The technology opportunities businesses will capitalise on in 2024

 

 

Technological innovation is at the forefront of development across all business sectors and areas. 2024 is no exception. This year is already expected to continue developing the innovations of the previous years, and those enterprises that haven’t yet adopted the latest tech will feel compelled to hurry in order to keep up with their competitors. The benefits of technology are understandably significant, especially for businesses that want to create more unified customer bases and benefit from more accurate forecasts and improved sales.

As the year has still only just begun, analysts are still discussing their predictions regarding which tech trends will reign supreme and change the business landscape for good.

Payments

Digital payment solutions have been used to simplify financial management within companies and institutions for several years now, and the technology responsible for these processes has grown quite a lot over the years. There is software out there that can manage all the internal expenses a company needs to make, as well as help with working on different projects such as timesheets and bookings. All of them help billing clients faster, making the procedures much more efficient and safer. Automating payments and bills also means that the workers typically in charge of them can focus their efforts on other, more critical tasks.

Small businesses will most probably start using the tech on a broader scale, too. Being able to keep track of transactions in real-time and having detailed sales reports readily available means that record-keeping will be more efficient and trustworthy. When businesses can monitor their revenue consistently and reconcile their accounts, they’re more likely to see better revenue and growth because they don’t have to lose time, effort, and resources focusing on remedying issues. The risk of errors is minimised, and you can make more informed and sound decisions concerning the finances of your company.

AI

It should really come as no surprise that artificial intelligence will be a significant trend in 2024. In fact, many researchers actually believe that this is the year when the world comes to terms and realises how powerful artificial intelligence can indeed be. In that sense, 2023 and the discourse surrounding AI throughout the year have acted mostly as appetisers for what’s to come. It’s pretty likely that the use cases of AI will develop even further, but what exactly they will entail remains to be seen. Although the technology is still relatively new, there’s already a lot of controversy surrounding its potential abilities.

While some are concerned about its ability to replace human workers en masse, leading to staggering unemployment levels and poverty, others consider it a legitimate existential threat. The fact that AI could potentially develop beyond anything a human could do, paired with its lack of emotions, could spell trouble in the future. Since AI has a fundamentally black box nature, meaning that it is useful but doesn’t reveal its internal workings and its processes cannot be traced, its actions could become impossible to predict.

To avoid all these risks, the industry must evolve to develop transparent and trustworthy AI. Those creating it must be fully aware of what their creation is capable of and what needs to be done to mediate the risks. At the moment, however, business owners are more likely to notice its advantages, such as its ability to deal with large amounts of data and make reasonably accurate predictions. People are just starting to discover how transformative AI can be, and 2024 will hopefully be the year when regulations are discussed as well.

Edge computing

Edge computing is another emerging technology that has been used as a buzzword within the industry. It refers to paradigms that process the data closer to the space where it is generated, near the user. This means processing can happen at much faster rates, and you can see the results in real-time. While it isn’t directly correlated to AI, the two have been paired together, as artificial intelligence can be a use case for edge computing, while the computing itself can enable artificial intelligence to deliver better performance.

The Internet of Things is one of the most classic examples of edge computing, but the two aren’t synonymous. Speed is the most evident advantage of edge computing, but what about its reliability? Failover management can make or break the service. Users need to be able to access the servers without interruptions, even if a node goes down. The best edge computing systems can also alert the users about the failure and be able to recover from the adverse effects.

Data safety has also become increasingly important for businesses everywhere, especially since the risk of a data breach also carries with it the possibility of the company being left with its reputation in tatters. As part of the edge computing system, all data needs specially designed encryption mechanisms that operate independently of the service.

Quantum computing

The field of quantum computing is understandably complex, dealing not just with standard computer science but also advanced mathematics and physics. Many researchers believe this type of processing will play a leading role in 2024. The potential comes from other fields, including cryptography, optimisation, cloud and, of course, AI. It can sound somewhat surreal to those who aren’t accustomed to the technology, and in fact, this type of tech was, for a long time, the domain of science fiction works.

It has the potential of transforming computers as they are used today, by enabling task completion at a much higher speed and at a larger scale. By 2030, the market is estimated to reach $6.5 billion, a steep growth compared to the $928.8 million recorded in 2023. In 2022, IBM unveiled the most potent 433-qubit quantum computer and is already making plans to release the 1,121-qubit Condor soon, the first on the globe to have that processing power.

Technology is advancing quickly, and business owners must learn how to channel these innovations into their own businesses. Otherwise, there’s a risk that competitors will get a strategic advantage that will be difficult to overcome later.