Gartner has some very bold predictions for the tech world in 2024—from democratized generative AI and artificial intelligence security management to growth in “machine customers” and an augmented-connected workforce.

“Technology disruptions and socioeconomic uncertainties require willingness to act boldly and strategically enhance resilience over ad hoc responses,” said Bart Willemsen, vice president and analyst at Gartner in a new report. “IT leaders are in a unique position to strategically lay down a roadmap where technology investments help their business’s sustenance of success amidst these uncertainties and pressures.”

The IT research firm has identified 10 strategic IT trends in store for 2024, a year that’s predicted to feature more tech-related spending.

Worldwide IT Spending To Hit $5.14 Trillion

Gartner is predicting worldwide IT spending to reach $5.14 trillion in 2024, up from $4.72 trillion this year. This would represent an annual growth rate of nearly 4 percent year over year.

The largest sales-generating tech markets in 2024 will be around IT services, software and communications services.

Gartner’s Chris Howard said executives must evaluate the impacts and benefits of strategic technology trends next year.

“Generative and other types of AI offer new opportunities and drive several trends. But deriving business value from the durable use of AI requires a disciplined approach to widespread adoption along with attention to the risks,” said Howard, distinguished vice president analyst and chief of research at Gartner in a statement.

Generative AI

Gartner says generative AI (GenAI) is becoming democratized by the convergence of massively pretrained models, cloud computing and open source, making these models accessible to workers worldwide.

By 2026, Gartner predicts that over 80 percent of enterprises will have used GenAI APIs and models and/or deployed GenAI-enabled applications in production environments, up from less than 5 percent in early 2023.

CRN breaks down Gartner’s top 10 technology trends its predicting for 2024.