How AI Will Radically Reshape Data Science, Cybersecurity, Applications, and More
Generative AI and large language models (LLM) will reshape the way we live, work and do business.
The key experts at Snowflake, is a cloud computing-based data storage company based in Bozeman, Montana. It was founded in 2012 but was launched on the market in October 2014. The name was chosen in tribute to the founders’ great love of winter sports. Provides information on strategies for coping with opportunities and uncertainty, including:
– How genetic AI and LLMs will impact our lives
– The broader effects of data-driven technology on the enterprise
– How these technologies will transform open source and vice versa
– The enormous implications of advanced data modeling in cybersecurity
Generative AI and LLMs will change our lives, profoundly
Deep learning will bring efficiency, insight and opportunity, but also deepfakes and misinformation. It will disrupt entire economies and ways of doing business. And it will happen faster than any technological revolution in human history.
The experts from this company address the impact of AI on:
– Human-centered innovation
– Ethics and regulatory regimes
– Creation, transformation and elimination of jobs
Top Ten HR Trends That Will Matter Most in 2024
Juana Meister defines herself as follows: “I am executive vice president of Executive Networks and founder of Future Workplace Academy, which offers critical skills development and online courses to improve the skills of human resources leaders and their teams. I am passionate about the future of work and have worked on a global research project on the future of work and learning, global research “CHRO of the Future”.
She writes about the trends shaping the future of work.
The rapid use of generative AI, the emergence of a new mixed workforce of human and digital workers, and employees’ growing fear of becoming obsolete (FOBO) together demonstrate what Intel co-founder Gordon Moore (and author Moore’s Law), in At any given moment, “change has never been so fast and will never be so slow again.”
Resilience, agility and adopting a “test and learn approach” will mark the winning strategies by 2024.
As I did in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, here’s my countdown of what you should include in your HR roadmap for 2024.
- Generative AI will be your new co-worker
In 2024, generative AI will revolutionize the way we think about the work we do and what we delegate to our new “coworker.” This will be the year when AI-powered specialized assistants work side by side with humans.
Teachers will have a co-pilot to grade assignments, like Class Companion. Architects will get an AI design assistant, SketchPro, and online students studying at Kahn Academy will be able to access Kahnmigo to assist them in brainstorming and help them become better writers and students, while reducing the burden administrative work of teachers.
Walmart launched one of the largest AI-powered co-workers
Called My Assistant, it’s an AI-powered app to help Walmart’s 50,000 corporate employees be more productive by summarizing long documents, creating new content and taking on routine tasks that humans did in the past.
Microsoft’s soon-to-launch Co-Pilot will integrate generative AI into Microsoft 365, enabling workers to perform at a much higher level. Jared Spataro, corporate vice president at Microsoft, believes that Microsoft Co-Pilot will transform meetings from a point in time and place to an object of knowledge.
This means that employees working with Microsoft Co-Pilot will not only be able to create a summary of the meeting, but they will also be able to use Co-Pilot to see the group’s opinion on the meeting topic, dissenting opinions, who were the key dissidents and agreed next steps.
While these AI-powered coworkers can increase efficiency and performance, it will be up to humans to have a strategy to capitalize on their potential.
- Generative AI will impact how managers lead
Generative AI (Generative AI or generative artificial intelligence refers to the use of AI to create content, such as text, images, music, audio and videos) has evolved to become one of the most rapidly adopted technologies, with nearly 200 million of ChatGPT users since its launch on November 30, 2022.
Business and human resources leaders are struggling to keep pace with rapid adoption in the workplace. The impact on managers is not simply training employees how to use generative AI, but also helping managers lead teams of humans and digital workers.
Morgan Stanley estimates that generative AI technologies will likely affect a quarter of all occupations that exist today, and this figure will increase to 44% within three years.
To address this, companies and education providers must provide training on how to use generative AI. Over the next three years, this will translate into a $16 billion market for retraining workers displaced by generative AI.
As generative AI becomes increasingly adept at problem-solving, it will be up to managers to get better at finding problems.
Managers will work closely with their human and digital teams to foster a culture of continuous learning while leaning on their uniquely human skills, such as relationship building, communications and collaboration.
One thing is certain: Generative AI will drive organizational change, impact workflows, automate some jobs, and create new ones. But it will always be humans, complemented by machines, who will create innovation.
- Fear of obsolescence will force companies to increase spending on professional development and mobility
While employers see the promise of greater productivity using generative AI, a recent EY survey reports that 75% of employees are concerned that AI will make certain jobs obsolete, and two-thirds say they fear that AI replace your job.
This fear of becoming obsolete is causing employees to seek training in the use of generative AI and acquire new skills to better address their fears.
PwC announced a $1 billion investment to train its workforce in AI with courses on topics such as AI ethics, responsible use of AI, and how to create AI prompts to drive the best results. Their goal is to engage 75,000 PwC employees in the US to enroll in and complete these courses.
In addition to training employees how to use generative AI, there is an explosion of new internal talent markets as companies continue to find it difficult to successfully recruit external talent.
Internal talent markets have become the de facto way that companies connect employees with internal career opportunities and resources to grow their careers. For example, Grow at Key is KeyBank’s talent platform powered by artificial intelligence, led by employees and supported by managers to support internal talent mobility. Launched with the vision that every employee can be the CEO of their own career, Grow at Key offers a variety of resources, from matching employees with new job roles to access to mentoring, coaching, and challenging assignments.
To date, there has been a 60% increase in the number of employees participating in training programs and one in three KeyBank employees have enrolled in an Investing in My Development session to prepare them to understand how to better manage their careers .
- Hybrid work environments are good for business
Companies must stop debating the benefits of hybrid work and realize that this is the new way of working for many knowledge workers as we move into 2024.
An ADP survey of 32,000 workers reports that 64% of workers would consider quitting if they were asked to return to the office full time. Recent research shows that companies that allow options and a remote/hybrid work environment have four times faster revenue growth than their peers that are stricter about office attendance.
