Featuring:
Featuring multiple Forrester analysts
Show Notes:
With a very busy 2023 now in the rearview mirror, technology leaders are eager to know which trends will have the biggest impact on their IT roadmaps for 2024 and beyond. In this episode, seven of Forrester’s technology analysts discuss the tech trends that led to some of their 2024 predictions and what the impact of those trends and predictions may be for your IT planning.
Of course, generative AI (genAI) will remain a key driver of technology trends in 2024. The episode starts with Principal Analyst Manuel Geitz discussing the struggle that many IT orgs will face in integrating genAI with their existing infrastructure. He predicts that 90% of organizations will need to modernize their infrastructure to fully benefit from genAI in 2024 and describes what that could mean for technology planning.
Another genAI challenge that looks to impact tech leaders in 2024 is the quality and integration of data in AI models. Vice President and Principal Analyst Noel Yuhanna says that while traditional databases struggle to handle it all, vector databases will emerge as a useful solution. In fact, he predicts a 200% increase in the adoption of vector databases in 2024 and provides some background on that prediction.
Next up, Vice President and Principal Analyst Craig Le Clair discusses what’s driving the rise of autonomous workplace assistants (AWAs). He goes on to predict that 10% of operational processes will use large-language-model (LLM)-infused AWA digital coworkers this year and provides some guidance on how to identify the right use cases for AWAs.
The episode also digs into some of the regulatory trends that IT leaders will face in 2024. Principal Analyst Enza Iannopollo says that the regulatory issues that emerged around ChatGPT in 2023 will continue this year. She discusses her prediction that an app using ChatGPT will be fined for mishandling personal identifiable information in 2024, expanding on how that could impact the genAI market more broadly.
Turning to the cloud market, Senior Analyst Dario Maisto discusses the ongoing impact of digital sovereignty on cloud providers in 2024, predicting that hyperscalers will announce 13 new regions in 2024 to meet sovereignty requirements. He’s quick to point out, however, that the actual work to get those new regions up and running will likely extend beyond 2024.
Principal Analyst Michele Pelino outlines some of the regulatory work driving data centers to reduce their energy consumption in innovative ways. She predicts that half of the new data centers in 2024 will leverage heat reuse to address energy efficiency and regulatory requirements.
Lastly, Principal Analyst Chris Condo discusses the rapid rise of open-source developer platform Backstage in 2023 and shares his outlook for 2024. He provides some of the thinking behind his prediction that half of companies looking for a platform-led software development approach will adopt Backstage this year.
To hear more of Forrester’s technology predictions for 2024, be sure to listen to this episode covering our AI predictions and this episode reviewing the predictions for the technology leader.
