What does the future hold for enterprises?
Rewinding to three years ago, it would have been difficult to predict the economic situation we’ve found ourselves in 2023. Combine the huge technological shift of generative AI with increased inflation and interest rates, supply chain challenges, and widespread changing customer behaviors, and you’ve collectively created a scenario marked by unpredictability and change.
Understanding that predicting the future is no easy feat, we still decided to try. We surveyed 2,800 data and technology leaders in nine countries to see what they are currently experiencing and their visions for the enterprise’s next three years.
Figure 1 – Thinking about the overall business landscape/market environment over the next three years, which of the following do you feel will have the most impact (either positive or negative) on your organization?
To set the stage, we first asked survey respondents what they expect to be most impactful on their organizations over the next three years. The top five identified include cybersecurity and data privacy (51%), globalization challenges (43%), high inflation and interest rates (41%), changing customer behaviors (35%), and pervasive artificial intelligence (32%). With this landscape in mind, let’s dive into the four central themes that emerged from our survey findings.
Generative AI is changing everything
It would be pretty unthinkable to make any predictions about the next three years without considering generative AI. From a technology not on the radar of many to one filling our news and social media feeds, generative AI has made a huge leap in both functionality and perception.
Looking at the numbers, the predictions are what you would expect — generative AI is everywhere, and usage will continue to expand over the next three years.
When asked how organizations will respond to the changing market conditions, 52% stated that they will invest in advanced technology like AI. They also predicted their organization’s use of generative AI would increase from 32% to 53% over the next 3 years, a rise of 21%. Usage of generative AI is expected to be widespread across the business, even within departments that are reluctant to use generative AI right now, like legal and research and development.
Figure 2 – Overall, how would you assess the level of impact that AI is currently having on achieving your organization’s goals?
Even in its current usage, generative AI is having a large influence on outcomes; 80% of businesses say that generative AI is already impacting the achievement of their organizational goals.
Regulation is no longer a “dirty” word
As the usage and adoption of generative AI continue to rise, survey respondents have apprehension regarding how best to use it. Seventy-three percent (73%) of those surveyed expressed concerns regarding the use of AI-powered answers. When questioned about the potential risks of not implementing an ethical AI framework:
- 49% believed that companies could face legal and ethical repercussions
- 42% anticipated harm to brand reputation
- 39% predicted damage to workplace desirability
Figure 3 – There are concerns regarding the use of AI-produced answers and a belief that regulations and standards should be developed.
What’s the solution? Most respondents expressed strong support for the implementation and integration of policies and regulations to tackle these concerns. A staggering 89% of respondents are in favor of developing regulations for the use of AI in their sectors, while 91% believe that AI policies will help businesses implement responsible AI. Additionally, 80% believe AI security, ethics, and governance will be key to the success of their organization.
The importance of humanity in an AI world
While AI’s quick rise and pervasive impact is clearly the story of 2023, 2024 may be the “Year of the Human.”
Let me explain.
In 2024, companies will be shifting their focus from if and how to adopt generative AI to optimizing the relationship between humans and machines. To do that, organizations will need to hone in on what unique human characteristics will help them meet their goals.
Figure 4 – What skills and traits do you believe humans and machines will each provide in this transaction?
When it came to identifying which human skills will be the skills of the future, survey respondents painted a picture where humans’ strengths would support machines’ strengths. Machines were expected to provide skills in complex problem-solving (42%), accuracy (40%), and speed (36%). Meanwhile, humans would be leaned on to provide creativity (61%), emotion/relatability (43%), critical thinking (38%), and morality (38%). While AI is here to stay, embracing humanity and unique ways of thinking will be a strength in an AI-augmented world.
A new look for data teams?
Survey responses predicted some crucial future changes for data teams in skills, roles, and structure. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of respondents expect to see a talent surplus in tech in the next three years. While we can speculate why — my likely culprits include mass layoffs in the sector and generative AI, again — we were able to capture some reasons from respondents directly. Reasons provided included companies moving to hire based on skills instead of degrees, governments investing in STEM educational programs, increased digital literacy, and companies providing re-skilling and training on the job.
Figure 5 – Thinking about the next three years, what impact do you expect the following forces to have on the global business landscape?
Roles
AI’s influence is again heavy when looking at how roles will shift in the next three years. The top roles identified with an emerging need were the chief AI officer (62%), AI whisperer/prompt engineer (58%), and trainer/educator specializing in AI (45%). One interesting connection is one we found between these survey results and those from one we completed earlier this year with board members; this survey found that companies not currently using generative AI were more likely to consult a Chief AI Officer. Perhaps these companies, recognizing a lack of their own expertise in managing AI, are proactively creating and filling a new role to navigate this advanced tech landscape.
Figure 6 – Roles to prepare for the future
When asked about roles that are urgent priorities for hiring now, a trend emerged – the top roles included AI application engineer (40%), software engineer (34%), and AI/ML engineer (32%). Interestingly, the two roles listed as emerging didn’t seem to be the highest priority for hiring right now, with Chief AI Officer coming in at 26%, AI whisperer at 19%, and prompt engineer at 16%.
The prompt engineer, in particular, is an interesting role — an emerging need that may already be a dying breed. Riely Goodside, a Prompt Engineer at Scale AI said about the role:
Will the death of the first job at the hands of AI be the prompt engineer? Only time will tell.
Skills
Outside of the roles needed for the enterprise of the future, there are expectations for some skills to become obsolete and others to become absorbed or consolidated into other roles. The top roles expected to become obsolete included:
- Network engineering (29%)
- Repetitive coding (24%)
- Database administration (23%)
For skills expected to be consolidated or absorbed:
- Remote IT maintenance (42%)
- AI and ML development (34%)
- Quality assurance (32%)
- Single-software expertise (32%)
Another interesting prediction from survey respondents was that employees who are multi-skilled (72%) will be more desirable in the future than those focused on a single skill (28%). The employee of the future will likely focus on multiple subject areas vs specializing in one.
Figure 7 – Do you anticipate in the future your organization will consider it more important for employees to be multi-skilled or will it be more important for them to have a specialization in a specific area?
Structure
When asked about the structure of data departments in the future, we didn’t get a clear answer; 51% of respondents said that data departments would be decentralized, while 30% thought they would be centralized. (The remaining 19% aren’t sure). While it looks like decentralized data departments have a slight edge, there is not enough consensus here for us to make a declaration either way.
Figure 8 – Organizational structure in data teams
Conclusion
The future of the enterprise is poised to be shaped significantly by the integration and evolution of generative AI, but don’t count humans out just yet.
The landscape is rapidly transforming, with businesses expecting positive impacts from AI and showing a high demand for AI-related skills. There’s also a strong push for ethical AI practices and regulations. The reality of the future may be that the balance between technological innovation and human-centric approaches will be key to navigating the enterprise’s unpredictable — yet exciting — future.
What’s Next
Download the full research report to dig into the results.