10 Spicy Generative AI Predictions for 2024

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The Build Mode Editorial Board features senior tech leaders, AI mad scientists, game-changing entrepreneurs, and visionary investors. Every week, we tap their insights and reactions to the evolution of work culture and the latest developments in the race for AI adoption.

This time, we asked them for their most controversial prediction for generative AI in 2024:

1. Don Brumfield - Former VP of Global IT, Heidrick & Struggles

Next year, we could see the growth of AI in core operational processes that are fairly mature and rich with quality data (IT Ops/network, Finance AP/AR). Just as we have seen with customer support where there is good training data, AI can quickly create efficiencies and shorten timelines.

2. Halit Erdogan - Founder & CEO, Neural Bridge

VectorDBs will start to cause issues in production and create extra data syncing loads. The standard relational/noSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Spanner, DynamoDB, etc) will add vector support and engineers will start to prefer standard databases, and VectorDB startups will have trouble raising new rounds.

3. Angelique Bellmer Krembs - Former Global Head of Brand, BlackRock

As AI algorithms inherit historical data, existing biases (gender, race, other stereotypes) will become amplified if the humans designing them are not careful. I'm most concerned about hiring and promotions algorithms becoming an obstacle to advancing diversity in workplaces.

4. Wagner Denuzzo - Former VP, Future of Work at Prudential

The capabilities emerging from the exploration of AI will democratize knowledge and transform hierarchical organizations into dynamic networks of value, activated by distributed power and shared leadership!

Many AI projects will fail to deliver the expected ROI.

5. Mida Pezeshkian - Founder, STEMA_cg

AI is gaining mainstream adoption, but many organizations lack the expertise to implement it effectively. As a result, many AI projects will fail to deliver the expected ROI. This means that many executives will need to rethink their AI strategy and implementation. Hopefully, they will learn from their mistakes and build better second-generation solutions.

6. Jen Snow - Former CTO, AFWERX

I'm an optimist and an idealist, so my AI prediction for next year is that we are going to see more good than bad. For example, CommSafe AI is using AI to create inclusive, equitable workplaces while reducing brand risk. A number of breakthrough AI tools are increasing early detection of cancer—like CADU, which helps doctors identify throat cancer. And for all those frustrated by the lack of verification tools for deep fakes and misinformation online, Clarity is providing real-time deep fake detection and authentication of digital media, which means faster detection and a lower success rate for deep fake creators.

7. AJ Thomas - Chaos Pilot and Head of Talent, X, the moonshot factory

No more job descriptions or resumes!

8. Jared Cocken - Fractional Chief Product Officer

Next year will be crunch time for how AI fits into the P&L of most Fortune 500s. Companies will have to innovate or cut costs to make their numbers. Generative AI offers the prospect of both, but many companies will do it wrong. Some Fortune 500s will have implemented open source models due to their concern about companies like OpenAI using their proprietary data to train their models—which is a mistake. Six months in they’ll be realizing the exorbitant on-demand cost of running, say, Llama2 on g5.48xlarge instances, and hiring and training the teams to run them. There will be a shift back to using OpenAI’s API on demand instead.

Breakthrough AI tools are increasing early detection of cancer.

9. Eric Solomon - Ethical AI Expert; Former CMO at Bonobos & Global Head of Marketing at Instagram

With an upcoming election season in 2024, I think there's a big chance that AI will play a much larger role in election interference than ever before. Digital clones. Deep fakes. Something we can't yet know. In some way, these will impact data and information, blurring the line between fact and fiction. There's no way to predict the actual outcome, but I expect AI to be a major factor as we head deeper into election season. Misuse happens when incentives are misaligned—and we know an incentive to win at all costs clouds judgment and ethics.

10. Vivan Amin - Emerging Technologies Leader, L3Harris

In 2024, the generative AI sector will encounter a reality check. Organizations will critically assess the sustainability of their AI operations considering the significant running costs and the imperative to mitigate rising risks. Meanwhile, AI agents will progress from simple task execution to complex decision-making roles, spurring a robotics revolution across various consumer and manufacturing sectors. This shift will challenge our fundamental beliefs about the nature of work, safety, and augmenting human workloads, as robots in the form of humanoids or software agents assume responsibilities once thought to be exclusively human.