In 2023, we were more reactive. In 2024, we must be more strategic. We must do a lot of experiments. We must match the pace of the technology that is evolving so fast. Rather than thinking about superficial wins, we must think about the actual benefits and values that it’s fulfilling. I come from a human-centered design background. We must think about the business. That’s true; everybody is going to do that. But as innovators, we also have a duty towards the people for whom we are innovating. We must think about the values we are delivering rather than just launching superficial features and products in AI. WILL 2024 BE CALMER? It’s hard to say that 2024 is going to be bullish. That’s only because the markets have not recovered as we thought they would. Even though companies are making profits, we are going to see some of the same things that happened in 2023 in terms of job realignment, where the money is going, and what the focus areas are for the products, services, and technologies. Again, it’s hard to give any answer without AI. That’s where it’s going to go.
We cannot think that way anymore.
If we are still doing innovation in the way we used to, say in 2020, thinking about only five or ten years down the line, then we’ll miss out on opportunities because everything is changing so fast. Innovation is based on a lot of assumptions and analysis of trends on what the future will be. We don’t have that luxury now because things will change so quickly that by the time we are there, the assumptions we had made about the future—the patterns we had extrapolated—didn’t happen that way. We still must think about the future but break it down into smaller steps and think about what we can do today with the technology or the resources available to get to that future rather than keeping those two things separate. It must come together. KEEPING PACE WITH THE EVOLUTION OF AI AI is hard to predict, and the reason is that it’s evolving so fast. What does that mean for us as innovators? That doesn’t mean that we are just going to let it evolve as a technology. We must be more conscious, and we must keep up with the pace of evolution. So, 2024 is going to be a year of a lot of deeper experimentation.
FEI 2024 & Key Innovation Perspectives
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