NTT DATA Technology Foresight 2024: Navigating the Future
NTT DATA Technology Foresight 2024 Highlights Top Trends Shaping the Global Technology Landscape
What is the NTT DATA Technology Foresight?
On January 26th, 2024, NTT DATA released our 'NTT DATA Technology Foresight 2024' , compiling information on the latest technology trends worldwide. In a world experiencing rapid change and increasingly complex social issues, firms who wish to establish a presence in the global marketplace must develop medium- to long-term strategies to understand and adapt to these changes.
NTT DATA Technology Foresight serves as a compass that provides a trend-setting guide to where businesses are headed based on extensive and objective information gathering and an examination of the current conditions of businesses that continue to grow by maximizing their use of IT.
With the information it gathers about these trends, NTT DATA Technology Foresight helps organizations formulate IT strategies for the future, gives customers a medium- to long-term perspective on upcoming market changes, and presents the technology strategy that NTT DATA itself is aiming to follow on a global basis.
Structure of NTT DATA Technology Foresight 2024
This year's NTT DATA Technology Foresight is comprised of three main parts:
- An introduction that explains how technological trends, identified from a wealth of data, will lead businesses to adopt new global strategies.
- Ten 'Latest Trends' in three key areas (Mainstream, Growth, and Emerging technologies)
- Two case studies on NTT DATA's use of generative AI (GenAI) and digital twins.
New Global Strategies
NTT DATA Technology Foresight 2024 not only outlines trends but also uncovers the subtle interplay between technology and societal change. It highlights how technology use can significantly impact business outcomes, underscoring the need for early understanding and implementation of evolving technologies.
The social transformations triggered by rapid technological advancement will also be significant factors in corporate strategy, requiring proactive involvement from decision-makers at companies across the world.
Top Technology Trends in 2024
In 2024, NTT DATA has collected ten trends that we expect to dominate the discussion throughout the next year and onwards. These are divided into three stages of maturity: Mainstream, Growth, and Emerging.
Mainstream Technologies
- Tectonic shifts caused by AI will continue
Having already transformed the world, Generative AI will become more and more enhanced as it progresses toward full-scale adoption. The development of smaller AI is also proceeding at full tilt, sophisticating and occasionally federating support for every facet of day-to-day life. The pursuit of this evolution will also help realize the possibilities in achieving sustainability in the face of massive power consumption, and help facilitate greater social acceptance. - Data and software will accelerate the permeation of borders
Business that make maximum use of IT and deepen points of contact with customers will expand their businesses in ways that transcend the boundaries of business type. The introduction of AI in particular can enhance overall corporate activities, ranging from services to business decisions and R&D, and has the potential to provide companies with a competitive advantage. - Cloud and edge optimization strategies will deepen
Smart and strategic use of the centralization and dispersion of IT infrastructure will advance in the future. In addition to the proactive application of technological evolutions that continue in the cloud and edge, companies will need to make more dynamic and flexible decisions that satisfy a broad range of considerations, such as the changing business environment, securing of safety, and sustainability concerns. - The fight for cyber security will become more intense
IT services continue to integrate various technologies to mount a challenging defense against increasingly complex and more numerous cyber attacks. Integrated use of a wide range of measures is required, reaching from vulnerability countermeasures dating back to the system development stage, to realistic and strong ID management, and to the introduction of post-quantum cryptography.
Growth Technologies
- The use of green tech will be incorporated into the foundations of corporate activities
The development of various technologies to reduce carbon emissions will create business opportunities in addition to meeting new obligations. This development will also help quantify emissions of business activities, accelerate a shift in energy policies centered around electrification, and evoke the development of innovative technologies. - Digital twins will lead the way toward the utilization of IT in the physical world
The development of technology to replicate physical spaces using IT is a challenge facing efforts to make digital competitiveness a reality in the real world. This experimental technology will not only improve the efficiency of machine and building design, but will also lead to the rapid elucidation of the fundamental principles of atoms and cells, resulting in an overwhelming increase in productivity. - Competition for computing power will increase
In order to seize the initiative in forthcoming IT generations, leading companies will continue to participate in the development of their own dedicated chips that will involve massive investments. The fact that the development of Generative AI continues to rely on semiconductors and software from specific vendors underscores the value that establishing proprietary technology brings and continues to promote exploratory endeavors.
Emerging Technologies
- Space utilization will open up new markets
Space development links together everything from the digitalization of the entire Earth through high-density satellite networks, to advancement into unexplored reaches of space. Business that utilizes space data, which has been materialized through the initiative of the private sector, is intensifying competition to create a new market for space stations and even explorations into deep space. - Automation of robotics will continue steady adoption
As a means of supplementing labor, robotics is expanding its domain of application into everyday life. Robots, which are being used in everything from work in harsh environments to household labor, will become easier to introduce into workplaces thanks to AI, and thus facilitate collaborative labor between people and robots. This will help usher in an age where machines learn to do their work on their own. - The pursuit of user experiences that realize both physical and personal attributes will drive competition
Touch-based user experiences, which seek to realize the satisfaction that comes from physical contact, will serve as the crux of future differentiation strategies. Points of contact with customers realized through integrated design addressing physical sensations in addition to software and hardware can avoid commoditization, and realize differentiation in the edge computing domain.
A Focus on User Experience
A key trend in 2024 is the pursuit of user experiences that realise both physical and personal attributes. This focus on user experience is driving competition within the technology industry. To envision the future with customers globally and develop the necessary technologies and services, we have reinforced our B2B advisory service for Blockchain, Digital Twin and Quantum Computing and collaborated with NVIDIA and FANUC Germany to create a digital twin of robotic arms for industrial digitalisation.
At NTT DATA, generative AI is being used to transform businesses. We have applied this technology in various areas, including creating business documents and providing expert support, customer service, and software development. But while AI generates data, it also raises questions about the copyright and authenticity of that data. In response, NTT DATA has established the 'Global Generative AI Office' to promote global utilisation and address AI governance.
Similarly, advances in sensor technology and 3D modelling technology have expanded the use of digital twins in business. NTT DATA, through verification and evaluation of digital twin-related technologies, supports the introduction of digital twins to meet customers' needs and applications. A notable example is the creation of a digital twin of a manufacturing site, including a FANUC robot arm, in collaboration with NVIDIA and FANUC Deutschland GmbH.
The NTT DATA Technology Foresight 2024 provides an invaluable perspective on the major technology trends shaping the world. The focus on user experience, driven by developments in AI and digital twins, underscores the importance of understanding and adapting to these trends.
To learn more about the top technology trends in 2024, read NTT DATA Technology Foresight here.
