From risky to business-ready: 2024 AI trends and predictions

17th January 2024

by Richard Farrell

Quite possibly one of the biggest topics in technology over the last year – Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its future remain at the forefront of conversation as we head into 2024. During November’s first-ever World AI Safety Summit, plans were put in place for the safety testing of emerging AI technologies to address fears surrounding the governance of AI and its potential impacts on data sovereignty. Meanwhile, in his autumn statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt pledged to spend £500 million on AI models over the next two years in a bid to position the UK as a world leader in the technology.

Whilst emphasis is being placed on AI investment in 2024 and beyond, business leaders are currently navigating many unknowns when it comes to applying this technology safely across the enterprise. Although the benefits – such as greater efficiency and user experience – are tempting, securely managing a technology that continues to evolve at rapid pace, can be overwhelming and complex to say the least.

Navigating AI risk as a key priority

Whilst receiving immense hype over the last year, the use of AI on a global scale has also been met with an abundance of fear and concern. Just weeks ago, we heard news that data used to build and personalise your own AI chatbot (also known as GPT), had been exposed – putting people’s personal information and proprietary data at risk. For those operating in high-risk industries, where malfunctioning AI applications or security implications could have catastrophic consequences, stories such as these serve as a stark reminder of the risks that must be overcome.

In addition to data protection, anomaly and bias detection along with application security remain critical considerations when implementing AI in the future. This will see a growing preference for private AI models in these industries, over the large public models we are currently seeing today. These public solutions provided limited control for users, and do not allow for risks to be managed as effectively as required by certain use-cases.

Paving the way for safe and effective use

Tools like low-code will remain crucial in addressing AI risk challenges. By providing user-friendly AI capabilities to business and IT teams, organisations can intelligently automate processes and generate tangible impact. Low-code technologies democratise innovation by enabling a step-by-step approach to developing processes and applications. This helps bridge the gap between conceptual ideas and realising actual business value through AI. With these tools, one doesn’t need to be a tech specialist or data scientist, allowing organisations to swiftly leverage AI for seamless workflows and streamlined processes.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) tools also provide safeguards for data protection, meaning that business users can be confident in their AI implementation, with robust security measures in place to protect their data from falling into the wrong hands. With the right tools, harnessing AI power can be achieved without adding risk.

Shining a light on the practical applications

Beneath all the hype witnessed over the last year, the practical applications of AI have received less of the limelight. Up until now, many business leaders have been swept up in the need to invest but lack clarity on how to go about this, or what areas of their organisation are really set to benefit. We expect this to change in the future, with low-code enabling organisations to truly realise these.

Based on our work in this area, the opportunity for AI in business is endless and just some of the current and future use-cases include; building machine learning (ML) models to predict future outcomes and deploying pre-trained ML models to handle things like sentiment analysis, key-phrase extraction and other key areas of innovation.

Using low-code tools, businesses can also easily create AI-powered bots to ease the burden on the contact centre employees and improve customer satisfaction. Voice recognition is another key area within this function that can be optimised through AI, revolutionising omni-channel contact through AI-powered interactions and natural language processing (NLP).

In addition to enhancing day-to-day operations and aspects such as customer experience, AI will prove critical in turning assets into actional data. With AI, information can be extracted from multiple sources, enhancing efficiency, accuracy and decision-making.

“As we move into 2024, we will see an even greater focus on the safe use of AI with emphasis placed on making AI business-ready, secure and applicable and providing organisations with the tools needed to build and protect their own AI applications.”

Richard Farrell

Chief Innovation Officer, Netcall

Watch this space…

As the applications of AI become increasingly accessible and simple to implement, innovation will only continue to grow in this area. However, with any new innovation, there is a responsibility to ensure security remains front and centre of implementation.

It has been an extremely exciting time for the AI market, business leaders and the individuals harnessing the power of AI across the globe, but now it is time to turn that hype and excitement into action. 2024 will be the year to make sure AI is business-ready.