained by a dedicated product team, designed to support the needs of its users by interfacing with tools and processes. The goal of platform engineering is to optimize productivity, the user experience and accelerate delivery of business value.
Industry Cloud Platforms
By 2027, Gartner predicts more than
This year's top strategic technology trends highlight those trends that will drive significant disruption and opportunity for CIOs and other IT leaders within the next 36 months. Gartner clients can read more in the Gartner Special Report “Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2024.”
About Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo
Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo is the world's most important gathering for CIOs and other IT executives. IT executives rely on these conferences to learn how to unleash the possibility of the technology, insights and trends shaping the future of IT and business. Follow news, photos and video coming from Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo on the Gartner Newsroom, on X using #GartnerSYM, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Upcoming dates and locations for Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo include:
November 6-9 |
About Gartner for Information Technology Executives
Gartner for Information Technology Executives provides actionable, objective insight to CIOs and IT leaders to help them drive their organizations through digital transformation and lead business growth. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/en/information-technology.
Follow news and updates from Gartner for IT Executives on X and LinkedIn using #GartnerIT. Visit the IT Newsroom for more information and insights.
About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective insight that drives smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organization’s mission-critical priorities. To learn more, visit gartner.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231016458991/en/
Meghan Rimol DeLisi
Gartner
meghan.rimol@gartner.com
Catherine Howley
Gartner
catherine.howley@gartner.com
Source: Gartner, Inc.
FAQ
What is the predicted adoption rate of Democratized Generative AI by 2026?
How much can AI Trust, Risk and Security Management increase decision-making accuracy by?
What is the expected impact of augmented-connected workforce initiatives?
What is the potential revenue generation of machine customers by 2030?
What is the predicted adoption rate of industry cloud platforms by 2027?
