Distilling actionable insight from Gartner's Top Strategic Tech Trends for 2023

As expected from Gartner, the Top Strategic Technology Trends 2023 Ebook is full of useful info and not just for enterprises. In this article I’m going to focus on insights from the “Maximise value from data” business goal. The other five business goals discussed are also interesting and certainly worth taking the time to read. I also focus only on those strategic areas that Gartner discusses as something you should be looking at planning for between now and two years time. I’ll cover the longer view of 2+ years in another article.

AI Trust, Risk and Security Management

Referred to by the more visually digestible moniker of AI TRiSM, Gartner makes a strong case for including optimisation of any AI-driven processeses in your strategy in order to “...ensure model reliability, trustworthiness, security and privacy.” The weighted importance of these factors will vary between organisations but the emphasis is on ensuring that your strategy incorporates activities to build trust in the organisation’s use of AI. Four key enabling pillars described in the report are:

• Explainability

• Model Ops

• Security

• Privacy

Several Key Actions are suggested to build maturity in these areas within your organisation.

• Set up a dedicated task-force or AI TRiSM unit

• Educate about the business benefits of optimising these capabilities rather than selling it as a compliance task

• Gain automated security and privacy benefits by increasing your Model Ops maturity - automate as many of the validity, fairness and integrity checks as possible

In terms of Model Ops, Google Cloud’s Vertex AI service provides the ability to automate many checks to ensure you are building maturity in all areas including model explainability. You should also be sure not to neglect fundamental checks on data access control - again Google Cloud’s Dataplex service offers a lot of automated ongoing visibility here.

Wireless-Value Realisation

This was a new term to me! It’s all about applying innovative use of wireless connectivity in your domain; be that warehouse, factory, office or retail premises, for example. The report gives an example of Bosch-Siemens using ultrasonic sensors to slow down forklifts in real time. What Gartner is getting at here is that there will be all sorts of developments in data collection/processing available even closer to your physical business. And, in order to exploit those opportunities, your strategy needs to include plans to invest in advanced wireless infrastructure and/or edge-computing applications.

Suggested key actions include:

• Start identifying the right technologies and vendors who enhance network capabilities relevant to your business

• Educate and collaborate with business leaders to explore current problems that might be solved with innovative location and sensing applications

• Ensure interoperability of components in the stack to provide a strong foundation

I think this is a great wake-up call for those of us who focus a lot on integrating and maximising value from line-of-business systems. It can be easy to forget we have invaluable skills that can be applied to problems and opportunities in the organisation’s domain - not just the data that is routinely collected. I personally find that a really exciting prospect and hear a Call To Action to get away from my desk and visit the front-line more often!

Summary

We’ve covered less than 10% of the content of the report here - it certainly is worth a read in its entirety if you get a chance. However, the points discussed here are the most pertinent to anyone responsible for the Data Strategy and provide pretty interesting food for thought to get started!