ESSENTIALS FOR LEADERS AND THOSE THEY LEAD

Life moves pretty fast, especially if you’re trying to make sense of today’s technology landscape. The case for tech’s business value continues to grow, alongside ongoing buzz about generative AI (gen AI), electrification, and a range of other quickly advancing technologies. But even tech leaders and experts can struggle to help their companies make sense of which technologies are most relevant and potentially transformative for their businesses. This week, we review the most important technology trends of 2024 (and beyond) and how companies can invest in tech to win.

AN IDEA

Take the long-term view

Given the current, mind-bending pace of technological advances—and of tech-related disruptions that companies must manage—planning for tech’s longer-term future may seem more theoretical than realistic. But that’s exactly what leaders and their companies must do, according to McKinsey’s Lareina Yee, Michael Chui, Roger Roberts, and Mena Issler. In their Technology Trends Outlook 2024 report, they analyze the 15 most important technologies for business and the levels of interest, innovation, and investment in each one. New to this year’s list are digital trust and cybersecurity and the future of robotics. While it’s important to understand the nuances of each trend, it’s clear that tech’s overall long-term outlook is strong. The report also sheds light on the notable dependencies between more mature technologies (advanced connectivity, for example) and those that are still emerging. As more companies start to move beyond experimentation and toward piloting and scaling, making meaningful, long-term investments in tech is the only way forward.

A BIG NUMBER

72%

That’s the share of respondents who say their organizations have adopted AI in at least one business function, in a recent survey on the state of AI. While the level of adoption has hovered around 50 percent for several years, the research from senior partners Alex Singla, Alex Sukharevsky, and Lareina Yee and their coauthors indicates a surge in overall AI adoption. This is likely driven by the quick uptick in gen AI interest and use, which the survey results indicate rose dramatically between 2023 and 2024. It’s most often used in the marketing and sales and product and service development functions, two areas of the business where, according to other research, gen AI could create the most value.

A QUOTE

“It’s not really a technology problem but a talent and a data problem—how do you organize to deliver this at scale?”

That’s senior partner Eric Lamarre on the key question companies must answer to find success in digital and AI transformations. So far, many leaders and companies have experimented with technology’s potential and have a sense of what it might be able to do for their businesses. But the difference between experimentation and business impact lies in scaling tech across the organization. According to Lamarre, a true technology-driven transformation “should always start with the business problem you want to solve” and not with the technology itself. Another bit of advice: be prepared for the ripple effects that new technologies can create. “Technology usually unveils a bottleneck in the process that needs to be solved,” he says.

A SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW

Technology isn’t always the most approachable business topic, even for savvy corporate leaders. But Dr. Fei-Fei Li, professor of computer science at Stanford University and founding director of Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, posits that AI’s future is more closely intertwined with people, and society at large, than we may think. “We recognize that the most important use of a tool as powerful as AI is to augment humanity, not replace it,” Dr. Li says of the “human-centered AI” framework she describes in her book. “When we think about this technology, we need to put human dignity, human well-being—human jobs—in the center of consideration.” In the business context, though, she still notes AI’s ability to shock and awe. “From the mundane, like digitizing documents, all the way to the incredible, like saving lives and discovering new drugs—the surprise is the breadth and depth that this technology can bring us.”

— Edited by Daniella Seiler, executive editor, Washington, DC

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