This research by Boston Consulting Group and Scoop Technologies Inc. among 554 public companies employing 26.7 million people, found that “fully flexible” companies, which are completely remote or allow employees to choose when to come to an office , sales increased by 21%. between 2020 and 2022, on an industry-adjusted basis. Better growth rates for more remote-friendly companies reflect their ability to hire faster and from a broader geographic area, along with higher employee retention rates.
As hybrid work becomes the norm, leaders must have a plan to combat proximity bias, or the phenomenon of favoring in-person workers for professional development, mentoring, and demanding assignments at the expense of those who work remote form.
Hybrid work environments “work” when leaders ensure they are equitable for everyone and give autonomy to individual leaders to determine when and where work gets done, rather than following a mandate from the CEO.
Leaders must remember that office presence does not equal performance, so they must move from “managing by walking” to “managing by connecting across geographies.”
- The workforce is a mix of full-time employees, part-time workers, contingent workers and digital workers
Remember when the mixed workforce was simply a distinction between full-time workers and part-time workers. Today’s work is done by a combination of full-time workers, part-time workers, teams of contractors, contingent workers and digital workers, the latter designed to augment some human labor tasks.
In fact, Statista reports growth in all sectors except full-time workers, and part-time workers (growing from 20 million in 1990 to 26 million in 2022) and contingent workers are forecast to make up half of the force. American labor force by 2027.
This mixed workforce is not a new concept; has been around for decades. What’s different now is that a higher percentage of key jobs are done by casual workers.
Overall, we are starting to see that between 30% and 50% of a global organization’s total workforce is made up of contingent workers.
MIT Sloan Management Review reported that Novartis’ workforce includes 110,000 full-time employees plus 50,000 contractors and temporary workers.
Cisco has 83,000 full-time employees and more than 50,000 contingent workers of various types. This new workforce ecosystem requires a new set of management practices and leadership approaches, especially since 81% of companies in a recent HBR Analytical Services survey report that contingent workers are important to their organization, but only 38 % say their organization is effective at managing them.
Leaders will need to recognize that they will have more types of contributors (human and digital, full-time, part-time and contingent) who must work together seamlessly.
What is needed is a total workforce strategy in which HR plays a central role in coordinating all cross-functional disciplines that hire internal and external workers.
- The four-day work week is desired by both frontline and knowledge workers
Many of the assumptions we have about how we work, when we work, the needs of our workers, the demographics of the workforce, and where we work have changed forever.
One of the biggest changes, as we approach the year 2024, is our assumptions about a five-day work week. All workers, including frontline and knowledge workers, want flexibility when working.
Research among 1,301 workers found that 41% of frontline workers and knowledge workers want flexibility when working, and 56% of frontline workers and 69% of knowledge workers want be able to opt for a 4-day work week. without salary reduction.
As the author wrote in her Forbes column, the pilot of the four-day work week in the United Kingdom was carried out among 61 companies and found that 56% intend to continue testing the four-day work week citing the benefits of higher productivity and lower employee attrition.
These UK companies adopted the 80-100-100 model of flexible working: a reduction in hours to 80% of their standard working week, while maintaining 100% pay and 100% productivity.
Experiments on a shorter work week are also being carried out in the United States. For example, several Chick-Fil-A stores are allowing frontline workers the opportunity to work 13-hour shifts for three consecutive days at full pay. The results so far have been increased retention while maintaining customer service efficiency.
However, it’s important to remember that the three- or four-day workweek is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
Companies should take a “test and learn approach,” focusing on the type and magnitude of changes needed to enable a shorter work week, the level of training needed for employees and managers, and the type of well-being support required for new forms of work.
- Cognitive skills will increase in importance as generative AI gains ground
The World Economic Forum estimates that 44% of workers’ basic skills are expected to change in the next five years. While there are endless lists of the most important skills for the future, the World Economic Forum identifies five core skills that will increase in importance over the next five years. This is shown in Figure 1 as:
Figure 1: Top five skills gaining importance for the future of work
– Creative thinking
– Analytical thinking
– Technological literacy
– Curiosity & and lifelong learning
– Resilience, flexibility & Agility
Cognitive skills are gaining importance, reflecting the increased demand for creative and analytical thinking in the age of AI. This, combined with technological literacy, the third fastest growing skill along with the skills of resilience, flexibility, curiosity and lifelong learning, are evidence that leaders will continue to emphasize a culture of lifelong learning.
As generative AI gains traction, one skill I believe is critical for all of them is the ability to be digitally curious—that is, to seek out and use new and emerging digital technologies to improve cognitive skills.
I think back to the last few years, where some of the new technologies I’ve used include Mural, an online visual collaborative tool, StreamYard, a live streaming studio, and ChatGPT 4.0 and Pictory, to create a new video titled Flexible Working for Everyone . This is the start of developing my digital curiosity muscle, trying out these platforms and seeing what they could mean to improve my work.
- Holistic financial well-being is the must-have benefit for 2024
Workers’ financial well-being is eroding. LendingClub reports that 61% of American workers live paycheck to paycheck and lack a basic set of financial skills, and more than half of workers earning $100,000 live paycheck to paycheck.
Unifi, a leader in aviation services with more than 23,000 employees, realized this two years ago and created a new offering for frontline workers to access their earned wages on demand. This has since gone beyond early access to wages to a comprehensive financial wellbeing offering with almost 20% of the frontline workforce signed up and taking advantage of free services including anonymous financial advice and customizable savings plans. Dr. Archana Arcot, Chief People Officer at Unifi, believes that “the main driver of this program is to alleviate employees’ financial stress and make financial well-being a part of their daily lives.”
MetLife reports that nearly half of workers surveyed cited financial concerns as the cause of poorer mental health. To address this, Unifi adopted a goals-based savings program that resulted in the company moving into the top 1% with a total amount saved of more than $10,000 to date, as reported by Payactiv.
By offering comprehensive financial wellness programs, companies like Unifi can not only improve their employee experience, but also incorporate financial well-being into their employer value proposition and be better able to attract talent in a tight labor market.
- The attractive C-Suite position for 2024 is director of artificial intelligence
While we’ve seen a slew of new C-suite jobs over the past decade, from chief medical officer to chief ethics officer, chief artificial intelligence officer comes at a time when organizations are looking for guidance on how to create guidelines and policies for the safe and ethical use of generative AI in the workplace.
