Featuring:
Matthew Guarini, VP, Senior Research Director and Frederic Giron, VP, Senior Research Director
Show Notes:
Technology leaders will face a number of interrelated challenges in the coming year. There’s the impact of the AI explosion across the enterprise; there’s the always challenging tech talent market to navigate; and there’s the ongoing pressure for the tech organization to drive more growth. Find out how some of these trends may play out as Vice Presidents and Senior Research Directors Matthew Guarini and Fred Giron discuss Forrester’s 2024 predictions for technology leaders.
The episode starts by discussing the prediction that only 10% of technology leaders will successfully drive growth in 2024. The key question: What are they doing that the other 90% aren’t? Guarini says aligning technology with business strategy is the most important factor for driving growth; he also emphasizes that growth means different things to different organizations. Giron adds that one of the keys for tech leaders is orchestrating the various technology initiatives that contribute to sustained business.
Next, the discussion delves into tech talent challenges. A review of the current tech talent market in both the US and Asia Pacific today highlights some skill deficits in the various areas of AI. Guarini predicts that certain tech skills will remain hard to find, leading to 20% of tech leaders becoming frustrated enough with their HR teams to take recruiting into their own hands, creating a lasting “shadow HR” impact. “We could see it drive a real schism between the HR team and the IT team,” says Guarini, “and once you get to that, it’s never good for anyone.” Technology leaders need to balance their reliance on external partners for AI skills with developing internal capabilities, he says, cautioning against overreliance on service providers, which can deplete internal skills and hinder long-term success.
Another prediction stipulates that enterprise AI initiatives will boost productivity and creative problem-solving by 50% in 2024. Giron points to AI-enabled TuringBots that can empower software developers to be 15–20% more productive and asks the important question: What will those developers do with that extra time? How can tech leaders use those productivity improvements to help drive that all-important growth and address more complex problems?
The episode concludes by highlighting two “bonus” predictions that didn’t make the final tech leader Predictions report but will help tech leaders in planning for 2024, so be sure not to miss them.
