2024 Prediction
Another year has flown by, and it’s time for the 2024 predictions. I write this on the train to London on a cold Tuesday morning. First, let’s see how I did last year. Growth – we saw several redundancies last year across FANG, Banking and fintech and other organisations either sold or closed. The switch to sustainable growth vs growth at all costs is firmly established. Accelerated Dacay – we saw glimmers of business model transformation; however, I believe there is much more to come in 2024, with a greater focus on experimentation and innovation to drive disruptive growth. B2B – big unlock. I have seen more concentration across organisations to open the B2B ecosystem and connect competencies across businesses to drive differentiating value. However, I haven’t seen any big splashes of that yet. From my prediction, 2 out of 3 is not so bad, with B2B unlock happening more in 2024.
Moving onto the new prediction for 2024;
Technology and Product:
I mentioned in last year’s predictions the rise of AI. I see last year as experimentation and development of where AI will make sense to focus on developing LLM with different technologies, meta, google, Amazon and a lot smaller niche players driving applications on the shoulders of the giants (compute power) we saw the of Open.AI and Microsoft board unfolded last year. This year, my prediction is more exploration and even more exploitation of AI, given the vast investments required recouping. The proliferation of this will require a lot of debate about the ethics of AI, which will need to be considered during application. Every product will be AI-powered at its core and, at the very least, have AI in its creation. In 2024, the focus will be on commercial applications of Gen AI including increase customer satisfaction and CLV though hyper personalised experiences. Connecting the dots, the cracks of disjointed data and big holes in customer experience, both digital and physical, will become more accessible to solve with Gen AI. Being able to ingest large amounts of data from a vast number of sources without the need for traditional machine learning models, organisations will be able to provide meaning, insight and personalised experiences for their customers. We will see a lot more lite on device AI, Apple started this journey a few years back however we will see more of this with real time language translation and understanding the world on device. On device on server hybrid will offer many benefits from privacy, sovereign identity to response time.
Immersive experiences:
CES2024 this year showed off some of the latest technologies. There was, as every year, a big focus on flexible displays. Apple released its beta version of Apple Vision Pro. I predict more and more of these immersive interfaces will hit the market this year! This will change the physical and digital experience of a product substantially. The price of devices will need to become more affordable before we see ready player-one-type activities.
Organisational strategy:
The word transformation is overly used and often fails this year will be no different! However, business model transformation will move at a pace aided by the possibility of the AI products unlocks mentioned above. How organisations make money will move from a one-dimensional buyer-seller model to a multifaceted three-dimensional model through an ecosystem. I wrote a while back on ecosystems on fintech futures, and it remains valid for an ecosystem to work. It requires win-win contracts between all players. Any toxicity will ruin the ecosystem.
Do more with less:
We can do more with less if there is focus. We have seen redundancies across several Industries, including tech and, more recently, large banks. This is not just a reaction to constraints of cash flow. It’s more about driving more profitable business by structuring the organisation in the most optimum lean manner. Many of these will fail due to cutting too deep or being unable to change the organisational mindset that more is possible with less. For those that make it through and succeed endlessly, rewards of agility, evolving products, market growth, and optimum profits are waiting, with this releasing more investment for innovation.
Wild cards: friction-free travel! We have all been there. We book a holiday, and then the Brain has to go into planning mode: visas, transfers, whether my passport is valid, what to do at the destination and the list. My wild card this year is a more connected traveller experience through the ecosystem I mentioned above, with embedded payments, loyalty and immersive experience taking things off my thinking list when I travel. Some of this I am excited to bring to life myself. Other things will require collaborative conversations.
I am now approaching St Pancreas Station, which is my final stop! I look forward to connecting with you this year, and let’s see how I do in 2025!
Happy new year, “nano nano”!
Best,
Bhavesh
Digital Craftsman
Delightfully Dyslexic, so please forgive the typos!
