In the fast-evolving realm of technology, 2024 is anticipated to usher in a wave of groundbreaking developments. The relentless integration of AI is set to redefine industries, with advancements in real-time decision-making, cybersecurity, and search engine precision. The upcoming year holds promises of harmonizing Gen AI with traditional search engines, eliminating inaccuracies and ensuring optimal outcomes. The synergy between 5G and Edge Computing is poised to reshape data processing dynamics, offering immersive experiences within the metaverse. Edge AI is anticipated to revolutionize sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, and retail, introducing real-time diagnostics and predictive maintenance. Simultaneously, the cybersecurity landscape will continue to evolve, necessitating proactive measures and a reevaluation of foundational security practices. As 2024 unfolds, the amalgamation of AI, 5G, Edge Computing, and cybersecurity stands as a testament to a dynamic technological future, redefining how we engage with and navigate the digital realm.

Dhananjay Ganjoo, Managing Director for India, and SAARC at F5

“In the year 2023, Indian businesses underwent a transformative shift with increased AI adoption. From AI-powered customer service enhancements to data analytics, automation, and cybersecurity measures, businesses embraced technology for operational efficiency. As per a report by PwC, 54% of Indian businesses have already implemented AI for business,” said Dhananjay Ganjoo, Managing Director for India, and SAARC at F5. “With the commencement of 2024, we will continue to witness the rise in the implementation of AI to enhance real-time decision-making on edge devices, address security concerns, and improve search engine outcomes. The combination of Gen AI and traditional search engines can eliminate AI hallucinations and provide accurate outcomes. AI-powered telemetry will also enhance cybersecurity by swiftly identifying threats, ensuring a dynamic security posture. The strategic integration of AI into API testing streamlines processes, and is poised for widespread adoption in 2024, ensuring robust performance.”

Amit Luthra, Managing Director, India, Lenovo ISG

“As we bid farewell to 2023, the fusion of 5G and Edge Computing emerges as a key player, overcoming challenges through real-time data processing. Large Language Models (LLMs) power Gen AI, transforming natural language understanding and customer interactions. Simultaneously, the metaverse gains ground, promising immersive shopping experiences for businesses embracing AR, VR, and NFTs.” says Amit Luthra, Managing Director, India, Lenovo ISG. “Looking ahead to 2024, Edge AI stands poised to revolutionize healthcare, manufacturing, and retail, offering real-time diagnostics and predictive maintenance. Hybrid AI integrates generative applications seamlessly, while cyber insurance becomes a critical shield against rising threats. Extended Reality (XR) enhances the metaverse, and data masking becomes paramount in the face of increasing cyber threats. Furthermore, when we look at enterprise AI, it will continue to take center stage, synthesizing assessments and proposing secure solutions within organizational frameworks. A focus on sustainability frameworks and strategies becomes imperative, aligning businesses with environmental management systems. The synergy of purpose-built AI devices becomes the backbone for a transformative era, demanding a proactive embrace of emerging technologies for not just survival but flourishing in the ever-evolving digital terrain.”

Mandy Andress, CISO, Elastic

“In 2023, cybersecurity continued to face a mix of continuity and change, with social engineering persisting and the cloud reshaping the landscape. In tandem, AI is evolving, and responsibility for incidents has also shifted to treat companies more as victims. The coming year foresees a departure from human-managed passwords, acknowledging risks and reducing human errors. While further multi-factor authentication adoption is anticipated, advancements in authentication technologies are still needed. It’s crucial to revisit cybersecurity fundamentals—password awareness, multi-factor authentication, identity management, patching, and threat modeling. From a corporate and CISO perspective, proactive measures are essential amid lightning-fast innovation driven by generative AI, emphasizing basic security steps in the face of perceived boredom, time constraints, and difficulty. Additionally, AI’s advancement has resulted in both the development of cyber threats and their mitigation. GenAI may aid threat actors in crafting sophisticated malware, posing detection challenges. Despite this, we see AI as pivotal in democratizing data, enabling teams to gain deeper, currently inaccessible insights,” said Mandy Andress, CISO, Elastic.