LinkedIn reports that 44% globally and 57% in the US say their organizations have no policy guidelines or training on how to use these new tools at work.
Organizations are beginning to appoint a new manager to lead this effort. Research from Foundry, an IDG company, finds that 11% of medium and large organizations already have a person in the role of Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and another 21% of organizations are actively seeking such a person for this role. .
This role is gaining importance as business leaders develop AI strategy, create governance practices, and engage cross-functional leaders in the safe, ethical, and responsible use of generative AI.
A new Wavestone survey of data and AI leaders found that 61.7% report that responsibility for generative AI is currently part of the chief data officer (CDO) mandate. But an increasing number of organizations are creating a new role, that of Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO), to oversee AI developments for their organization. “This will be a big focus through 2024,” says Randy Bean, innovation researcher at Wavestone.
- An organization’s sustainability record will attract and retain talent
As the talent market remains competitive, climate change and sustainability have become one of the defining challenges for current and future generations.
A growing number of publicly traded companies, including Alphabet, Apple, Cisco and PayPal, have created annual sustainability reports, and Alphabet has committed its entire $5.57 billion Sustainability Bond to support environmentally and socially responsible projects, such as clean energy, clean and circular transportation. economy design.
A company’s sustainability record is proving to make a difference in talent acquisition and retention.
Research by the IBM Institute for Business Value found that 70% of workers and those in the labor market are attracted to environmentally sustainable employers.
And nearly half of these workers said they would accept a lower salary to work for environmentally and socially responsible organizations.
Gartner predicts that employers will respond by promoting climate change protections, such as offering employees shelter during natural disasters, as part of employee benefit offerings.
Additionally, a growing number of universities are setting ambitious goals to integrate sustainability into their curriculum, campus operations, and endowment. The University of Toronto, which ranks first among 1,400 universities in environmental and social impact, is moving to decarbonize its campus by 2050, developing new energy-efficient student centers and committing to climate-responsible construction.
The Global Business School Network, a network of 150 global business schools in 50 countries, has several new initiatives for universities to share sustainability “next practices.” While companies and universities are addressing sustainability, I see the need for greater collaboration between them, as both employees and students weigh the environmental impact of their employer and their university. Sustainability is a business and educational issue that requires joint corporate and university solutions.
Navigating the AI wave and its impact on the workplace of 2024
Some of the most recent survey figures show that the number of companies using generative AI is now over 50%. Can you guess who in this group is using it?
With over 20 years of experience in corporate interior design and facilities management, Kari Smith has seen the evolution of the office firsthand. As director of employment consulting at JLL, she combines her experience in activity-based working with research, data and analytics to help clients get the most out of their office strategies.
JLL’s Kari Smith forecasts the rise of generative AI in the workplace by 2024 and three barriers needed for success.
In 2024, Workplace employees will use AI, ChatGPT, and similar generative AI applications much more frequently. As we all explore what these tools can (and can’t) do, we will begin to use them in new ways, pushing the limits of technology, boosting productivity, and discovering new insights.
Some of the most recent survey figures show that the number of companies using generative AI is now over 50%.
Understandably, much of the debate around artificial intelligence has focused on the downsides, namely lack of regulation and apocalyptic job loss scenarios. I think a lot of that conversation will come together over the next year.
Organizations and individuals will become more comfortable using these tools to their advantage, and companies that embrace the technology with smart guardrails and training will be in the best position.
From personal experience I can tell you that this is the type of digital assistance that saves an incredible amount of time and tedium.
Real-world use and implications
At JLL, we have our own proprietary version of ChatGPT with our own internal data that makes it very relevant to our work. By using AI for the tedious and time-consuming tasks, I can spend more time on the meaningful, higher-level work my clients want.
Yes, it makes us more efficient in some ways, but it really is a tool that can improve the potential of everyone in the real estate ecosystem. It gives us more time to spend on the important things we bring to the table.
Recently, I was faced with a very tight deadline. We had surveyed one of our large clients to get employee feedback on moving toward a hybrid workplace model with unassigned workstations.
We wanted to know what employees were concerned about and what excited them most about the concept. Normally, analyzing this type of data could take at least a few days, but I used our closed and confidential generative AI program to reveal patterns and get clear direction very quickly.
Instead of mining and collecting data, I focused on the deeper work of analytics, messaging, planning and communications – areas that were of specific interest to our client.
In addition to helping with statistical and regression analysis, we are also seeing an increase in the use of AI to collaborate and share ideas within our team, integrating it into the first steps of brainstorming and innovating new solutions.
Add guardrails for success
Now, nothing is perfect. And ChatGPT and similar programs are not some kind of panacea for all the administrative tasks that any job entails.
There are a few things organizations and employees should think about before making it a staple of a project workflow.
The first thing to remember is that timelines will shorten, which means customer expectations will likely increase.
If the time to create a report or deliverable is cut in half, that schedule will become the new normal.
No more excuses about how long it takes to analyze the data – the app does it for you, and while it’s been accurate for me so far, a knowledgeable human still has to review everything to make sure it’s correct and makes sense.
Using these tools also requires practice. The instructions and parameters you enter will make or break what you get back. Be specific about your audience, the tone you want, and give it personality.
Entering “find commonalities in this data set” will not come close to the same result as “find commonalities in this survey data and explain what the top three concerns were.”
Then, explain the top three things that excited respondents. The public works for a corporation of 1,000 people, between 25 and 70 years old. The tone is approachable but not too informal.”
Some clients are even using generative AI training as a retention benefit for employees, showing them how they can use it to make their work lives less stressful.
Like most things, you get what you put into it. If you do your research and homework ahead of time, generative AI can be a tool that improves people’s productivity across the board.
We are using it ourselves and so are many of our clients. Some clients are even using generative AI training as a retention benefit for employees, showing them how they can use it to make their work lives less stressful.
As the software itself improves and organizations become more comfortable with it, by 2024 it will become as ubiquitous a work tool as email.
