Recently, Capgemini presented the TechnoVision Tech Trends 2024, key technologies that will reach a new level of maturity in the coming year. Generative AI has had a decisive impact on the technology landscape and will remain at the center of public discussion in the next year. However, other technologies will also have a major impact on the progress of society and the economy in 2024.

This includes quantum computing in the context of cybersecurity and semiconductor and battery technologies. In addition, space technologies are moving into focus to monitor climate risks and environmental disasters and enable better access to telecommunications.

The transformative power of technology has become clearer than ever in recent months. Generative AI is the best example of this, but by no means the only one. In addition to generative AI, according to Capgemini experts, we will be particularly focusing on new developments in the fields of semiconductors, post-quantum cryptography, battery technologies and space exploration in 2024. These technologies can make a major contribution to tackling the most pressing challenges for our economy, society and environment.

The five most important technology trends for 2024:

1. Generative AI: Small models make a big impact

Generative AI made a spectacular entrance at the end of 2022 and in 2023 and raised high expectations about its effect on businesses. Will generative AI live up to the huge hype it has caused in the coming year? The short answer is yes. Large language models will continue to flourish. At the same time, the need for smaller, more cost-efficient models will grow. They will become even smaller and can also be run with limited processing capacity, such as on smaller enterprise architectures.

In 2024, new AI platforms will also increasingly combat so-called hallucinations by combining generative AI models with high-quality information from knowledge graphs. To support all these developments, platforms will emerge with which companies can use generative AI tools without deep technical knowledge. In the long run, this will create interconnected model networks for specific tasks and generative multi-agent ecosystems.

This trend points to a development towards a more accessible, versatile and cost-effective technology. For companies, this means that they can scale up applications for generative AI faster and at the same time derive a greater long-term benefit from the technology.

2. Quantum Technology: When Cyber Meets Qubits

Currently, a cyber arms race is taking place, in which advances in computing power must go hand in hand with digital defense mechanisms. For example, AI and machine learning (ML) are increasingly being used to detect threats. In addition, the zero-trust model could become a global standard. At the same time, a new threat is emerging: advances in quantum computing currently threaten current encryption standards such as RSA and ECC. This makes the development of quantum-resistant algorithms urgently necessary to ensure data protection and data security in the future.

In the USA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will publish the standard for the so-called post-quantum cryptography (PQC) – encryption algorithms that are intended to be resistant to quantum attacks – in 2024. The Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act stipulates that public and private organizations that supply the US government must switch to PQC within one year of the NIST standards being published. Not only in the USA, but worldwide, this could turn the basis of cybersecurity standards on its head. Therefore, this topic will inevitably be on the agenda in boardrooms in 2024.

3. Semiconductors: Moore’s Law is not dead, but it is changing

As the world’s most traded product (according to WTO