Artificial intelligence (AI), in its many evolving forms, will likely be an important technology area in 2024, in line with a brand new global survey of chief technology officers and IT directors IEEEthe world's largest technical skilled organization.
The latest study, titled “The Impact of Technology in 2024 and Beyond: An IEEE Global Study“Surveyed 350 chief information officers, chief technology officers, IT directors and other technology leaders within the US, China, UK, India and Brazil concerning the technologies that can drive growth next yr.
AI and its subfields resembling machine learning (ML) and natural language processing dominated the technology outlook, with 65% of technology executives selecting it as one in every of their top three technology areas for 2024.
“Generative AI has change into so productive across all areas of business that it helps collect data, create reports, analyze trends and develop latest products,” said IEEE Fellow Karen Panetta in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “The applications are limitless, including healthcare, marketing, cybersecurity and streamlining manufacturing processes.”
According to experts, the spread of AI across all industries will result in major advances in software development, supply chain management and cybersecurity. Extended reality, cloud computing, 5G networks and electric vehicles rounded out the highest five technologies mentioned by survey participants.
AI use cases are spreading across industries
The IEEE report highlights the growing use cases of AI in industries resembling telecommunications, manufacturing, financial services, transportation and energy.
According to the study results, advanced AI applications and algorithms will optimize data, automate complex tasks and enable decision-making comparable to human cognition.
Key potential AI applications include real-time cybersecurity monitoring, supply chain and warehouse automation, supporting software development, accelerating recruitment, and accelerating drug discovery.
“AI will dramatically redefine and improve software development and cybersecurity with profound improvements in efficiency, security and resiliency,” said Yale Fox, IEEE member, in an interview with VentureBeat. He noted AI's ability to hurry up coding, improve code quality, strengthen predictive threat detection and automate routine security tasks.
However, the growing capabilities of AI present latest cybersecurity challenges for firms to handle. The mostly cited concerns included deepfakes, sophisticated social engineering attacks, and AI-powered discovery of software vulnerabilities.
“As the threat landscape changes resulting from these latest technologies, a number of stand out. “First, the flexibility for anyone to simply create realistic fake audio/video files (deepfakes) using AI creates a brand new set of problems,” Fox told VentureBeat.
5G enables the subsequent level of AI growth
According to the IEEE study, 5G networks will provide a critical backbone that can enable the subsequent level of AI growth through reduced latency, faster data transfer speeds and widespread connectivity for smart devices.
“The amount of data being generated and transmitted is exploding,” Panetta told VentureBeat. “5G will help us ensure we’ve got the flexibility to quickly collect and transmit surveillance/cybersecurity data in order that cybersecurity protocols can detect, isolate and, if essential, reply to attacks on our businesses and significant infrastructure.”
“5G will significantly reduce data transfer times and enable AI systems to process real-time information faster and reply to it more effectively than ever before,” Fox added. “This performance increase is critical for applications that depend on data evaluation and decision making.”
Quantum computing to unlock next-generation AI
Continuous innovations in quantum computing may even enable a brand new generation of AI systems. “In the approaching years, collaboration between quantum computing and AI is predicted to steer to transformative changes and usher in a brand new era of technological advancement,” Fox noted.
“Quantum computing will help construct latest computing infrastructures that higher meet the needs of AI computing,” Panetta said. “This will hopefully allow us to develop more robust AI and latest algorithms that can help meet the urgent need for improved explainability and enable higher scalability of AI systems.”
While emphasizing the big potential of AI, IEEE experts emphasize responsibly advancing AI development and prioritizing human oversight. The latest study underscores AI's position as an economic engine and technology leader in 2024 and beyond.