AI will have a big impact on employment this year. Here’s why it could be good news
The fear that artificial intelligence will lead to job losses is understandable. But business leaders are hopeful that automation will also boost opportunities in the workplace.
markamuels.jpg
Written by Mark Samuels, who is a renowned business journalist specializing in IT leadership issues. A former editor of CIO Connect and editor of Computing, he has written for a number of organisations, including the Economist Intelligence Unit, The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times and Times Higher Education.
And he was saying it when we were only a couple of weeks away from 2024, but one thing was already clear: the next 12 months will be the year when artificial intelligence (AI) goes from the margins to the mainstream.
While some companies have been using AI and machine learning technologies to boost operational performance for several years, fewer organizations have so far found ways to put generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, into production.
However, that trend can be expected to change as more organizations explore and exploit generative AI over the next 12 months, David Brodeur-Johnson, principal analyst at Forrester, tells ZDNET.
“2024 will be the year companies get serious about applying generative AI to their own internal data sources and making information and insights available to their employees to help them do their jobs even better.”
Additional research from Digitate suggests that 90% of IT decision makers across all sectors plan to implement automation over the next year, and 56% expect to make significant progress in IT organizations over the next six months.
But as employers look to introduce automation, many of their employees fear that greater use of technologies such as generative AI and machine learning is far from good news.
Forrester research suggests that up to 86% of U.S. employees fear many people will lose their jobs to AI and automation, and nearly a third (31%) believe that trend will play out over the next two to five years.
Digital leaders responding to a global survey from recruiter Nash Squared reach similar conclusions
17% being the average percentage of jobs that digital leaders consider will be lost due to automation.
Bev White, CEO of Nash Squared, tells ZDNET in a one-on-one video conference call that the increased use of AI will lead to big changes in the job market, but it’s important not to jump to conclusions just yet.
She says the history of the introduction of automation – from the Industrial Revolution to our current digital age – has always revolved around the fear of jobs being eliminated.
While AI and automation will lead to the end of some functions, the tools should also help improve many workplaces and job functions.
White is referring to software development and cites research suggesting that developers who use GitHub Copilot complete tasks 55% faster than developers who don’t.
The same research found that between 60% and 75% of developers report that using generative AI tools as part of their roles makes them feel more accomplished, less frustrated when coding, and able to focus on more satisfying work.
“Emerging technology is speeding things up,” says White. “You’re removing human processes, which are repetitive and really not necessarily interesting to a human being, and replacing them with automated ways of doing things faster.”
Even with higher levels of automation, companies will still need an informed human being
To ensure processes are completed effectively, such as dealing with more complicated customer service requests.
And White says the tactical deployment of AI and automation should mean professionals in all types of roles have a greater opportunity to focus on crucial business areas.
“People will be able to do things not only faster, but cheaper and, in fact, they will spend more time on the human elements (the time to think, the time to make decisions) that are essential to value-added processes.”
That’s a sentiment that resonates with Ben Elms, chief revenue officer at internet connectivity specialist Expereo, who says it’s important to remember that almost every implementation of technological innovation comes with additional fear.
“If you approach AI like you’re saying, ‘It’s going to change the world and put people out of work,’ well, it’s not; it’s actually going to create even more opportunities and jobs,” he says.
Elms says the key to success is applying AI to the right use cases and gives an example from his own company, which is based on resolving customer service requests, many of which require a standard response.
“These are highly repeatable tasks,” he says. “These requests are text-based and many of the responses can be effectively addressed by AI quickly. That capability means people can go outside of the service role, I can give them more training and they can be front-line people, improving customer experience.”
Hari Ramamurthy, a technology expert at The Home Depot, is another business leader who believes AI and automation can help workers focus on more interesting jobs.
“We definitely see it as something that will improve our associates’ productivity and help them with the laborious and monotonous aspects of their jobs,” he says.
Ramamurthy recently explained to me how the retail giant has developed a machine learning-based app, known as Sidekick, to increase staff productivity.
The app, which also uses computer vision, helps shop staff identify items in hard-to-find locations.
“It was a pain trying to look for some of our products. Sometimes an item isn’t exactly where you expected it to be,” he says.
“But technologies like computer vision help locate those products much more easily. And it’s that kind of mindset that we have in terms of how we can really increase the capabilities of our associates by improving their productivity, so that we can better serve customers.” .
These types of AI-powered productivity increases could also offer staff in public organizations not only a way to reduce the monotony of repetitive work, but also a chance to focus on potentially life-changing activities.
Michelle Smith, program director at Barnardo’s, a UK charity supporting more than 370,000 children, young people, parents and carers, believes smart use of AI could help people focus on frontline services. that matter most.
“Relationships keep us going,” she says on a video call. “It’s where people enjoy work the most and it’s what motivates them. We work with a purpose and if you spend too much time in front of a screen and don’t interact with your colleagues, it becomes painful.”
Smith says generative AI tools could help the charity remove administrative obstacles and give people more time to think, collaborate and make decisions.
“I’ve worked in operational roles for years and there are a lot of things where I think, ‘Oh, I’d rather talk to a person than the really tedious process of checking paperwork,'” she says.
“It would be great if we could free people from processes and allow them to be creative in their roles by taking advantage of emerging technology. I would love for my colleagues who are still in operational roles to be given the opportunity to develop new skills.”
How AI will change the world of work in 2024
By Genevieve Koolen, who is HR Director at SAP Africa.
Our collective professional lives are set for a fundamental restructuring in the coming year as the unprecedented impact of artificial intelligence (AI) is felt across every job function and every industry.
Does the entry of AI into all facets of our job functions pose a threat? In general, AI is expected to augment human capabilities, not replace them entirely.
The most likely impact of AI in the workplace is a transformation of our jobs and a shift in focus toward higher-value tasks. This is reflected in some of the latest industry research.
A survey found that almost half of European workers expect AI to have a significant impact on their jobs in 2024. A McKinsey analysis found that the impact of generative AI on productivity could add the equivalent of 2.6 trillion dollars to 4.4 trillion dollars to the global economy annually, with 75%. of that impact comes from the value generated in customer operations, marketing and sales, software engineering and R&D.
