Jennifer Guhl|Contributing Writer
Source: consumergoods.com, August 2023

In news that’s likely surprising to no one, generative AI has reached the peak of inflated expectations.

Gartner positioned the technology atop its annual Hype Cycle for Emerging Technology, noting that it’s creating increased opportunities for innovation and is projected to reach transformational benefit in the next two to five years.

“While all eyes are on AI right now, CIOs and CTOs must also turn their attention to other emerging technologies with transformational potential,” said Melissa Davis, VP analyst at Gartner, in a statement. “This includes technologies that are enhancing developer experience, driving innovation through the pervasive cloud, and delivering human-centric security and privacy.”

The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies delivers insights from over 2,000 technologies and applied frameworks profiled by Gartner into a defined group of “must-know” emerging technologies that have the potential to transformational results over the next two to 10 years.

Indeed, consumer goods manufacturers are both eagerly and warily exploring generative AI in various use cases.

Mars reports that it’s using AI to help identify chronic kidney disease in dogs and cats, while Colgate-Palmolive is currently leveraging it to create effective internal e-learning and develop impactful marketing content. The latter is also piloting an AI assistant that’s linking digital shelf data with genAI’s content creation capabilities.

Coca-Cola, an early mover in this front, has tapped OpenAI’s generative AI technology to develop marketing and consumer experiences.

“As the technologies in this Hype Cycle are still at an early stage, there is significant uncertainty about how they will evolve,” added Davis. “Such embryonic technologies present greater risks for deployment, but potentially greater benefits for early adopters.” 

Gartner identified four themes of emerging technology trends, including:

  • Emergent AI: Additional AI techniques provide substantial potential for enhancing digital customer experiences, including AI simulation federated machine learning, casual AI, graph data science, neuro-symbolic AI, and reinforcement learning.
  • Developer Experience (DevX): Critical for enterprises’ digital initiative success, DevX encompasses all interactions between developers and the tools, processes, platforms, and people they work with to create software services and products. Key technologies include API-centric SaaS, AI-augmented software engineering, GitOps, internal developer portals, open-source program office, and value stream management platforms.
  • Pervasive Cloud: Cloud computing has adapted, becoming more distributed with the ability to focus on vertical industries, and will be a strong driver of business innovation over the next ten years. Key technologies include augmented FinOps, cloud development environments, cloud sustainability, cloud-native, cloud-out to edge, industry cloud platforms, and WebAssembly (Wasm).
  • Human-Centric Security and Privacy: Human-centric security and privacy programs integrate security and privacy into the digital design of an organization, helping to develop a culture of mutual trust and awareness of shared risks amongst organizational teams. Key technologies include AI TRISM, cybersecurity mesh architecture, generative cybersecurity AI, homomorphic encryption, and postquantum cryptography.

Garner also recently signaled the mass availability of generative AI, including ChatCPT and Google Bard, as a top concern for enterprise risk executives in the second quarter of 2023, reflecting the usage of generative AI tools and rapid growth of public awareness, increasing their potential risk.