Wednesday 08 January 2025
What a year 2024 was for AI, we saw some significant advancements across the market, including new AI models (of many shapes and sizes), a boost in AI funding for upcoming startups, government action on key issues such as copyright and crucially a lot more examples of practical real-world AI applications across nearly all industries. I thought it would be good to look back on some of the major announcements from 2024 and ponder what they might mean for the UK SITS market as we begin 2025.
The first thing to note is that while the AI hype is certainly far from fading, there has definitely been a change in how AI is perceived. Long gone is the all-out fervour of implementing AI at any cost, instead replaced by a more careful and considered approach, particularly at the enterprise level. It is also at the enterprise level we have seen the most activity, yes the AI boom all began with consumer facing GenAI chatbots like ChatGPT, and we have seen the release of more consumer tools like Apple intelligence, but the real progress in implementing AI at any meaningful scale has been in large enterprises. Back and front office roles have proven ripe for disruption, particularly those dominated by repeatable processes such as data entry, claims processing, contact centres and front of house roles i.e. hospitality bookings.
The past 12 months saw nearly all organisations dip their toes into the AI waters, yet the AI maturity of organisations varies greatly, some are just starting out on their journey, for example trialling Microsoft Copilot (or one of the many other role specific Copilot solutions), while others are already building second generation AI chatbots, seeking to leverage the latest LLMs to boost their effectiveness. Those most advanced on their AI journey have sought to fully embrace LLMs across a range of roles, democratising access to a wide range of AI models and enabling decentralised innovation (with a subtle layer of governance and control) across their organisations, enabling business units to create their own proprietary models and increasingly agentic AI solutions. AI agents are set to be the ‘hot topic’ this year, and in the words of Sam Altman “In 2025 we may see the first AI agents “join the workforce” and materially change the output of companies”.
TechMarketView subscribers can carry on reading this article here: 2024 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Recap, where we will explore supplier moves, notable startup funding, government action and what this all means for organisations as we kick off 2025.
If you are not yet a subscriber, contact Belinda Tewson to understand what options are available to you. It is set to be another busy year for AI and other emerging tech so don’t miss out on the unique insight into the UK market across TechMarketView’s research streams and daily analysis in UKHotViews.
Posted by Simon Baxter at '09:50'