1. Reactive to proactive AI
2024 brings the dawn of AI’s genuine assistive power – and value.
We’ll see more instances of AI autonomously assisting you. The iterations we see now operate in reactive mode. For instance, if I have a query, I might approach ChatGPT or the CYPHER Learning platform. But the initiative is all mine. Soon AI will proactively suggest, "Graham, have you considered this?" Or offer, "Would you like me to arrange this for you?" In moments it might confirm: "Graham, I've organized that for you and will remind you in 10 days." This represents a shift towards a more interactive and bidirectional relationship.
In 2024 the focus will be on reimagining education with AI at its core. It's not about merely repackaging traditional learning methods with AI; it's about innovatively leveraging AI to transform the educational experience. Virtual learning assistants, or mentors, will, with human overseers, autonomously support personalized development: imagine personalized learning journeys powered by AI agents that bring relevant topics to your attention, based on your interests. You might be taking a coffee break, and the AI, understanding your preference, suggests a new topic to explore. 2024 will witness the rise of proactive AI that actively engages with users rather than wait for user inputs.
2. Raw AI versus packaged AI
In 2024, control and oversight by real people begin to elevate AI utility.
Early missteps by AI applications have cast a shadow of doubt. Instances of AI producing inaccurate or nonsensical content have gone viral. In 2022, a new ChatGPT release drew 100 million test users within two months. Inevitably not every exchange was perfect – and flawed “hallucinatory” answers drew attention and skepticism.
But it's vital to understand: these early AI applications represent its raw form. Next, we integrate AI into business processes and other sectors and it evolves into controlled, contextualized, and curated forms, overseen by human experts. For instance, in the realm of education technology, where I have a vantage point, AI now streamlines curriculum creation, combining multiple models and human oversight to ensure accuracy.
Big players like Microsoft and Amazon are already incorporating more controlled versions of AI into their systems, marking a shift from its initial unrefined state to a more mature, disciplined phase.
3. Remote training for remote managers
In 2024, AI emerges as a key resource in remote workforce management.
The distributed or hybrid workforce appears here to stay, presenting team managers with new challenges. Some teams suffer from lack of face-to-face training, reinforcement, and camaraderie. Isolation, and fewer spontaneous “break-room breakthroughs,” can breed disconnection and hurt the business. AI will be a key ingredient in the antidote, enabling more engaging one-on-one communication with remote workers – at scale, too. AI will help the distributed enterprise implement pinpoint skills over distance one worker at a time; at the same time, it will help managers succeed in a brave new remote-management world. We’re likely to see a new wave of management training in 2024 with AI at the epicenter.
4. AI helps build a versatile ‘jack-of-all trades’ workforce
In 2024, AI makes it easier to support workers a world away.
Workers having an across-the-board skillset, particularly in soft skills, is becoming more of a business priority. Entry level learning and development programmes are going to become more focused on building a workforce with a foundational set of core skills, focusing on communication, time management, leadership, interpersonal skills, task prioritization and problem solving. We’re likely to see businesses hoping to achieve this taking a more modular approach to L&D. Supporting workers to develop in the areas where they need training most will transform the culture of these workplaces, prioritizing continuous learning with training delivered in a bite-sized, bespoke way.
5. Demand for upskilling and reskilling
Without AI, L&D and training teams will will buckle under pressure, as demand for upskilling and reskilling soar in ‘the new era of turbulence’
Disruptive technological forces – such as AI and digital transformation – are reshaping the world around us. The way we work and how roles are performed is changing rapidly. This ‘new era of turbulence’ – as described by the World Economic Forum – is going to put increasing pressure on L&D and training to update and create new training courses on a mass scale to plug vital skills gaps and stay ahead of their competition.
With three quarters of HR and business leaders already struggling to develop training courses with current resources, the gap between those who can keep up and those that can’t will widen. Those who can’t keep up will be unable to fill vital skills gaps, leaving many to stagnate. With resources more stretched than ever, this pressure is going to drive greater uptake of AI-powered solutions, such as copilots, which can help trainers and L&D teams to maximize efficiency, productivity and creativity.
6. Improving individual quality of life
In 2024, AI uplevels small tasks and transactions – with a big impact on daily life.
We’ll see exponential growth in the volume of minor, barely-noted encounters we have with ever-more-assistive AI, and the cumulative effect will be major. AI-powered home assistants will evolve, managing a plethora of small errands and routines. Today’s teeth-gnashing unresponsiveness of service providers – airlines that hang up on you, chatbots that spew gibberish – will start to recede as AI drives hyper-personalization, supporting fast, tailored, responsive experiences for every customer. In one business sector after another, we’ll begin noticing – and appreciating – AI’s transformative role: in healthcare, for one example, AI will support personalized diagnosis, treatment suggestions, and continuous health monitoring, reducing dependence on frequent physical doctor visits. AI will be at the heart of a business efficiency revolution customers actually like.
7. Job market metamorphosis enters full swing
In 2024, the best job opportunities go to those most at ease with change
The employment landscape undergoes a metamorphosis with AI at its core. Are some job categories threatened by AI? Eventually, yes – some. Will the opportunities swamp the losses? Without a doubt. AI ushers in a plethora of new job categories as people manage and oversee AI, team with AI, and slide into roles that call for more judgment and perspective. The digital-transformation drivers behind the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution are about to have broader, in fact unimaginably pervasive impact thanks to AI, and it means equally pervasive shifts in worker skill sets. All innovators face three big challenges as a result: manage people through the change wave humanely and respectfully; give HR the resources it needs; and make sure everyone reaps the rewards of the transformed AI workplace.
8. Policing for AI bias
In 2024, we move closer to an AI ethic reflecting the whole, diverse planet.
As the commentator Ezra Klein has said, trust is the most essential technology of all – and if people are wary of AI, or feel it doesn’t understand them, the revolution stalls. We know raw-state AI exhibits certain biases and blind spots, however unintentional, and we know one cause is too narrow a diet of training prompts. Another is insufficient ethnic, gender, economic, and geographic diversity on the development side. 2024 is the year technology innovators move to burst their own cultural banks and capture input from everybody, everywhere in order to minimize, and where possible eradicate, inherent biases in AI algorithms and systems.
