Six Technology Trends for 2024

It’s the start of a new year, and with artificial intelligence (AI) having wowed the world throughout 2023, we’re thinking about the tech trends that are likely to play out in the new year. 

Here’s six that we think are set to make waves. AI is still here, but as you can see, it’s going to new places, and we don’t think it will be the only tech game in town.

Quantum Computing Will Arrive

If 2023 was the year of AI, 2024 may well be the year of quantum. Like AI, quantum computing technology has been quietly progressing away from the spotlight for decades, but recent advances mean that the technology — which has the potential to vastly improve the performance capacity of computers — may be on the verge of entering the commercial mainstream.

In December, IBM announced that “We’ve entered a new era of quantum computing”, as it announced hardware and software advances that bring quantum utility within touching distance. Finnish scaleup Algorithmiq recently executed one of the world’s largest error mitigation experiments using IBM’s hardware to date. 

This cutting-edge field of computing research is being driven by innovative research on both sides of the pond. For example, full-stack (software and hardware) quantum research house Quantinuum has headquarters in Cambridge, UK as well as Broomfield, Colorado.

AI Will Go Mobile

None of that is to say that AI will be standing still this year. Expect the pace of change to, if anything, accelerate on from the year that saw generative AI programs like Chat-GPT and Midjourney become household names.

One major development we can expect this year is for AI to really put the “smart” into smartphones. The teaser for Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event in January promises that “Galaxy AI is coming”, with its next generation of smartphones set to be powered by AI. 

Bloomberg regards this as a potential watershed moment, which could end the era of features like camera technology being the differentiating factors between smartphone models. In this new age, it will be smartphones’ AI capabilities that bring the crowds out in force for new releases.

We’ll See More EVs

The electric vehicle (EV) transition will continue and evolve this year. Research from the Rocky Mountain Institute suggests that this could be the year in which EVs reach price parity with their internal combustion engine (ICE) counterparts, which will drive demand for new electric cars still further.

The industry itself is evolving. Tesla, long the dominant incumbent, lost its top spot in EV sales to Chinese rival BYD in the final quarter of 2023. BYD’s reach is lengthening, and the company’s cars could soon be a more common sight in Europe as it eyes a major factory in Hungary.

Tesla’s wheels are still turning, though. The long-awaited Cyber Truck launched in November, and while it’s unlikely to reach the UK or EU during 2024, they’ll start hitting American roads as fast as Tesla can churn them out.

We’ll Get More Cyber Savvy

Research from security awareness platform SoSafe suggests that half of all businesses have been the victim of a successful cyber attack in the past three years. Forbes research expects the global cost of these attacks to exceed $10trn by 2025. 

Consumers will naturally evolve and improve their security behaviours as attackers develop their approaches — and AI will help both sides in this ongoing conflict. While the outcomes are hard to predict, one thing that’s certain is that savvy businesses will continue to increase the amount they spend on cyber security staff and software.

The Metaverse Will Keep Expanding

Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses launched at the end of September, and could (like Samsung’s Galaxy AI) mark a watershed moment for the metaverse. In one product, the metaverse takes a step out of the world of home offices and cumbersome headsets, and into the everyday world.

They are also notable for the amount of AI technology they incorporate. Cynics of the metaverse’s potential once pointed to Mark Zuckerberg’s apparent pivot away from metaverse technology into AI as a death knell for the digital world he rebranded his company to create. Smart glasses, however — into which Meta’s conversational assistant, Meta AI, is integrated — demonstrate conclusively that it’s not either/or, and that Meta can build AI and the metaverse simultaneously.

And this is only at the most artificial end of the metaverse spectrum. Forbes highlights “phygital convergence” as a trend to watch in 2024, observing that “the real and the digital are becoming increasingly intertwined”. Innovations such as digital twins are set to continue breaking down the barriers between the “real” and the “digital”, and improve research into fields from smart cities to genomic healthcare along the way.

We’ll Get Healthier

Fitness apps have been on the up for years, and 2024 is unlikely to be any exception. Tech firms have already made a statement of their intent: two of the top gadgets unveiled at CES this year, according to PopSci, were geared towards the health and wellness market. 

One of these — the BeamO from Withings — is a little gadget that can monitor four vital health signs, allowing owners to perform “a complete health checkup in just one minute” without leaving their house. The data, including body temperature, digital stethoscope, ECG and blood oxygen levels, can then be securely shared with users’ doctors.

Garmin has also launched the HRM-Fit, a heart rate monitor specifically designed for women, which clips onto the underside of a sports bra. The HRM-Fit monitors heart rate, steps, calories and intensity minutes, and syncs the data with compatible devices, all while offering superior levels of comfort. 

Elsewhere, Oho’s favourite fitness app Runna secured a £5m funding round in November, keeping them on track to help runners of all abilities reach their goals. With innovation and appetite for health and wellness tech staying the course, we’re confident that more people than ever before will be able to use tech to help them stick to their new year’s resolutions.

2024 promises to be another exciting year for all of technology’s greatest innovators! If you are hiring, or looking for work, in any of the fields we’ve covered here, send our team of specialists an email at: info@oho.co.uk (UK) or info@oho.us (US).