What will AI bring for the world of work in 2024?
My pick for the top three trends are:
– Trend 1: Meeting demand for new types of skills
The rapid adoption of generative AI across the business landscape in 2024 will drive demand for rapid engineers specializing in generative AI. In the same way that a sommelier is better than the average person at describing and matching the unique characteristics of wines, generative AI engineers will also excel at powering large language models to achieve more relevant, reliable and accountable business outcomes.
For employers, this creates an opportunity to provide employees with valuable new skills that can transcend traditional job roles, especially in coding and software development. As generative AI grows in popularity, the need for expert AI skills, including good writing, will become indispensable for businesses.
– Trend 2: a new era for software developers
As the creators and engineers behind all of the world’s largest and most popular software applications, developers hold a special place within modern technology-driven businesses. In the coming year, AI is expected to become more integrated into the software development process, driving rapid and dynamic changes.
In light of the increase in the use of generative AI by developers, we will see the creation of new products and services, the automation of repetitive tasks, improvements in software quality, the emergence of completely new ideas and business concepts and personalized solutions. software development.
For businesses, the opportunity is to reignite creativity within their development teams and redefine the boundaries of software development as we know it.
– Trend 3: The indispensable value of managers
Is there a future where AI “manages” teams of people? Highly unlikely. In fact, 2024 may well see a resurgence of the role of managers in modern companies, especially in the delicate balancing act between tighter budgets and a greater focus on results, on the one hand, and employee motivation and commitment, on the other.
After a subdued period in the wake of the pandemic and associated lockdowns, in which managers were largely isolated from their teams, the role of middle and frontline managers is back in the spotlight.
While AI will inevitably be leveraged to support and enhance management functions, it cannot adequately handle more complex tasks, such as balancing the needs of neurodiverse employees with those of the company, for example.
However, this leaves managers under immense pressure both from above and from those under their direction. Organizations will need to implement practices and processes to support the success of managers and empower them to address the complex problems they will inevitably face.
How artificial intelligence will change work in 2024
AI, or artificial intelligence, has attracted attention across industries in 2023, raising hopes for easier, streamlined work processes and stoking fears that it could advance enough to replace employees.
Last December, Marin Wolf, who is a health care reporter for the Dallas Morning News and who previously covered breaking business news for The News’ business desk and race and diversity for Bloomberg News, said that AI attracted attention of all industries in 2023, raising hopes for easier, streamlined work processes and stoking fears that technology could advance enough to replace employees.
As the tech world focuses on the possibilities of AI this year, the business world is preparing to put it into practice and prove how much it will change the world beyond cheating on college essays.
Business leaders from airlines to commercial real estate have been quick to tout the potentially revolutionary uses of AI.
A Southern Methodist University student created an app that uses artificial intelligence to generate lecture-based study guides.
Government leaders are pushing to create guidelines for how and when AI should be used
Regardless of how you feel about it, AI isn’t going anywhere in 2024; Experts say that it will become increasingly common for companies to implement a series of artificial intelligence programs for use on a daily basis.
“Next year we will see in every sector, in almost every company, some type of AI assistant at the employee level, whether it is something as simple as composing an email or preparing the first draft of a PowerPoint,” Beena said Ammanath, CEO of Deloitte AI Institute.
The last 12 months have been particularly fruitful for generative AI, or programs that can create text, images and other media
AI, once difficult to access and resigned to computer labs, is more democratized than ever.
It is a phenomenon that is perhaps best exemplified by the rise of the free chatbot program ChatGPT, launched at the end of 2022, which went from being a novel artificial intelligence system to being part of the common lexicon.
The AI umbrella encompasses tools ranging from large language models like ChatGPT to programs that drive autonomous vehicles.
A type of AI that is useful for one industry may not be useful for another, but almost every sector is looking to find the niche that AI can fill in their own work.
According to a Deloitte report, around 94% of business leaders said AI is critical to success in the next five years
In healthcare, a model could take existing patient data to predict how a disease will progress or the likelihood that someone will receive a certain diagnosis.
Utility sector, machine learning algorithms could assess the risk of food or housing insecurity.
Advances in language processing are particularly exciting and hold the potential to change the way people around the world communicate, Ammanath said. People speaking different languages could translate your words in real time with their own voice in the coming years.
“It’s not too far away for that communication to happen,” Ammanath said. “It just makes it a lot more fluid and human, in a way.”
Every technology carries risks, something that AI does not lack
General Motors recalled its Cruise autonomous vehicles in November after one of them dragged a pedestrian off the side of a San Francisco street.
Tesla issued the largest recall in its history this month after a regulator determined that the company’s driver assistance system did not effectively protect against misuse. Several news organizations have tested ChatGPT with mixed results.
AI can also “hallucinate” or generate incorrect information if it is trained on a data set that is unrepresentative or limited. People cannot fully trust that an AI model will work perfectly.
“Accuracy cannot be guaranteed,” said Gopal Gupta, co-director of the Center for Applied AI and Machine Learning at the University of Texas at Dallas. “Next year will focus on how to create applications that are reliable, that can actually be presented to customers.”
As for the workforce, AI is unlikely to cause the catastrophic disruptions to jobs that some business leaders have predicted.
According to a McKinsey & Co. report, manufacturing industries such as aerospace, automotive and electronics are least likely to be affected
This applies to industries such as banking, pharmaceuticals and education due to the strengths of generative AI in linguistic activities over physical work.
The need for humans to train and verify AI models is also a guarantee that the technology will not make workers obsolete, although employees will have to adapt to working alongside AI.
These tools are only useful if companies train their workforce on how to use them efficiently.
“We have truly entered that era where lifelong learning is necessary. These technologies will continue to come to us faster,” Ammanath said. “It’s no longer just about doing the training once a year or when you join and that’s it.”
11 non-obvious expert predictions for 2024
What does 2024 REALLY have in store for the future of work? Daan van Rossum, who is the founder and CEO of FlexOS put together 9 non-obvious predictions from leading researchers and thinkers + 2 of his own.
