By Abhinanda Sarkar
The past few years have seen technology’s influence on our lives become more tangible and prominent, with innovation and ingenuity ushering in a new digital age. 2023 was a great year for tech, as we found ways to evolve and mature existing tools and capabilities besides developing a few others. While the hype around the Metaverse has dipped, businesses are favouring the technology as an enterprise tool to collaborate and exchange ideas. Elsewhere, cutting-edge engineering and knowledge are being applied to areas like cloud computing, climate tech, Web3, and more as we prepare for the future. Most notably, generative AI has had a breakout year with the release of GPT-4 and advancements in enterprise use cases involving large-language models (LLMs).
The tech space is full of promise and opportunity, from movement in the semiconductor industry right up to advancements in the electric vehicles segment. As technology adapts and specific trends gain additional momentum and are applied to more applications, we can anticipate further developments in the following domains in the coming year. Tech professionals should monitor them carefully and skill up if necessary to take their careers forward.
- Data science: Data science has remained popular despite a recent decrease in jobs. Analytics and data science jobs in India in the BFSI sector in 2023 rose thanks to the adoption of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), while similar jobs in the IT sector have dropped due to global economic volatility. Also, specialists in the domain are now requiring a more extensive skill set because of the diverse nature of clients and work. Going into 2024, the demand for jobs will return with a likely economic upturn. As ever, Python will remain central to the domain owing to the language’s ability to absorb various technologies into its syntax and libraries. TensorFlow’s position as a fundamental platform for different underlying codes involving deep neural networks could be under threat from PyTorch, which is now preferred by many organisations for building and training neural networks. Finally, anticipate developments in natural language processing (NLP) outside of English. Other global business languages, such as Mandarin, could be on their way to more recognition.
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning: While applied AI remains at the forefront of the AI revolution in terms of investment and adoption, 2023’s highlights included ML operations (MLOps) for quicker development and deployment of ML applications via a host of interoperable tools. Organisations have been industrialising ML to increase business efficiency, realise financial value, and even optimise energy savings in their plants. By 2024, several more organisations will have embraced MLOps tools to scale operations and enhance productivity. Naturally, MLOps skills will be valued immensely, and professionals will be wise to start updating their expertise. With the trends centred around generative AI poised for a more major push, prompt engineering will be vital to understanding the right way to pose questions. Also, expect a lot more automation in the model building with technologies such as AutoML—this trend has become typical, especially in cloud-based development environments, and will benefit from organisations searching for quicker turnarounds.
- Cloud computing: The cloud is fundamental to organisations’ digital transformations. Private migration, however, has slowed lately due to cost and privacy concerns. But these fears could be allayed with a multi-cloud strategy even as enterprises turn to the public cloud for non-urgent uses at a cost advantage. In better news, providers have been focusing on how best to incorporate AIML requirements with cloud ecosystems—this means a lot of activity and exciting ideas at the intersection of these two domains. Perhaps most importantly for professionals, cloud computing in 2024 will further tackle scalability as LLMs get larger and more devices connect to the IoT. (Technologies like the Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) will come in handy to manage rapidly changing data demands.) Sustainable cloud computing operations, sturdier conversations around cloud privacy and security, and edge computing are other critical themes to watch out for if you’re looking to enter the domain.
- Cybersecurity: As data keeps proliferating online and in technology like the cloud, organisations will need to make cybersecurity a business priority. Worryingly, cyber attacks have been on the rise. There was nearly a 40% increase in these attacks in 2022 over the previous year. Come 2024, various technological developments will impress upon this statistic: AI, for instance, will turn out to be a double-edged sword, helping neutralise threats while simultaneously being used to launch sophisticated, clever attacks. Malware will remain cheaper to write as authors keep using modern programming languages, thus turning out to be sneakier. Other anticipated trends pertain to the risk of increased hacktivism, further exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities, and political cybercrimes. Beyond the prospects that come with responding to these concerns, professionals interested in the domain can dive into multi-factor authentication (MFA) systems, learning how to build and maintain them in a world moving away from passwords. Also of interest will be figuring out security for devices on the Internet of things (IoT).
- Electric vehicles: The global electric vehicle (EV) industry broke the 10-million-sales record in 2022. From one million EV sales in 2017, the jump has been meteoric despite several disruptions and external challenges. With stricter emission standards set for the future and low/zero-CO2 emission policies forming in parts of the world, EVs are the next inevitable choice. EV sales in India, boosted by various new two- and three-wheeler models and greater public awareness, are gaining traction and could cross 10 million units in 2030. The government is endorsing EV adoption through various schemes and measures to support local manufacturing and attract investments. As we slowly transition, the sector is well placed for a fantastic 2024, with several professional opportunities. There’ll be room to develop more electric car models as manufacturing capabilities grow and supply chains settle. The months to come will also give us possible improvements in battery technology and probably offer more convenient charging solutions. The vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, where applicable, will noticeably expand and open the door to innovations in the field.
- Software development: Developers and leaders have had to pay attention to a few trends, particularly those involving AI, to succeed and innovate amidst tight market conditions that saw fluctuating demand for software engineers. AI-augmented software engineering and AI-driven applications are helping accelerate work and make teams more efficient. The adoption of InnerSource is also leading the way for software teams to work faster, in addition to an increased affinity for low-code and no-code development. These trends will carry over in 2024 as organisations become more strategic and contemporary in their digital journeys. Full-stack development will stay in demand and will be a minimum skill for professionals. Secondly, the 5G expansion will see developers build new applications to capitalise specifically on the technology’s powerful benefits.
2024 will possibly continue where 2023 leaves off—and with hopes for global economic recovery expectantly over the horizon, industries will be able to bet on niche areas and invest broadly in new tools and time-saving processes. As generative AI gradually grows and leads to more consequential business impact and economic gain, we are entering a phase of more specialised work. Look forward to ideas high on productivity and low on repetitive labour in the 12 months ahead.
The author is faculty director, Great Learning
