The three trends highlighted here will impact every business in 2024. Learn about them early to plan in advance how to use them to your advantage.
An unfortunate but all-too-common outcome of the year-end planning process is to lose sight of the forest through the trees. You’re so focused on the circumstances unique to your own company that you’re not factoring in all the forces at play in your broader industry or the economy as a whole. As a result, you may be myopic without even realizing the extent of it, overlooking important trends that will affect all businesses, including yours, in 2024 and beyond. Here are a few everyone should incorporate into their planning for next year.
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence
Generative AI wowed the world throughout 2023 with its ability to create text, images, analysis, computer code, and so much more using nothing but basic prompts. As the technology gets more powerful, accessible, and widespread in 2024, with startups and legacy vendors both rushing offerings to market, you will have countless ways to work generative AI (and other forms of AI) into workflows across the entire organization. The potential gains to productivity, efficiency, and innovation are immense and exciting. That said, your competitors also have access to AI, and what they do with it will change markets and shift the balance of power. You need to see AI as both an opportunity and a threat—and be prepared for it on both fronts.
The Specter of Cyber Attacks
Cyber attacks are now an existential threat to all companies no matter their size or industry. Continuing a long-running tradition, cyber crime got worse in every way in 2023, and 2024 looks no better. The rising number of regulations and business contracts mandating strong defenses against cyber attacks makes things even more challenging. Every company needs to be taking this issue seriously in 2024, making plans and putting stronger protections in place, otherwise, they could fall victim to cyber-attacks with devastating consequences that are difficult (or impossible) to recover from.
The Evolution of Digital Transformation
Most companies have spent recent years implementing and integrating technology as part of a movement known as “digital transformation.” That effort may require some course correction in 2024 because digital transformation is evolving. The COVID-19 pandemic put a much greater emphasis on hybrid work and technologies that enable remote productivity, along with making technology more important to business generally. The pandemic accelerated the pace of digital transformation. As a result, the longer companies wait to make meaningful progress, the farther they fall behind. The next 12 months will be a vital period in which to pivot digital transformation and gain ground however possible.
Dean Dorton – Proceed With Excellence
With expertise spanning diverse industries, disciplines, and technologies, the Dean Dorton team is here to advise you on whatever may arise in 2024. Let us help you harness the power of new technology, optimize the processes and workflows already in place, cultivate new customer channels and revenue sources, or solve long-standing challenges in any form. Our advisors are here to help you proceed with excellence no matter what happens along the way.
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