IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, has released the 2024 Technology Megatrends report, now available for download. Developed by IEEE Future Directions, the report offers an in-depth analysis of the top three megatrends, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Digital Transformation, and Sustainability, evaluating their impact on humanity through technological advancement, maturity, time to adoption, and real-world market deployment.
“These forecasts are crucial for all stakeholders as technologies are such an integral part of daily life,” said IEEE Fellow Dejan Milojicic, IEEE Future Directions Committee (FDC), and HPE Fellow and VP at Hewlett Packard Labs. “Technology megatrends are deeply intertwined with economic, ecological, and social megatrends, and they need to be considered with holistic analysis to ensure societal benefits.”
High-level observations from the IEEE 2024 Technology Megatrends report:
- Artificial General Intelligence will continue accelerated growth in assisting humans at work and demanding ever-increasing sources of energy
- Sustainability of new datacenters with innovative energy sources will complement shifting workloads across geo-boundaries to increase decarbonization and water consumption
- Digital Transformation will embrace AR/VR to complement ensemble technologies with a focus on those that could or may be automated at scale
The emergence of these technology megatrends necessitates that industry leaders plan for inevitable shifts in talent needs. This includes delivering IT support with AI programming, overseeing sustainability while optimizing for multiple objectives, and managing operations with human-supervised automation. To achieve optimal business results, upskilling and reskilling valued employees is critical to future-proofing the global workforce.
Typically evolving over a timeframe of 20 years or more, a megatrend drives the progression of multiple factors of worldwide importance. The report reveals targeted recommendations for industry, government, academia, and professional organizations, as well as for investors, C-level executives, developers, and end users. For example, the report recognizes the importance of pursuing early regulation of technologies that may cause concern, and instituting processes and practices against misinformation. The report also highlights the importance of investing to advance the application of artificial intelligence sustainably and further identifies the need for education on technologies that reach deeply into society.
The IEEE 2024 Technology Megatrends report was developed by a diverse team of 54 global technology experts bringing perspectives from the Middle East, Australia, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States, and across a wide range of expertise from over 47 IEEE technical fields of interest.
“As a working engineer in the fast-moving world of Cloud and AI, I rely on information from diverse industries to drive innovation within my company,” said IEEE Senior Member Christine Miyachi, chair, IEEE FDC, and Senior Software Engineering Manager, Microsoft, Cloud+AI Division. “The Megatrends report delves into long-term trends that impact various facets of humanity, providing teams with inspiring ideas and the opportunity to create previously unexplored applications. We eagerly anticipate incorporating insights from this report into our next innovation cycle.”
“The IEEE Megatrends report provides insight into global trends encompassing multiple technologies. Seeing the connection between different technologies provides an interesting insight for future innovation,” added IEEE Senior Member Nita Patel, past-President of the IEEE Computer Society, and Vice President, Engineering at Otis. “As an engineering manager responsible for delivering impactful technology in a fast-moving, complex environment, I appreciate how the report connects technological, economic, social, and ecological factors affecting the type, pace, and areas of technological development.”
