Heading into 2024, companies are considering how to best manage their data assets. Innovation will be driven with economics in mind, and budgets are expected to promote initiatives that prioritise automation and deliver tangible business results and process improvement. Across all industries, businesses will be evaluating their tech stack efficiency against cost expenditure to optimise processes and ways of working accordingly.   

Our team, including our data experts at iOLAP and Responsum (now Elixirr Digital), aim to support business leaders in deriving concrete advantages from their data initiatives and enhancing operational efficiency. Principal Nick Larsen outlines the key data trends for 2024 that business leaders should consider, as they prepare for the upcoming year, if they want to remain ahead.

AI/ML – robotic processing reality

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies have come a long way. From simple regression models used to predict and forecast the future, to the emergence of computer vision and image recognition for data categorisation, the development of robust large language models (LLMS) and today’s generative AI technologies, AI/ML has rigorously pushed what’s possible. Over the last year, there’s been increasing talk and interest in generative AI’s novelty potential. However, the deployment and development of real-life generative AI solutions and application across businesses and industries is still in the infancy stage.  

In the upcoming year, technology providers and business leaders can expect a dialled-in focus on realising tangible business benefits from generative AI. The focus on real-life solutioning will be driven from two ends. Firstly, by technology providers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, who have developed the infrastructure required to support generative AI expansion at scale, and secondly, by business leaders who are eager to innovate. In 2024, companies looking to derive meaningful business value from generative AI will increase the market demand for internal and external resources – those who have experience in identifying how to best target innovation areas –and tailor generative AI solutions to support their business vision.  

We have experience doing exactly that for our clients across data and AI & ML services – including developing models and platforms that our clients can quickly deploy into their business. For more on trends in AI and how we’re helping leaders in this space today, connect with our experts here.

Monolithic platform – distribution of costs

In what can now only be described as “the old days”, companies seeking to uplevel technological capabilities would have to upfront innovation and technological expansions with in-house infrastructure and resourcing, often taking on excess capacity on both fronts to account for planned scalability. The introduction of The Cloud disrupted the monolithic platform model by providing companies the ability to offload infrastructure responsibilities with serverless solutions, increase tech stack agility and flexibility by adopting microservice architectures, and reduce costs with pay-as-you-go computing fees. Today, the ways by which companies are managing serverless services are becoming increasingly sophisticated. 

  • In 2024, expect increased attention to serverless usage and cost expenditure, with more and more VC companies investing in platforms designed to help track and analyse serverless KPI, analytics, and costs. Take the startup Vantage, who help clients understand their cloud costs and automate savings.  
  • The way businesses incur serverless costs will also experience shifts as serverless providers introduce new pricing models. StackPath for example, is a leading platform in edge computing, delivery, and security solutions, who charge customers only when a function is executed, rather than for the entire time an instance is running. In 2024, we undoubtedly will continue to see alternative serverless pricing models, such as pay-per-transaction or pay-per data volume, become increasingly popularised.  
  • Other innovations include new serverless services such as AI/ML serverless, serverless analytics, and serverless bundles.   

Data fabric/mesh

Companies are continuing to prioritise IT budget – Gartner forecasts expect 8% growth in worldwide IT spend in 2024 (over $5 trillion). While 2023 focused on system optimisation, scalability, and pioneering innovation, 2024 will see spending priorities shift with a focus on cost control, effectiveness, and automations. In other words, companies will be searching for ways to improve existing processes and assess the payoffs of digital transformation and IT change. 

Over the last 5 years, we’ve seen companies rapidly embark in IT and digital transformations that prioritise data fabric (i.e., the architectural backbone and technical solutions that intricately weave together disparate elements, allowing for cohesive integration and self-service capabilities) and data mesh (i.e., an organisational strategy for handling and structuring data within large organisations, fostering a model where distributed teams autonomously oversee data, while upholding established governance guidelines), in an effort to support new technological innovations, and optimise and maintain market competitiveness. Unfortunately, while we’ve seen many IT and digital transformations come off without any technical hitches, not all disruptions to ways of working and business processes have been seamlessly delivered.  

Our deep expertise across data, generative AI, and operating model change help support organisations in their strategy and execution of large-scale data programs, achieve tangible results at speed. Get in touch with our experts today to learn how we can partner to support your data strategy in 2024.

Connect with our experts