“I’m more concerned about not being bold enough than about being too cautious.” – that’s how McKinsey, quoting an anonymous CEO, decided to summarize its publication “The CIO agenda for the next 12 months: Six make-or-break priorities”. After conversations with dozens of CIOs and CEOs, McKinsey concluded that enterprise-level companies are looking for technology to be a dynamic force in their business. To successfully carry out digital acceleration in 2024, executives need to factor in knowledge from top experts and considering important trends related to enterprise software development. Here are some key factors to keep in mind.
Digital Immune Systems will improve customer experience
Gartner named Digital Immune Systems (DIS) the Top Strategic Technology Trend of 2023. As Gartner’s experts explain, a Digital Immune System combines practices and technologies for software design, development, operations and analytics to mitigate business risks. A DIS is a set of technologies and best practices ranging from software development, product design to automation and business analytics, holistically working together to reduce system failures that impact business performance and deliver the best possible user experience (UX) along the way.
“Enterprises face unprecedented challenges in ensuring resilient operating environments, accelerated digital delivery and the reliable end-user experience,” expresses Joachim Herschmann, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. “The business expects to have the ability to react to market changes quickly and innovate at a fast rate.” A Digital Immune System can help enterprises recover more quickly from failures by strengthening their resilience Research shows that by 2025, companies investing in building digital immunity will improve customer satisfaction by reducing downtime by 80%.
Almost half of the respondents (48%) in a Gartner survey said that improving customer experience (CX) was the primary objective of digital investments. As long as DIS is in place, CX will not be compromised by defects, system failures, or irregularities, such as software bugs or security threats. In the process, DIS provides enterprises and IT stakeholders with significant business value.
What is necessary to establish a healthy Digital Immune System?
Gartner mentions six practices and technologies crucial for establishing DIS in enterprises:
Observability – building solutions with embedded analytics tools needed to provide the necessary data about a system and its users,
AI-augmented testing – making testing, maintenance and analysis fully automated,
Chaos engineering – using experimental testing to find exploits and vulnerabilities in a system,
Auto–remediation – developing a system capable of self-monitoring and self-correcting, if necessary, by detecting and fixing issues,
Site reliability engineering (SRE) – setting up engineering principles and techniques to enhance CX by controlling service management,
Software supply chain security – handling the risk of software supply chain attacks by implementing control policies, protecting code integrity and enforcing trusted repositories.
Making a Digital Immune System a part of a company is directly connected to implementing solutions that ensure you can keep complex digital systems running even when they are compromised. Artificial Intelligence can be a helpful ally in this endeavor.
In 2024, tech executives and companies should be aware of the additional trend of eco-friendly development. It is important to implement sustainable software development practices and the use of green technologies to reduce environmental impact.
Read more: What is enterprise app development?
AI in enterprises – what leaders need to remember
In the fifth edition of its ”Annual State of AI in the Enterprise” report, Deloitte indicates that companies need to realize the value of artificial intelligence and unleash its potential to drive new opportunities for businesses, employees and society. To give even more context and perspective – 94% of business leaders surveyed agree that AI is critical to success over the next five years. Furthermore, it’s worth noting that 79% of leaders surveyed by Deloitte conveyed full-scale deployment for three or more types of AI applications – up from 62% last year.
Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done, as an enterprise embarking on an AI-fueled odyssey must be ready to face challenges like choosing the right AI technology and integrating it with different internal systems. Additionally, ensuring executive-level commitment, providing real business value instead of generating noise and truly integrating AI into organization’s culture and workflow are essential.
As artificial intelligence is entering a new era in enterprises, the “Annual State of AI in the Enterprise” recommends four actions leaders in every organization willing to implement AI efforts should consider.
Investing in culture and leadership – managers should do more to channel the optimism surrounding the culture change in the current workforce and accelerate business strategies with AI.
Transforming operations – everyday enterprise operations need to be rethought to create and deploy AI ethically at a large scale.
Orchestrating tech and talent – AI strategies should be based on an organization’s available human or pre-packaged skills.
Selecting use cases that can help accelerate value – when choosing use cases to advance your company’s AI journey, focus on the value drivers for your business, as reflected by your sector’s trends and customers’ expectations.
AI kickstarted a business revolution in 2024
The past 12 months have seen significant changes in the field of AI, with generative AI being implemented across all industries. According to a recent survey by Gartner, generative artificial intelligence is the primary type of AI solution being deployed in organizations.
“GenAI is acting as a catalyst for the expansion of AI in the enterprise,” said Leinar Ramos, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. “This creates a window of opportunity for AI leaders, but also a test on whether they will be able to capitalize on this moment and deliver value at scale.”
What challenges are companies facing? A survey found that 49% of participants consider estimating and proving the value of AI projects as the main obstacle to AI adoption. This issue is more significant than talent shortages, technical difficulties, data-related problems, lack of business alignment, and trust in AI, highlighting its critical nature.
What can be done to solve that roadblock? “Organizations who are struggling to derive business value from AI can learn from mature AI organizations,” said Ramos. “These are organizations that are applying AI more widely across different business units and processes, deploying many more use cases that stay longer in production.”
Intelligent enterprises are looking to expand their talent pools
Forbes named The 5 Biggest Business Trends for 2023, one of which, called “The talent challenge,” is directly related to hiring. New ways to approach work, like remote or hybrid working, and upcoming VR platforms, are pivoting workplaces, and enabling new solutions and ways to cooperate in the process. In-house teams working solely in an office is a relic of the past – as Forbes believes 2023 will be the birth of a new era of “intelligent enterprises”.” What’s behind this term? It describes organizations able to combine innovative ways of remote work and cooperation, while still achieving every set of Key Performance Indicators. 
However, the virtue of being an “intelligent enterprise” is not enough when facing a talent challenge. The last two years have forced top companies to modify their approach to employees by providing them with flexible working hours, new opportunities and the ability to grow and learn. Monolithic enterprise company culture, intact for years, if not decades, is undergoing a shift to resolve talent shortages.
Fueled by digital transformations, workplace culture change will directly influence enterprise software solutions development. Redesigning existing architectures and implementing agile, more efficient solutions will be a vast undertaking. Developing custom enterprise software without an external software partner with industry-specific experience and a mindset compatible with an intelligent company could be either impossible or, at best, too resource intensive.
Innovations in enterprises require the right tech and people
According to Gartner’s latest forecast, worldwide IT spending is projected to reach $5.06 trillion in 2024, an 8% increase from 2023. This growth rate is higher than the previously forecasted 6.8%, indicating that worldwide IT spending is on track to exceed $8 trillion well before the end of the decade.
Teaming up with an experienced and skilled software partner is the fastest way to accelerate your business needs. If you want to learn more about this kind of cooperation, or discuss your situation, use the contact button below – our experts are happy to help you find the best solutions.
About the authorJacek Szmatka
Head of Life Sciences
An open-minded leader with over 20 years’ experience in the IT world, Jacek’s career has seen him evolve from a computer science graduate to software engineer to a co-founder and CTO of a tech start-up. Before joining Software Mind, Jacek was part of a team that developed a bioinformatics company and served as an executive board member. In his current role as Head of Life Sciences, Jacek helps leading life sciences companies design and build innovative solutions. A true believer in the transformative power technology can have on our lives, Jacek maintains a keen interest in R & D, in particular with solutions that involve AI, IoT, life science and cloud technologies.
