Can you believe it? It has been a whole year since the PxHub team made their predictions for the year 2023. As we enter another promising year, we felt it was only right to get the team together to not only review their previous predictions but also craft brand new ones for what lies ahead.
With the rapid pace at which technology is evolving and the dynamic shifts in various industries, it's crucial to stay ahead of the game. That's why we're excited to share with you our team's insightful reflections and renewed foresight on the significant trends and advancements that will shape our year ahead... and beyond!
Let's start with Rob, Director of People Science
I said it was going to be a tough year, but I was optimistic (even implying Putin would be defeated ☹). And it has been challenging, but there are signs of green shoots, barring another major new crisis, it will continue to. It’s clear that volatility and uncertainty is here to stay, though, and financial wellbeing will remain a key issue.
In 2023 the debate has raged about hybrid working, and will continue to in 2024. I do believe that there are many benefits to spending more time in the office, and the big challenge is to encourage and facilitate this behaviour change rather than dictating attendance.
AI has been bigger than I thought it would be, in its overall impact on society including HR, especially with the explosion caused by ChatGPT. In 2024 AI will continue to grab the headlines, though I think it’s sibling Data Science probably has more immediate value to offer as our own research suggests that there is a need for many organisations to make the move from measurement to insight. But will they?
Naomi, Head of Sales and Marketing
As awareness of women's health issues continues to grow, I predict women's health will take centre stage in businesses' employee strategies in 2024. With more conversations happening around menopause, fertility and menstrual cycles, I think businesses are likely to prioritise initiatives that support women's health, such as providing education, access to healthcare, and implementing policies that address the unique needs of women in the workplace
Luigi, Head of Data and Analytics
Last year I spoke about how the use of technology was helping to shape the argument between remote and return to the office models (and everything in between).
Although it is not clear who has won the argument, (some would say return to the office will never be what it once was, others say remote forever is dead).
It is interesting to see how technology is helping to shape this moment. On the one hand companies such as Zoom, who were successful during the "remote" years, are asking people to people who live near offices to come back to the office in a structured hybrid model approach. Although it may not be connected, it is nice to see a company who didn't do as well, when Covid restrictions were lifted, finally doing better with its share price.
If you did not see the word "AI" written down in a news article this year! Then you didn't read the news! Another interesting use of tech, which may or may not affect the hybrid/remote conversation is the use AI at work. With tales of remote workers who have become super powered thanks to new AI tools, it's going to be interesting to see whether or not this has any effect on this discussion.
Talking about AI, I predict next year we will see a clearer winner(s) in the AI race, between, OpenAI (kind of Microsoft!), Gemini (Google), and whatever Amazon decide to come up with next.
It has been surprising to see a giant like Amazon caught behind the wave of innovation, when it comes to AI Large language models, especially when AWS platform has been used in the context of Machine Learning for quite some time.
Perhaps not making as much noise in the consumer channels as the brands previously mentioned, it will be interesting to see what Nvidia end up doing with their AI services next year, in collaboration with other companies, as they work towards an advanced AI platform linking all manner of software together, we might see true AI Agents replacing office workers(!).
Another darkhorse to watch out for in 2024 is Mistral, who have caught the unicorn start up world by storm, at just how quickly they have managed to deploy their (not-so-large) large language models, and their recent evaluation.
Another AI worth mentioning at this point is "Grok" which comes from X's Elon Musk, which at this point although is scoring decently on the benchmarks, seems to have been inspired a lot, by OpenAI, although the jury is out as to whether, this is a bias, based on what is found on the internet, or if employees from OpenAI have been jumping ship to join X.
Next year AI matures, normally technology takes years to develop, but the growth of AI has felt like a singularity. There is so much work being done now by regulatory bodies, 2024/25 will be an interesting landscape, especially when it comes to subjects such as copyrighted datasets, etc... some companies who have been developing their services on the back of other people's LLM's and fine-tuning them, might land themselves in hot water.
