Beyond AI, What Are The Biggest IT Challenges For 2024?

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As 2024 quickly approaches, artificial intelligence (especially generative AI) is at the top of the agenda for most companies. However, beyond AI, IT leaders are facing up to what they believe will be the biggest challenges they will encounter over the coming year and beyond. These challenges are driven by a potent combination of threats and indicators – the growing dangers of cybercrime and data theft, the escalating need to address climate change and ongoing global economic uncertainty.

A recent poll of my LinkedIn and Twitter audience put the question into perspective. Of the 961 respondents, cyber security and data privacy were top concerns for 70 percent of respondents. With the cost of cybercrime to businesses predicted to top $10 trillion by the end of the year, this comes as little surprise.

For 16 percent, however, the most pressing problems center around the need to provide infrastructure support for home and remote workers. At the same time, 14 percent said that solving issues relating to sustainability will be top of their agenda.

So here I will try to give an overview of each of these challenges, with some help from two of Intel’s leading technical and strategic minds – technical sales specialist Jimmy Wai and director of enterprise and government segment Jeff Kilford.

There is a clear message that while technology promises to create amazing opportunities over the next year, it also creates problems that can’t be ignored.

So let’s dive in, starting with what is for many a top priority:

Challenge 1: Cyber Crime and Data Privacy

If cybercrime was a country, it would have a GDP of $6 trillion, making it the third largest economy in the world after the USA and China. Adopting a proactive approach to this threat is now a necessity – aside from the huge financial burden, the loss of customer trust that results from a data theft or breach can destroy a company.

Wai tells me, “I think security will continue to be the top concern for a lot of IT organizations.

“I talk to customers every day, and it's certainly one of the subjects they keep bringing up.

"We will see a lot more AI usage in the enterprise environment, but how do you keep the data secure, and how do you deal with the privacy concerns? I think that will be the challenges that are coming up.”

It’s an area where AI is both a hindrance and a blessing. As algorithms get better at detecting and reacting to anomalous network traffic that signals a potential attack, they also become more useful and sophisticated as weapons in the hands of the bad guys.

To counter this threat, Intel adopts a 'Chip to Cloud' security approach that goes beyond just software-based security. Combining 13th-generation Intel Core processors with Intel's vPro platform, for example, creates a 70% attack surface reduction compared to previous models.

Features like accelerated memory scanning run security on the GPU, leaving the CPU free to avoid impacting workload performance.

It’s an example of a hardware-first approach that then enables subsequent layers – operating system, software, and user behaviors – to be built on firm foundations. Wei tells me that this helps provide added protection against today's threats, such as ransomware and cryptojacking.

During our conversation, we also covered the concept of the AI PC, which Intel expects to become a new computing standard in 2024. This means that AI workloads that would normally take place in the cloud can be completed on-device, which clearly has potential security and privacy benefits. These hard-wired security measures are part of a broader strategy of including in-hardware support for the emerging generation of AI-augmented software.

Challenge 2: Remote Work Infrastructure

The global trend towards home and remote working since 2020 has transformed the way businesses operate, as well as our expectations of our working lives. Though the WHO may have declared the COVID-19 pandemic to no longer be a global threat in 2023, it's projected that “hybrid working” – spending less time in a centralized office - will continue to grow to around 81% in 2024.

This creates numerous IT challenges as businesses attempt to cope with changing habits and their implications on infrastructure requirements. While they benefit from access to wider, globally diverse talent pools, new tools and processes are needed to manage hiring, training, team building, and remote collaborative working practices.

Kilford tells me that the emphasis on stability, performance and manageability built into the Intel vPro platform is specifically designed to support these emerging infrastructure paradigms.

He says, "From an IT perspective if they're going to have to leave somebody out in the world working remotely, you want the most stable and powerful platform out there.”

Intel vPro incorporates tools specifically designed to ensure the smooth operation of device fleets even when outside a company's premises, he says.

Of course, there are cultural changes that need to happen, too. These include emphasizing the value of output and results over hours sat at the keyboard, fostering a culture of honest, open and regular communication, and prioritizing employee well-being.

Challenge 3: Sustainability

Rather than a burden to be wearily shouldered, improving sustainability and reducing the environmental impact of IT operations is increasingly being recognized as a driver of growth and success. Here’s an example of why: Of the millions of tons of technology discarded every year, just 17.4% is reused or recycled. Improving this could have the effect of both reducing the environmental impact of toxic substances seeping into the Earth and lowering the cost to businesses of renewing their hardware.

Likewise, AI-powered energy management and cooling in data centers have the potential to reduce carbon emissions as well as lower energy costs for cloud service operators. By lowering what they charge their own customers, more businesses will be enticed to move their own operations to the cloud – where they will reduce their own emissions while benefiting from all the other advantages of cloud migration.

Customers themselves are increasingly making buying decisions based on a business’s sustainability credentials. This is something that has spurred Intel’s own transition to 100 percent renewable energy usage in the US and Israel and 93 percent usage worldwide, Kilford says.

In fact, he tells me, sustainability is cropping up frequently when companies go to tender for new device fleets. This is a trend that started in government but is now increasingly seen among enterprises.

He says, “We’re fiercely proud of the fact that we’re ranked the number two sustainable company in America at the moment by Barron’s – they have an extensive list of items that they look at in order to build out their tables. And we’re a multinational manufacturing company.”

Wei adds, “Among customers … in the middle of the meeting, I usually get a lot of questions about how green are your products and… what kind of things we can do to help customers to reduce their CO2 emissions and save energy as well.” Intel vPro strives to provide sustainability benefits during the whole product life cycle, from initial build to retirement.  

So, it seems that businesses that adopt sustainability into their IT strategies not only help save the world but also save money and attract new customers. Identifying ways that this approach can be tailored to the specific circumstances and opportunities of individual businesses will be a key challenge all IT leaders will have to face in 2024. For more on Intel vPro, check out: https://intel.ly/3MBiLIg

You can watch my full chat with Intel technical sales specialist Jimmy Wai and director of enterprise and government segment Jeff Kilford here:

About Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer and thought leader in the fields of business and technology, with a passion for using technology for the good of humanity. He is a best-selling and award-winning author of 22 books, writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations. He has over 2 million social media followers, 1.8 million newsletter subscribers and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world and the No 1 influencer in the UK.

Bernard’s latest books are ‘Business Trends in Practice: The 25+ Trends That Are Redefining Organisations’, ‘Future Skills: The 20 Skills and Competencies Everyone Needs To Succeed In A Digital World’ and ‘The Future Internet: How the Metaverse, Web 3.0, and Blockchain Will Transform Business and Society’.