2024 is predicted to be a year of transformation for a number of businesses. Burning issues that still need to be addressed are the growing threat of cybersecurity and how technology can be leveraged to enhance productivity among a distributed workforce?
The good news is that solutions already exist. All you need to decide is which IT technologies you need and how to implement them. Next-generation technology is a good investment for getting ahead of the curve, but to capitalize on your advanced capabilities, you need to understand how they will leverage your own products and services.
1. Decision Intelligence and AI
Every year, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology progresses further, reaching impressive new heights. It is constantly becoming more accessible for small businesses, taking advantage of the productivity and modeling improvements that AI can yield. This is one of several reasons that the AI market almost reached $100 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $997 billion by 2028, according to a Grand View Research report.
Decision intelligence could be a significant node that AI developers will use to grow their market further. The technology aims to reduce human error in both data input and decision-making.
AI has the mechanics to actively develop a perspective of your entire company and analyze data from both internal and external sources. This type of data can significantly influence how you communicate with your audience regarding existing products, approach the market with new products and identify gaps in the market and develop future products.
Using real-time data delivers richer reports that have depth and insights that enable C-suite executives to make informed decisions.
Moreover, with mechanisms in place, there is more scope of pinpointing opportunities once the system has gathered enough data to give you more than an overview.
For example, AI can find exact nodes which inform you how to make tweaks to your operational procedure that will increase productivity within your team. You could also discover what is driving sales and which marketing strategies are draining your budget. These combine to boost your customer base and turnover.
There is no point in having this data available if your team cannot easily digest it. All great decision intelligence software helps your team come to decisions by providing clear insights on an ergonomic interface.
The cost of installing decision intelligence within your systems will vary depending on how much data you need to be processed. However, it should save most companies money, removing the need for expensive and time-consuming research done by your staff.
2. Cybersecurity Mesh
Cybersecurity will sadly once more be a key talking point for all industries in 2024. As 2024 drew to a close, the National Cyber Security Centre reported dramatic increases in cyber-attacks during 2024, with increases of over 900% for some forms of cyberattack.
This is a problem that will not go away. Businesses have no option other than to install cybersecurity defenses that will protect the sensitive data stored on your network from theft.
According to leading London-based IT support professionals, Micro Pro, a cybersecurity mesh is a fresh approach that could stop cybercriminals in their tracks.
Rather than investing in a single holistic cybersecurity solution, such as Accenture or HolistiCyber, this approach uses several stand-alone products to create a unique cybersecurity suite. Cybersecurity mesh allows businesses to choose their favored cybersecurity products and plug them into their system as needed.
This approach will require businesses to use their in-house IT team or invest in expert IT consultancy. Choosing which stand-alone products will be best for your business requires top-level knowledge of the marketplace. Furthermore, technical expertise is needed to ensure that your several competing cybersecurity products seamlessly work together.
Therefore, cybersecurity mesh will likely be a feature for businesses that can afford to do it properly. Meanwhile, most small businesses will still have to hunt the marketplace for the best possible holistic solution. We may see such providers targeting smaller enterprises as a result.
3. Privacy-Enhancing Computation
The above-mentioned cybersecurity issues have created a suspicious and cautious business environment, making collaboration more challenging.
Businesses are nervous handing their valuable data over to even their most trusted partners unless they can be reassured that their data will be safe.
Nobody wants to end up in court over a data breach that another company has caused. Customers are also becoming more cautious, and businesses that have suffered cyber-attacks in the past are finding it near impossible to repair their reputation.
Privacy-enhancing computation works to fill this void, allowing customers and partners to feel secure once the data is in your hands. They are empowered to make the decisions about how you can use their data, helping them to trust you and reducing the damage cybercriminals can cause if the data is breached.
Privacy-enhancing computation aims to add value to data-sharing by allowing collaboration on said data without the data ever being handed over from one party to another.
For this reason, privacy-enhancing computation already has precedent for a grand partnership to generate new insights. For example, 120 companies in Boston used privacy-enhancing computation to compare data on the gender pay gap.
They gave the Hariri Institute just enough visibility of the data to conclude that disparity in pay based on gender is still a major problem. Strikingly, Hariri Institute carried out this research project in 2015, but only now is privacy-enhancing computation beginning to have a widespread impact.
Ensuring you can boast of next-generation privacy-enhancing computation will allow partners and customers to feel secure, compliance regulations to be fulfilled, and you to use their data efficiently.
Technology that can Future-Proof your Business
The aforementioned three technologies are set to break new ground in 2024. Some are technologies that have long been possible, but businesses are only just paying attention: privacy-enhancing computation.
Others are on the cutting edge of IT development and are becoming accessible to small businesses for the first time: AI. What unites them is that they are not “flash-in-the-pan” technologies. Rather, they are all set to have a lasting impact in the world of business.
