All this week, our daily charts will focus on technology trends that matter most across industries in 2024. We’ll explore tech and AI advancements, investments, talent demands, and more.
Despite macroeconomic headwinds, the long-term trajectory for the 15 technology trends McKinsey analyzed is positive, say senior partner and chair of McKinsey’s Technology Council Lareina Yee and colleagues. The 15 trends were grouped into five categories: the AI revolution, building the digital future, compute and connectivity frontiers, cutting-edge engineering, and a sustainable world. For each trend, investment was tracked and scores were created for innovation (patents and research) and interest (news and web searches). Generative AI saw a 700 percent uptick in Google searches and a substantial investment increase from 2022 to 2023. Additionally, electrification and renewables posted the highest investment and interest scores.
Image description:
A pair of scattered bubble charts plot 15 emerging technology trends based on their levels of innovation, interest, and investment in 2019 and in 2023. The vertical axes of the charts represent innovation scores, and the horizontal axes represent interest scores, scored between 0 (lower) and 1 (higher) for both measures. Each trend is represented by a bubble, with the size of the bubble indicating the level of equity investment in the technology. The chart is further organized by 5 trend groupings:
- “The AI revolution,” which includes the generative AI, applied AI, and industrializing machine learning trends.
- “Building the digital future,” which includes the next-generation software development and digital trust and cybersecurity trends.
- “Compute and connectivity frontiers,” which includes the advanced connectivity, immersive-reality technologies, cloud and edge computing, and quantum technologies trends.
- “Cutting-edge engineering,” which includes the future of robotics, future of mobility, future of bioengineering, and future of space technologies trends.
- “A sustainable world,” which includes the electrification and renewables and climate technologies beyond electrification and renewables trends.
The following information is apparent from the 2023 chart:
- The applied AI trend had the highest innovation score in 2023, with a score of 0.98.
- The electrification and renewables trend had the highest interest score in 2023, with a score of 0.73.
- The technologies with the highest equity investments in 2023 are electrification and renewables, applied AI, and the future of mobility, attracting $183 billion, $86 billion, and $83 billion, respectively.
- The technologies with the lowest interest and innovation scores and equity investment in 2023 are quantum technologies and industrializing machine learning, attracting $1 billion and $3 billion, respectively, in investments and with innovation and interest scores of 0.04 and 0.02 (quantum technologies) and 0.05 and 0.01 (future of robotics).
- Compared with 2019 data, generative AI and applied AI saw significant increases in interest, innovation, and equity investments.
Note: Innovation and interest scores for the 15 trends are relative to one another. All 15 trends exhibit high levels of innovation and interest compared with other topics and are also attracting significant investment. The innovation score combines the 0–1 scores for patents and research, which are relative to the trends studied. The patents score is based on a measure of patent filings, and the research score is based on a measure of research publications. The interest score combines the 0–1 scores for news and searches, which are relative to the trends studied. The news score is based on a measure of news publications, and the searches score is based on a measure of search engine queries.
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To read the report, see “McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2024,” July 16, 2024.