Okay one more thing about AI, if the coding and the software development has felt non-stop (especially with open-sourcing large language models), then 2024/25 there will be a focus on hardware, and how it can help supporting these new types of applications and algorithms.
Last one I promise, it is no secret Jack and me both want Apple Vision Pros, I am really interested to see if this beginning of a new era at Apple, or even the beginning of the end of Tim Cook's legacy.
One thing worth noting is that when the iPhone came out, it didn't do everything an iPhone does today, and even had some limitations to what phones could do (Bluetooth anyone?).
However, the Vision Pro, can already do so much, but is it really going to help you get faster, and more productive?
Jack, Full Stack Web Developer
Last year, I predicted battery technology would improve and a year later, not much has changed. However the effort to improve energy collection, storage and delivery is always being researched and new ideas are spawning all the time. An interesting video I watched demonstrated this can can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccO0_hSXMyM
As for my predictions in 2024, I predict the introduction of an authenticity validation model within the media we consume because of the advancements in Artificial Intelligence. AI is at the worst its ever going to be and it's pretty good at the moment when generating images, video, voice and much more.
At some point in time, it will be impossible to distinguish AI content from real content so I predict in 2024, whether it's additional tech to detect AI content, legislation or aliens helping, we will know what is AI generated for sure or not.
Nick, CEO
My prediction for 2024 is:
1. Retention and Attraction will remain the Number 1 focus for many people in HR
2. Employee Listening will become more important for strategy
3. Measuring the moments that matter will be key to creating a winning Employee Experience
All of this means that while HR is going to be as busy as they were in 2023, suppliers will need to play more of a partnering role.
Selling a pure tech employee listening platform will not cut it when it leaves the HR teams still doing the heavy lifting of analysis and action planning.
Understanding what is driving retention will be essential to remove the guesswork and help HR teams focus their efforts where it is needed, and tools like Px3™ will embed themselves into the strategy for HR leaders.
When you are busy, you need support and systems that help you go where the problem is and fix it, and this is where Measuring the Moments that Matter, Employee Journey Mapping and Automation will come in.
When it matters most, are we getting it right for our people? Enabling this approach will mean HR will be quick to resolve issues at the sharp end of the experience at work.
Organisations that want to deliver their Company Strategy will need to know what People Outcomes will best deliver this and we will see Employee Engagement Surveys evolve into even more strategic tools, and a move away from simply getting a score for Engagement.
Of course, the cynical will say that, I am predicting what we do will be the hot topic of 2024 – well, my response to that is – we built for the future and we built different.
Ted, Head of Business Development
1 - AI will be a bigger part of our lives (both from the content we consume and the work that we do)
2 - The hybrid debate will continue, more people will go back to the office for a variety of reasons
3 - We've seen the great resignation and quiet quitting, I suspect there is more of this come as more people face redundancy/financial challenges.
4 - There is a tension between employees demands for better experiences and high level economic challenges that will play out, probably leading to more people moving jobs (in the end highest payers will win out)
5 - Being kind will still be cool
Jemma, Client Sucess Manager
Since the pandemic, we’ve managed most of our client activity remotely and digitally, and that’s set to continue in 2024. I anticipate the need to offer a combination of self-service options and hands-on support. To achieve this, we are committed to investing in ongoing training and development for our team, ensuring they are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to deliver exceptional customer service.
Savannah, Marketing Executive
Last year, I predicted an increase in organisations and content creators embracing short-form videos to enhance their brand awareness and boost their social commerce. Throughout the year, we saw a significant increase in the popularity of sharing more likeliness of behind-the-scenes footage and creating authentic content in bite-sized formats, whether that's what a day in the office looks like or a list of our top 5 HR integrations. As a result, this shift towards more honest, relatable and informative content has played a pivotal role in driving the surge in social commerce demand.
In 2024 I predict interactive marketing strategies that integrate AR technology will become popularised, empowering brands to deliver a more immersive, personalised, and unique experience to customers allowing users to interact with products, services, or add their own brand to contents.
You got this far!
Thank you for reading!
You can find last years predictions here and more about what we do via our website here