Sagar P.V, Chief Technology Officer & Head – Technology & Innovation Group, Mindsprint

“As we enter 2024, a forward-looking approach will not merely be a strategy; it will represent a steadfast commitment to navigating change, fostering innovation, and harnessing the unparalleled potential of technology.

Machines will become more intuitive, adaptive, and responsive in the dawn of a new era. Heralding this transformation, GenAI is at the forefront of gaining mainstream prominence while businesses will align their strategies to harness its power. While also confidently recalibrating their technological infrastructure by emphasizing location-based data handling to minimize latency, enhance real-time decision-making, and unlock the potential for applications requiring rapid responsiveness. Edge Computing will become the driving force behind GenAI’s impact, enabling organizations to attain a competitive advantage and stay ahead of the game.

As a critical aspect of organizational priorities, the narrative of 2024 will unfold with Supply Chain Resiliency. Recent disruptions highlight the vulnerability of global supply chains, prompting businesses to leverage technology in creating agile and adaptable strategies that can withstand unforeseen challenges. Technology, from predictive analytics to real-time tracking, is pivotal in fortifying supply chain resilience.

Viewing Green Technology not only as a corporate responsibility but also as a strategic value generator to appeal to environmentally conscious consumers, will take the spotlight as a catalyst for change in 2024; fueled by a growing awareness of environmental sustainability, businesses will need to integrate eco-friendly practices into their operations. The year’s playbook will also include strategically navigating the technological wave by upskilling the workforce for digital literacy, fostering continuous learning, and creating an environment where innovation thrives. Success involves adopting technology and seamlessly integrating it into every facet of the business, which blends human ingenuity with cutting-edge technology.”

Olga Lagunova, Chief Technology Officer, GoTo

“Indian IT leaders demonstrated resilience in 2023, embracing IT consolidation for greater speed, flexibility, and business continuity amidst shifting economic conditions. Looking ahead to 2024, consolidation will continue to play a key role as CTOs and business leaders look to take strategic advantage of game-changing technologies like cloud, automation, and AI.

Technology decision-makers will be at the forefront in steering their organizations’ continued digital transformation, which in the new year will focus on optimization, cybersecurity, and the customer experience. Artificial intelligence, for instance, is creating new opportunities to amplify employees’ productivity across IT, engineering, sales, customer care, and more by automating routine tasks and introducing new insights based on powerful analyses – but CTOs and other leaders need to help guide their businesses’ adoption and set up guardrails to ensure safe use of new technologies. At the same time, as cybersecurity becomes a growing concern, CTOs and CISOs must work together to implement robust security measures and invest in new cybersecurity solutions, including zero trust architectures (ZTAs), and passwordless identity.

Finally, introducing new technologies and processes also requires investment in training and upskilling teams. Ensuring employees have the knowledge and skills to utilize these technologies will be essential to gain a competitive edge and achieve sustained business growth.”

Yogesh Agrawal, CEO and Co-Founder, Consistent Infosystems Private Limited

“The Indian IT Hardware manufacturing industry is growing rapidly lately due to special emphasis by the Government of India by encouraging PLI manufacturing. The major industry trends include the use of advanced materials, organic electronics, and miniaturization. Besides, disruptive technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) enable smart manufacturing practices also and are the growth drivers for the industry. Similarly, 3D printing is enabling the electronics fabrication industry to become more dynamic and cost-effective. In the year 2024, we will witness the increased use of these new technologies which will help in boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of indigenous players.”

Pramod Sharda, CEO, IceWarp India and Middle East

“In the aftermath of the pandemic, India has experienced a notable shift, with companies increasingly choosing remote work and relying on collaborative tools for communication. This has led to significant trends in business communications, emphasizing the utilization of generative AI, monitoring & dashboards to analyze collaboration data for more efficient workflows. With a 50% cyber attack rate in the last three years and costs expected to surpass $10 trillion by 2024, businesses prioritize cyber resilience. Beyond traditional cybersecurity, focus extends to recovery and continuity measures, incorporating remote work protocols. AI-driven automated defense, integrated security-continuity frameworks, and awareness of societal factors are integral to a robust strategy. As cyber threats advance, the trend of leveraging breakthrough technologies like AI in the market intensifies, solidifying cyber resilience as a prominent theme in 2024. Looking ahead to 2024, there is an expected increase in the adoption of generative AI to enhance both daily interactions and overall business productivity.”