And his story is interesting, when he states that he founded FlexOS “because I believe in a happier work future. I write and host “Future Work,” am a top LinkedIn voice in 2024, and have been featured on NYT, HBR, Economist, CNBC, Insider, and FastCo.”
2023, the year in which the WHO officially called for COVID to stop being a global emergency and where AI suddenly took over our conversations and lives, is over!
Looking ahead to 2024, the world of work will experience important transformations caused by the great changes of recent years.
The dynamics of society are reshaping the structure of work itself, while technological advances and the rapid development of AI are driving changes at a dizzying pace.
And while challenges ranging from AI, changing climate and geopolitics continue to rage, we are optimistic about what 2024 will bring. According to Ipsos panel data, 70% of people think 2024 will be better than 2023, 5 percentage points more than 2022.
So what can we expect from this new year in the context of the future of work?
I highlight 11 predictions from leading researchers at McKinsey, Gallup, and Forrester, as well as individual thinkers like Dror Poleg and David Shapiro. If you put your sticky notes everywhere or easily get lost in your to-do list, Todoist is here for you.
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- Generative AI will reach new heights (everyone)
Generative AI will continue its rapid development. Our “Generative AI at Work” research showed that 71% of Gen Z and Millennials use AI at least once a month, which is incredible for a tool that was introduced just a year ago.
Almost all experts and consultancies have generative AI on their list of trends to follow in 2024.
If 2023 was about experimenting with AI, in 2024 AI will significantly reshape industries, from content creation to business productivity software.
Experts also expect a major advance in scale and capabilities with the upcoming launch of GPT-5 and Google Gemini.
Research consultancy Gartner is optimistic about AI
She predicts that by 2024, 40% of all enterprise software will have generative AI built in, up from less than 5% in 2020, creating ways to break down barriers to AI adoption.
Paul Silverglate, vice president at Deloitte LLP and US technology sector leader, further underscored the integration of generative AI into the workplace, saying:
“Generative AI is poised to make a breakthrough in 2024, as it begins to deliver on its promise of improving productivity, creativity, and improving the way businesses interact with their ecosystems. “Expect to see generative AI integrated into enterprise software, giving more skilled workers the tools they need to work more efficiently and make better decisions.”
From free AI-dedicated websites like Copy.AI and Adobe Firefly to using Copilot as part of the daily Microsoft and Teams experience, most employees will learn how to use AI to stay ahead of the competition and be more productive.
McKinsey says leaders must answer three critical questions in 2024, all of which are worth reflecting on:
– what parts of the business can benefit.
– how to scale from one application to many.
– how new tools will reshape your industry.
Forrester mentions that AI is moving “away from the cubicles of unicorn technologists to focus on meeting the pent-up demand that will drive real business growth.” Analysts predict that 60% of workers will use personalized AI to perform their jobs and tasks.
The research agency is so interested in AI acquisition that, in addition to calling the year 2024 “Exploration creates progress,” it even predicts that hallucination insurance will generate big profits in 2024.
- Companies will become dynamic organizations that embrace talent markets and team-level performance management (Josh Bersin)
In his latest podcast, leadership guru Josh Bersin shares that “this year is an inflection point that changes business forever because we are entering a world of labor shortages, redesign of our companies, and business transformation driven by AI. “We will look back at 2024 and realize that it was a pivotal year.”
He mentions that many of the issues discussed in past years will become a reality in 2024 at speeds greater than many might expect. Partly driven by record unemployment and partly by artificial intelligence and other new technologies, he sees this year as one of major change.
No longer attached to the principles of the industrial era, when companies established large corporate structures with R&D departments dedicated to selling products and services at scale, they will adopt models to innovate continuously and quickly.
According to Josh, this means flatter organizations, titles and job descriptions that allow people to move, cross-functional teams, agile work groups, pay equity, and performance management focused on teams and projects, not individual, waterfall goals.
“As I wrote in “Never again just one job. “The increase in fragmented work, jobs in the informal economy and talent markets” is a very positive development. Having personalized our work by choosing where to work thanks to the remote work boom of 2021-2023, the time has come to create roles that are more suited to what we love to do and what we are good at.”
For some, it may even mean a set of fractional roles rather than a single full-time job. This better aligns our wants and needs with work and will create more happiness at work.
- Companies will get smaller: Cue the AI-powered three-person unicorn (Ben Parr, Octane AI and James Currier, NFX)
Another level of agility is what Octane AI founder Ben Parr predicts: the three-person unicorn. That’s exactly why I think Josh is right: because companies will now compete with many more supercharged teams of the type Ben describes.
Ben argues that there is an opportunity to create real businesses with lower costs through the right use of AI. He says a technical co-founder is no longer needed; Instead, he uses ChatGPT and some new AI tools to quickly create prototypes and functional products from it. In an episode of The Startup Podcast, he said:
“It’s already there, and it’s more about how long it takes for these changes to happen, and people realizing how much of their businesses they could automate. I think you’ll build a billion-dollar company in the next five years that will have one to three people at most because you can automate almost everything else. It will happen”.
NFX’s James Currier added that with AI tools, “teams of three very talented people will be able to grow software-focused businesses to over $100 million in revenue with automated workflows.” He believes a handful of people could create the next unicorn, a company valued at more than $1 billion:
“They will be able to develop software faster and better with AI development co-pilots. Execute sales prospecting, qualification and outreach with automated AI systems. Run marketing campaigns with AI optimizations. Execute customer service with AI and achieve success faster and with higher quality. Do accounting and legal work more economically and quickly. Run analyzes with more detail, fewer complications, and better results. Configure self-healing data pipelines. Set up automated workflows. File taxes and other government requirements. “Everything with AI.”
James correctly points out that the cost of big teams is not only in the payroll
Secondary costs such as recruiting, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, training, performance review, culture development, office space, IT and other overheads add to the “cost of large teams.” “.
While the three-person unicorn may not see the light of day in 2024, Hubspot’s David Groechel predicts: “We’ll see our first $10M+ revenue company created by a solo founder that uses AI to manage between 75% and 80% of the work.
“Here at FlexOS, we transitioned to this type of team in 2023. With a small group of high-performing team members, we keep things agile and can innovate quickly. We combine this powerful core team with fractional talent and advisors, freelancers and contracted freelancers.”
