Top 10 Artificial Intelligence Trends for 2024
The emergence of AI has brought with it unusual professional and business development opportunities, but it has also revealed the importance of tackling new socio-economic and regulatory challenges. International leaders from more than 41 countries participated in the eighth edition of Digital Enterprise Show (DES), the largest European summit dedicated to exponential technologies held in Malaga, Spain.
All of them shared their knowledge and perspectives on the present and future of the application of generative AI for the competitiveness of business environments and social impact, highlighting 10 key trends in artificial intelligence for 2024:
- AI has opened a new cycle: Artificial intelligence has overtaken all other technologies developed in recent years and has marked a new cycle. Thus, AI, and specifically generative AI, is already being implemented in all industries, generating new business activities and improvements in operations and equipment. While the solution is having the greatest impact in banking, it is in information technology and professional services that we are seeing the greatest increases in competitiveness. Given the capabilities that digital tools offer in terms of anticipation and hyper-personalisation, AI has positioned itself as the disruptive force of 2024, with use cases expected to scale next year.
- AI data does not cover us all: The global summit called for the need to correct biases and gaps so that AI can provide answers based on ethnic, gender, demographic and group diversities. Zondwa Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela and president of the Mandela Legacy Foundation, addressed "data colonialism" to visualise the problem of unequal digital information in Africa. Consequently, he urged the international alliance to facilitate the continent's access to data that fits its situation, as well as the option to acquire AI solutions. Indeed, Africa will account for 25% of the world's population by 2050, so developers of technological tools must incorporate content from the southern part of the globe.
- AI, ethics and international regulation: Investment in generative AI will reach $151.1 billion by 2027, exemplifying the rapid growth of the solution. This evolution has meant that digital innovation has sometimes clashed with human rights or acted with discrimination based on gender, nationality or race. For this reason, at DES2024 there was a consensus on the need to legislate AI, to guarantee privacy and data security and, at the same time, ensuring an ethical formulation of the technology, a step pioneered by the European Union. Wendy Hall, a pioneer in the development of the science behind the creation of the World Wide Web; Dan Nechita, one of the driving forces behind the new AI law in the European Parliament; and Millán Berzosa, former director of strategic alliances in Spain and Portugal at Meta, are some of the leaders who have called for this regulation at DES2024. The next step is international cooperation with a view to the non-violation of citizens' rights, including the United Kingdom, the United States and China in this great understanding. Linghan Zhang, Member of the UN's High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, reflected on China, explaining that the Asian giant is developing its own industry of generative learning tools, which means that it will soon be facing the risks of AI.
- Opportunities with human talent and new professions: Experts have claimed at DES2024 the importance of human talent as AI implementers and users for the development of valuable content. In this context, the experts foresaw that jobs will not be replaced, but will be perfected to improve the ideation or production phases. In this sense, it has been revealed that jobs requiring specific AI skills have increased their remuneration by 25%.
- AI perfection, an unexpected risk: As an advancing technology, AI faces threats that are being addressed. These include the challenge of privacy and data security, the impact on jobs, copyright infringement, reduced creativity and the spread of misinformation or fake content. Precisely, as shared in DES, 40% of consumers see among the dangers of generative AI the attack on their confidentiality and the spread of 'deep fakes'. Added to this is the challenge of addressing the potential psychological impact that AI-enhanced or AI-generated content can have on the most vulnerable users, who are children and teenagers, and should be easily identified as such.
- Tailor-made: Experts at DES2024 stressed that there is no one-size-fits-all model for AI integration, but that each organisation must find the models and tools that work best to promote its business. Moreover, the summit has set 2025 as the date by which the ecosystem of AI solution developers will take hold and expand. No-code AI developer tools are also gaining ground in the market, with proposals that make it easy to build applications and websites for areas such as education, healthcare and marketing.
- Beyond AI: The integration of artificial intelligence with other solutions is generating great opportunities. This is the case of the Cloud, which is experiencing a global increase. Global spending on cloud infrastructure services amounted to 79.8 billion dollars in the first quarter of this year, a 21% increase compared to the same period last year. For their part, the synergies between AI and Blockchain are transforming areas such as banking, where they are helping to achieve faster and more secure transactions. It is estimated that cost savings can be up to 30% in settlement and clearing processes. The combination of exponential technologies has also positively impacted the healthcare field, with improved management of medical records, and where market growth is expected to reach $1.6 trillion by 2025, according to the projections presented.
- Europe needs a cybersecurity regulator: Cyber-attacks continue to be one of the crimes that have intensified the most in the last year. Last June in Spain, the DGT suffered a macro-offensive that affected more than 34 million drivers, an aggression that is added to those suffered by companies such as Meta, Amazon, Netflix, Telefónica, Iberdrola, or BBVA. To combat this scenario, international security specialists have advocated at DES2024 the creation of a common European defense through the creation of armed forces and a community protection plan. As a result, it has been detailed that the EU should begin by establishing a body that would safeguard the EU-27 at the cyber level and that could face multiple cyber-attacks by forming an "armor" that would guarantee confidence in the processing of data and online security.
- Measure ESG to increase company value: ESG criteria have become a business benchmark for regulatory and investment progress. In particular, certifications help reduce costs, increase efficiency, advance procurement processes and boost brand reputation. To quantify and demonstrate the achievement of ESG, data analytics technologies are the technologies of choice, from which informed decisions can be made, generating a positive impact on the company and society. Furthermore, measuring ESG has an impact on the value of the company, which in figures can have an average increase in valuation of up to around 5%. Also, market reports show that reporting certifications, for more than half of the corporations, mean greater engagement with their stakeholders, better risk management and improved environmental and social performance.
- Málaga Valley: With the celebration of DES2024, it has been clear that Málaga continues its European leadership in terms of technological innovation. The city has established itself as a pole of attraction for investment, talent and business development in the field of digital solutions and has positioned itself following the Californian model, which combines business opportunities and the benefits of climate, gastronomy and culture. Proof of this is the possibilities arising from the establishment in the city of world-renowned technology companies such as Google, Vodafone or NTT Data, or the recent announcement of hosting the second world headquarters of IMEC, a leading R&D institute in microelectronics, which has a center in Belgium.