Muraleedhar Pai, Executive Director & CTO, Maveric Systems

“Globally, ESG is becoming more mainstream with regulations that stipulate increase in disclosures and a mandate to have these disclosures assured by a third party. Given the magnitude of these disclosures, Companies will need to invest in specialized Platforms for ESG Data Management, Reporting & Compliance. Regulators are also asking Banks & Investors like Asset Managers & PE to embed ESG Risk in their decision-making process and this in turn will require financial institutions to build/buy ESG Risk & Analytics platforms.

No-Code SaaS Platforms focused on the ESG domain would be preferred as they will incorporate multiple use cases and provide out-of-the-box solutions. While there are multiple ERP, Data Analytical Platforms and GRC solutions in the market today, they are mostly siloed and address only part of the Industry’s requirement when it comes to ESG. SaaS Platforms that are comprehensive, easy to customize (including risk models), AI-ML powered and that can seamlessly integrate with Enterprise Systems and ESG Data providers would be the platforms of choice for the CXOs.“

Vaibhav Sisinty, Founder and CEO, GrowthSchool

“In the year 2024, the landscape of edtech is poised for continued dominance by generative AI. The rise of technologies like Gemini, likened to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, signals a noteworthy advancement. These strides go beyond mere increments; they embody a transformative power, constrained only by the expansiveness of human creativity. This year unfolds with unforeseen breakthroughs in generative AI, consistently revealing its vast potential. Within the realm of education technology, this shift manifests as a move toward more individualized learning experiences, highlighting the imperative of AI literacy. As we progress, edtech will witness inventive approaches in seamlessly integrating AI into learning, ensuring education becomes more flexible and captivating than ever.”

Balasubramanian (Bala) Sankaranarayanan, President and CEO, Thryve Digital Health LLP

“One of the most important trends that we will witness in 2024 is the augmented usage of AI, especially Gen AI, in healthcare applications.

 We have already seen how digital transformation enabled healthcare providers to achieve better patient outcomes in the wake of the pandemic, and now we are witnessing the democratization of Generative AI. While the AI LLM providers have been evolving their models to cater to specific industries including healthcare – we are still waiting to see which set of use-cases will ramp from Pilots / POCs to production scale.

 While we see a lot of focus and investment on running Pilots around the Customer-facing “effectiveness” use-cases, we are also seeing a lot of interest in engineering and operations-facing “efficiency” use-cases – such as exploring the use of AI to drive automation of coding and testing, processing core business ops, as well as in areas such as data security, which has always been a critical focus for healthcare providers.”

Venkat Malladi, Co-Founder and CTO, Vymo

“One of the prominent trends in 2023 was the rise of generative AI, with companies focusing on leveraging its capabilities to drive innovation and growth. Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize various industries, such as agriculture, insurance, and language support. In 2024, we can expect further advancements in generative AI technology and increased collaboration between different sectors to harness its potential for interactive and immersive user experiences.”

Amit D Mishra, Founder and CEO, iMocha

“The corporate landscape is set to undergo a shift towards Skills-First Transformation (SFT) in the year ahead. Driven by the escalating demand for tech and AI skills, organizations are likely to prioritize ‘power-user’ employees with multi-disciplinary expertise. HR and business leaders are increasingly recognizing the role of Generative AI in talent retention and management. Skills-First Transformation is no longer an option but an imperative, with over half of the companies already on this journey, led by telecom, software products, and IT verticals. Companies focusing on SFT are already seeing early signs of higher revenue growth and a positive impact on talent. The foundation to achieve SFT will be about having a clear view of the skills within an organization that a skills intelligence solution offers. Skills intelligence platforms are becoming foundational for AI integration and nurturing talent at scale. The future of hiring will rely on SFT, where skills take center stage in strategic initiatives.”