International Data Corporation (IDC) unveiled its global predictions for artificial intelligence (AI), GenAI, and automation for 2024 and beyond, anticipating robust investment growth in AI solutions.
The forecasts are part of IDC's FutureScape 2024 research, focusing on global triggers that would change the business landscape over the forthcoming one to two years.
The excitement surrounding the late 2022 launch of GPT-3.5 series by Open AI, a generative AI technology, has notably sparked a surge of investment in AI. IDC forecasts that global expenditure on AI solutions will exceed $500 billion by 2027, leading to a discernible shift in organisations' technology commitments towards AI implementation and the use of AI-based products/services.
Ritu Jyoti, the Group Vice President of Worldwide Artificial Intelligence and Automation Market Research and Advisory Services at IDC, said, "ChatGPT's explosive global popularity has given us AI's first true inflection point in public adoption. As AI and automation investments grow, focus on outcomes, governance, and risk management is paramount."
Furthermore, IDC's top ten predictions revealed noteworthy findings. The growing efficiency and potential risk are two crucial aspects of GenAI, urging cloud and software platform providers to include GenAI safety and governance packages in their primary services to increase value and differentiation.
Additionally, the diverse regulatory requirements across different regions and countries could lead organisations to opt for more gradual approaches to AI rollouts, subsequently extending the time to value.
Moreover, conversational AI interfaces are emerging as a standard user interface for enterprise and consumer applications, influencing customer engagement and various sectors like sales, marketing, and IT help desk.
IDC also notes that as the understanding of automation evolves, project sponsors are shifting their focus from technology to outcomes that deliver tangible value, measured against KPIs aligned with business and financial outcomes.
The role of GenAI in automated testing is changing the software testing landscape, with test producers significantly reducing manual efforts and improving test coverage for better code quality. AI's increasing utilisation in application modernisation IT services could enhance services delivery speed and fortify IT services margins.
GenAI's advances have surged the demand for self-service knowledge discovery through natural language question answering and conversational search, adding monetisation potential for businesses. By 2024, IDC expects 33% of G2000 companies to capitalise on innovative business models for better GenAI monetisation.
Looking further ahead, multiple groups are on the path towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), with companies expected to experiment with AGI systems by 2028. This progression is transformative, set to impact areas from the labour market to intelligence and creativity comprehension. Additionally, changes in chip priorities will see a rise in purchase of accelerators like GPU, FPGA, and AI ASIC and ASSP over server processors (CPUs).