From industry-shaping advancements to new AI-powered products, 2024 marked a turning point for generative AI
December 26, 2024
To say 2024 was a pivotal year for generative AI would be an understatement. As it continues to evolve, generative AI is expected to drastically shape industries. A global survey of technology leaders ranked it as the most important technology for 2025.
The challenge remains for business leaders to embrace AI and for the AI workforce to upskill to keep up with advancements.
For a deeper look at how generative AI made great advancements in 2024, from Nvidia to Apple and everything in between, here are the AI Business top 10 generative AI stories of the year.
1. Gartner Predicts 80% of AI Workforce Will Need Upskilling by 2027
Generative AI will spawn new roles in software engineering and operations through 2027 that will require 80% of the workforce to upskill, according to a Gartner report.
Essential upskilling includes retrieval augmented generation (RAG) skills, which is a technique for enhancing the accuracy and reliability of generative AI models. As well as developing a range of highly skilled AI engineers who can meet the rapidly increasing demand for AI-empowered software.
Discover more from Gartner’s report >>>
2. Top Predictions for 2025 and Beyond: Gartner
The top strategic predictions for 2025 and beyond, which include advances in AI usage and with potentially business-shaking impacts, were detailed by Gartner at its annual IT Symposium/Xpo in Orlando.
Based on the predictions, technology leaders could face significant new challenges due to the growing impact of artificial intelligence.
“It is clear that no matter where we go, we cannot avoid the impact of AI,” said Daryl Plumer, distinguished vice president analyst, chief of research at Gartner. “AI is evolving as human use of AI evolves. Before we reach the point where humans can no longer keep up, we must embrace how much better AI can make us.”
Read more about Gartner’s 2025 predictions >>>
3. AI Tops List of Most Important Technologies of 2025
AI, including predictive and generative AI, machine learning and natural language processing, has been ranked as likely to be the most important technology of 2025 in a global survey of technologists.
The study by IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization, surveyed 355 technology leaders, including CIOs, CTOs and IT directors, in Brazil, China, India, the U.K. and U.S.
When asked to select the top three areas of technology that will be most important in 2025 from more than a dozen areas, respondents overwhelmingly ranked AI first (58%) marking the second consecutive year they have done so.
Learn more from the survey >>>
4. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Discusses Leadership, Future of Generative AI
Wearing his trademark black leather jacket, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivered a highly anticipated keynote at Gartner’s IT Symposium/Xpo where he talked about a range of leadership topics.
Nvidia has experienced meteoric success with its graphics processing units (GPUs). Once thought of mainly as a processor to handle graphics intense workloads, like video games, it turned out that the high-performance units were also efficient tools for large language models (LLMs). The near overnight success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT after launching two years ago created an arms race for companies to build GenAI platforms. Nvidia has profited well from that race, launching it to the top of the world’s most valuable companies.
Read more about the future of generative AI >>>
5. Apple Launches First Set of AI Features for iPhone, iPad, Mac
A month and a half after announcing it was bringing artificial intelligence to its product line, Apple announced the rollout of the first set of Apple Intelligence features for iPhone, iPad and Mac users.
The company’s Apple Intelligence powers the new models with an “easy-to-use personal intelligence system that understands personal context to deliver intelligence that is helpful and relevant while protecting user privacy,” according to an Apple statement.
iPhone, iPad and Mac users can access the Apple Intelligence features through a free software update with the release of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1.
Read all about Apple’s new intelligence features >>>
6. Is AI the Answer to Achieving the 4-Day Week?
There is a suggestion that artificial intelligence (AI) could be the factor that makes the long-desired four-day workweek a reality.
Numerous indications and trends are pointing in this direction. On social media, there is the Lazy Girls’ Jobs phenomenon, which started as a version of “quiet quitting” but is now much more about the smart use of technology to automate tasks and optimize time at work.
The inventor of the phenomenon, Gen Z “anti-work girlboss” Tik Tocker Gabrielle Judge, is advising her 200,000 followers to explore AI's potential. She said: “Thanks to the rise of AI and augmented reality (AR), your full-time job will look completely different; this will cause a revolution in how we view the full-time career.” Last year, JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon confidently predicted the next generation of workers will work not just a four-day, but a 3.5-day work week. Bill Gates thinks it can get to three and billionaire hedge fund owner Steve Cohen agrees.
7. Adobe Launches New Generative AI Video Tools
Adobe has announced new generative AI video capabilities and other creative tools powered by its Firefly generative AI models during its annual Adobe MAX 2024 conference held in Miami Beach.
8. OpenAI Recruits Microsoft VP in Intensifying AI Talent Battle
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, recruited Microsoft's vice president of generative AI research Sebastien Bubeck.
The move, announced by Microsoft, underscores the growing competition among tech giants for top talent as the AI race accelerates.
“Sebastien has decided to leave Microsoft to further his work toward developing artificial general intelligence (AGI). We appreciate the contributions Sebastien has made to Microsoft and look forward to continuing our relationship through his work with OpenAI,” Microsoft said in a statement.
9. AI Deployed in Health Care for Drug Discovery, Data and Imaging
Digital health agents are being increasingly adopted in the U.S. health care system to leverage AI for various applications, including drug discovery, data extraction and 3D CT image organization, according to Nvidia
The company’s NIM cloud-native microservices is being used to facilitate this AI model deployment, it said.
NIM is a set of optimized cloud-native microservices designed to shorten time-to-market and simplify deployment of generative AI models.
Find out more about digital health agents >>>
10. Generative AI Video for Self-Driving Development Upgraded
California-based start-up Helm.ai released an updated version of its VidGen generative AI model for autonomous driving.
VidGen-2 follows the launch of VidGen-1 earlier in the year, and as with the original, produces highly realistic driving video sequences.
The updated VidGen-2 offers double the resolution (696 x 696) of its predecessor, with improved realism at up to 30 frames a second, and multi-camera support.
Videos can be generated without an input prompt or from a single image or input video, and the step up in quality delivers smoother, more detailed simulations.
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