- Human (soft) skills will be more important than ever (Jenn Lim, Delivering Happiness)
AI creates $100,000+ work-from-home jobs, but what about women? Especially in the age of AI, companies will look for people who possess strong human skills.
LinkedIn data shows that even in AI roles, human skills are more important than ever. And if you think about it, it makes sense: it’s the only part that machines can’t do. In 2024, everything will be about those human skills, says Jenn Lim, CEO of Delivering Happiness (the company culture consultancy spun out of Tony Hsui’s Zappos).
At FastCompany, she writes that we will see an increased focus on skills like emotional intelligence, communication, interpersonal problem solving, high-level strategy, and thought leadership:
“According to the Society for Human Resource Management, a staggering 77% of organizations have shifted their focus to strengthening these soft skills. And to add some credence to this trend, Harvard Business Review analyzed data from Russell Reynolds Associates, an executive search firm, and found that when companies search for top executives, they “prioritize one qualification above all others: strong skills.” social”.
This prediction reminded me of futurist Antony Slumbers’ quote in our interview about the role of humans in the age of AI:
“We need to become exponential human beings in the world of exponential technology. Anything you do that is structured, repeatable and predictable, could you write a “if this is different from that”, then either machines are already doing it or machines will do it?
Humans are good at design, imagination, inspiration, creation, empathy, intuition, innovation, abstract and critical thinking, collaboration, social intelligence, and judgment. These are the main human skills in a world where machines do everything in a structured, repeatable and predictable way.”
To be competitive in the new year, leveling up in human skills is key for you and your teams. As LinkedIn data shows, even for AI roles, skills like communication and leadership are a must.
- Managers quit under increasing pressure (Gallup)
“As I wrote in The Critical Importance of Managers,” managers have TWICE the risk of attrition compared to other employees and a 25% increase in burnout since pre-COVID days.
Unfortunately, nothing positive has changed since then: Gallup reports that the percentage of managers who say their organizations care about their well-being has dropped to 22%.
In other words, almost 8 out of 10 managers believe that their company does not care about them. Worse yet, they are looking for new jobs more than ever.
As Gallup shares:
Changes in the workplace have especially affected managers. In 2023, managers were more likely than non-managers to feel disconnected, burned out, and looking for work.
These struggles of managers are bad news for organizations because they reach their teams. Managers serve as crucial connectors for team collaboration and effectiveness, and account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement.
In general, “manager pressure” largely comes from increasing responsibilities and managing numerous organizational changes. Managers now have more work to do on a tighter budget with new teams and are caught between aligning with new directives from leaders and meeting the changing expectations of their employees.”
The question, of course, is: you can quit, but to what?
One possibility is to leave management completely and become a “company of one”, finding a position where you can work much more independently.
As WSJ author Alexandra Samuel shared in our interview, this is more possible than ever thanks to the advent of remote work and artificial intelligence technology.
Managers who want to continue leading teams also have the option of opting for an organization that better supports managers, is better organized, and has a healthier company culture.
Companies that want to avoid such a disaster should read Gallup’s insightful essay “The Manager Squeeze: How the New Workplace Is Testing Team Leaders” and follow McKinsey’s advice to “rethink your philosophy on middle managers and recognize them for what they do.” which they really are: the core of the company.”
- HR may buckle under pressure with added AI agenda (McClean)
Another group under immense pressure is HR, McClean & Co reports. While stress levels are consistent for regular employees, HR is 38% more likely to say they “experience higher levels of stress.” higher levels of work-related stress today compared to a year ago.
The report shares that the numerous external factors that affect employee stress disproportionately affect HR.
Reminding us that “HR people are employees too!” The report highlights how HR professionals are expected to provide emotional support and help navigate difficult situations while facing the uncertainty of changes that could affect their roles.
And more stress is coming to HR, as the function must embrace generative AI, bring new AI-enabled talent into its companies, and upskill everyone else to become proficient in AI. A huge task that will make an already complex job even more challenging.
Sania Khan, chief economist at Eightfold AI, predicts “a surge in jobs related to AI transformation, where members of transformation teams will be tasked with choosing AI tools and developing workforce strategies to keep companies agile, productive and committed organizations.
This adds to existing challenges such as recruiting talent in a tight labor market as resignation levels remain high.
Khan suggests offering more workplace flexibility and upskilling programs to prevent people from leaving, as “despite the tight labor market, employers are hesitant to lay off staff, reflecting sustained high demand for labor.” working”.
- Remote work will remain stable and then increase like a Nike Swoosh (Nick Bloom)
Nick Bloom, a Stanford professor and the world’s leading work-from-home researcher, predicts that remote work numbers will plateau and then rise in the coming years as companies adjust to the trend.
Data from their WFH research shows that remote work numbers have declined since 2020, but were set to remain stable through 2023. As Nick shared: “Returning to the office died in the 23rd. There’s a tombstone that says ‘ RTO’.
Bloom called remote work numbers in 2023 “flat.” Yes, big companies like Meta and Zoom made headlines by ordering workers to return to the office. But, Bloom said, like many other companies they were quietly reducing office attendance to cut costs.
He expects the share of employees working from home to increase as companies adapt to remote work, possibly starting in 2025 or 2026. Imagine the graph representing the data looking like the Nike logo, he said.
One of the reasons for this trend toward more remote work is that companies are accepting reality. While many tout productivity as the reason to return to the office, in our interview, Nick disagreed, saying his research doesn’t show any real negative impact on productivity.
But, as he says, offering remote work days is a huge benefit for employees who value it about the same as an 8% pay increase. By my calculations, employees are even willing to take a $12,000 pay cut just to keep their remote privileges. This isn’t a big surprise, given all the benefits of remote work.
The willingness to cut wages makes clear why Gallup and others show that as long as employees have some bargaining power, remote control won’t go away. Its latest figures highlight how long-term employee preferences are increasingly hybrid and remote, with only 6% saying the office is their preferred location.
Leaders do well to offer remote and hybrid roles to engage and retain their best talent. In 2024, we will continue to share best practices for managing remote teams.
