AI in 2024: 5 Predictions Shaping the Future of Work

Wow, 2023 was the year I have been waiting for my whole life, the year a super-evolution was born. Everything will change because of AI, especially the way we work. Data-driven thinking is now behind us and the workplace of tomorrow is going to be radically different. The new model-driven future is establishing itself as we speak. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere are locked in as leaders of this next decade, and so many more are yet to be born. This post explores five key predictions for the “future of work” in 2024, offering insights into the trends that will drive the adoption of AI in the coming years.

1. Rise of the Citizen Data Scientist: I predict that there will be a significant increase in the decentralized adoption of AI tools by non-expert users. The future of work will be shaped by a grassroots movement of AI adoption, with individual contributors and teams integrating AI tools to enhance their work. The availability of user-friendly platforms that simplify the creation, training, and deployment of AI models will empower more business analysts and other professionals to leverage AI without needing deep technical expertise. For this to be true, it will be critical that these platforms prioritize governance in their roadmaps as IT will not be happy (at first) with this trend.

2. Ease of Adoption Wins Over Complexity: Next year the rise of intuitive visual interfaces, new specialized models, libraries of AI ready content, and more ways to prepare your data for AI, will all simplify AI adoption. This new middle ground will make AI more accessible and disrupt traditional work models by automating complex tasks and enabling new forms of collaboration between humans and AI. I call this Practical AI. Practical AI will begin to permeate the enterprise and will be a welcome alternative to simply chatting with an uploaded pdf in ChatGPT or having to hand over large budgets and wait for IT to build out massively complex AI projects. Executives will be very happy about this movement.

3. AI Agents in the Workforce: The increasing incorporation of AI in the workplace will see AI agents becoming co-workers that enhance human capabilities. This will lead to the next level in productivity and a more collaborative future of work, where AI will use most relevant data to improve data analysis, decision-making, and creative problem-solving. I personally do this every day, and just like recalling experiences, I use tools we have built at FeatureBase to access and activate key content and data to help me make better decisions. The future of this trend will radically change the way we work.

4. Continuous Model Training Becomes the Norm: In 2024, I predict that continuous learning systems will become the standard for AI models, ensuring that they remain accurate and effective over time as they adapt to new data, information, and evolving patterns. We will have models training on pricing, competition, our internal communications, inventory…all facets of work life will feed this intelligence. Basically, everything observable will start to train models as life and work unfold. We will then partner with carefully selected ensembles of small, medium, and large language models that work together to outpace our competitors. Some of the models in these groupings may be public, proprietary, or even shared/rented from a marketplace.

5. Data Remains More Valuable than AI: As demonstrated by recent events involving Sam Altman and the OpenAI board, humans will continue to make missteps with AI. As such it is MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER that companies and humans treat data as their most valuable asset and maintain full control and ownership when they pair it with AI. This does not mean that we should fear AI or fear using cloud systems, we just need to be in control of this future. In the meantime, as people continue to debate the existential threat of AI, we will be shown time and time again that the real concern is not AI itself, but the decisions made by humans about its funding, development, and use. 

As we look ahead to 2024, these predictions offer a glimpse into a future where AI is not just a tool, but a transformative force that redefines roles, responsibilities, and the very essence of work. At FeatureBase we think about these every day and we are excited to bring a new product to market in January that will address all of these head on.

The opportunities and challenges ahead are massive, but one thing is clear: the decisions we make today about the development and deployment of AI will shape our jobs and companies tomorrow. As we navigate this path, it is crucial that we prioritize the value of data, decentralized AI strategies, and the importance of keeping an eye on the humans shaping the future of AI.