- AI will make remote interactions richer and more engaging. (Dr. Poleg)
“As I wrote in “6 in 10 CEOs Predict We Will Return to the Office Full Time. “I don’t think so,” one of the reasons the office will be even less popular in the coming years is that technology will create experiences very similar to working together in person.”
Dror Poleg makes this one of his key predictions for 2024. Share:
“In May 2021, during the Covid lockdowns, Google announced a new technological solution for virtual meetings. Project Starline allowed people to have holographic meetings that looked incredibly real. The capture? These meetings required one to sit in a very expensive booth equipped with special sensors, lighting, and cameras. Less than two years later, generative AI allows Google to offer a comparable solution with much cheaper hardware and smaller cameras that can fit in any office or home.”
As it does? Instead of scanning every part of your body from every angle, AI generates life-like aspects of the image and video based on the limited information it gets through the cameras.
“Meta has also made incredible progress in making virtual communication seem more real, as exemplified in this virtual conversation between Lex Friedman and Mark Zuckerberg.”
Making virtual meetings as engaging and productive as in-person ones will take away one more argument from office supporters. To me, this is why this technology can’t come soon enough.
- AI will lead to advances in longevity research, altering our retirement plans (David Shapiro)
Maybe it’s because I’m 40 now, but I’ve been very interested in following updates on the potential of AI to accelerate longevity efforts. AI thinker David Shapiro believes we can expect good news as early as this year.
He points to AI developments along with incentives like the $101 million XPRIZE and Biden’s new initiatives to “treat aging like a disease.”
“Longevity research will accelerate in 2024. Artificial intelligence transforms this by analyzing vast data sets to discover biomarkers and biological processes of aging.
The predictive capabilities of AI improve our understanding of aging and help develop anti-aging interventions.
The integration of AI is essential to accelerate the discovery of compounds and treatments that could extend healthy lifespans. From data analysis to find patterns related to aging to compound discovery, where AI helps find new anti-aging compounds like rapamycin.”
As David shares in this and other video essays, AI will eventually play an important role in prolonging lives by creating new, more effective medications. Last week, researchers found the first antibiotic in more than 60 years, thanks to AI.
The advent of AI will also drastically reduce the need for healthcare. A recent report from the Bank of Korea, for example, already showed that AI would disrupt doctors more than almost any other job. But even for those of us without a medical degree, there is cause for concern.
If AI helps us live longer, healthier lives, we will have to work much longer or find new ways to sustain ourselves for a much longer life than we thought. Pensions and other retirement investments may not be enough.
I’ll also add two of my own predictions, based on a fantastic year of discussions about the future of work with experts on the Future Work podcast and writing the Future Work newsletter:
- Verified Personal Brand Becomes Must-Have Thanks to Casual Work and Deep Fakes
“As I wrote in one of the biggest posts of 2023, “Who Wants a Piece of the $480 Billion Creator Economy Pie?” Developing strong social content skills will be key to thriving in the marketplace of tomorrow.”
Whether you’re a full-time creator or want to profile yourself on social media or talent marketplaces like Fiverr or Upwork, participating in the gig economy and diversifying your income streams means creating content is key.
This creates a much larger “creative economy” than we now think.
As Marta Binno, creative economics reporter for Business Insider, shared with me:
“How do we define the creative economy? We can talk about people who make money from it, even doing it as their full-time job. But many more people aspire to be influencers. And even more are building their profile and reach on a platform like LinkedIn. In that definition, the creative economy is much larger than even research studies show.”
Driving verified personal branding is the arrival of deepfakes, manipulated images, videos and audio that look and sound incredibly real. Sure, until now, deepfakes have been the domain of celebrities, politicians, and popes (above), but that won’t last.
As the technology for creating deepfakes becomes more accessible and affordable, such as Google’s launch of text-to-video with VideoPoet and “idea-to-video” platform Pika, deepfakes will increasingly target mainstream users. Internet creators are already among the most searched deepfake search terms according to Ahrefs data.
The NSA and FBI released a cybersecurity fact sheet highlighting how easy it is for new AI tools to create deepfakes:
“These counterfeits can be produced in a fraction of the time with limited or no technical expertise. This is largely due to advances in computing power and deep learning, which make it not only easier to create fake multimedia, but also less expensive to mass produce. Additionally, the market is now flooded with free and easily accessible tools (some powered by deep learning algorithms) that make creating or manipulating multimedia essentially plug-and-play.”
How do people online know it’s you and your content?
LinkedIn may have a big advantage here for the business community, but startups will also target their “verified quotes.” Similarly, verified profiles in games and the metaverse will prove more valuable as it becomes exponentially easier to fake an identity.
Tools like Google Deepmind’s SynthID, a watermarking tool designed to detect AI-generated images, will provide additional ways to verify what’s real and what’s not.
- People will look for identity and purpose
My prediction is that many of the above trends will wake up more people to the imminent impact of AI.
As I shared most recently in “A Jobless Future? Interrogating Musk’s AI Prophecy” and “The 3-Day Workweek Is Here, Says Bill Gates.” I agree,” the pace at which AI is developing makes it likely that large swathes of jobs will be disrupted or replaced by the technology.
Goldman Sachs research highlights this threat: “AI could expose two-thirds of today’s jobs to some degree of automation and disrupt up to 300 million, or 18%, of all jobs globally.” This is especially true for administrative, legal, engineering, scientific, and operations jobs.
McKinsey researchers concluded that “up to 30 percent of hours currently worked across the U.S. economy could be automated and that “12 million occupational transitions may be needed by 2030,” especially in the manufacturing sectors. office support, food services, businesses and lawyers who are most at risk.
And already 64% of people believe that AI will eliminate jobs in 2024, according to recent data from Ipsos, although regional differences are marked:
Asian countries, known for their technology-driven growth, remain undecided about AI. In China, 74% say AI can create new jobs in their country, while 70% say AI could lead to job losses. In contrast, Western countries, such as the UK, show a more negative outlook towards AI, with 65% more likely to believe AI can lead to job losses, compared to 35% who think it could. lead to job creation.