2024 will be an exciting year for innovative technology, with artificial intelligence (AI) at the forefront. Those who have been in the tech sector for some time have long been aware of the potential of AI. As AI moves more into the public eye, companies and enterprises must quickly define the best approach to leverage these technologies while keeping an eye on cybersecurity. Factors such as IT data ownership will also become a topic of conversation throughout 2024. Here are some of my thoughts as we move forward into the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
#1: Learning AI Best Practices
Depending on the maturity and business use cases of your organization, AI tools can be used in a number of ways. In customer service, AI can be utilized to communicate with customers, provide troubleshooting advice and feedback. From a telco perspective, AI can assist in identifying promising new markets by ingesting large amounts of data about markets that have been previously successful. It can also help identify buying trends and what and how customers are buying, based on demographic data.
Some of the bigger risks involving AI are security and the quality of data. Double checking your data quality to make sure it is where it needs to be is vital for your organization to achieve optimal results. Companies should implement best practices to evaluate the data for accuracy, reliability, completeness, timeliness and other factors.
When using AI, understand the best use cases for your business to leverage the data AI offers to ensure it is aligned with your business approach. Then, dip your toe! If you don’t want to stifle innovation, take a structured approach.
#2: Make Cybersecurity and Security a Priority
Organizations across all industries should prioritize cybersecurity and security.
Cybersecurity to protect networks, devices, data and confidential information is a critical and fast-evolving field. This is mainly due to increased sophistication in cyber threats, ransomware, supply chain attacks and Internet of Things (IoT) vulnerabilities. Regulatory and compliance changes should be considered as well.
Security must also be top of mind both from a business and personal perspective. Monitor applications and infrastructure for vulnerabilities. Validate your firewall. Your organization must prioritize security applications, such as having a strong multifactor and SSO (single sign-on) onboard/off boarding policy. It’s really a soup-to-nuts approach to security. Having that diligence every single day is going to make the difference when you are inevitably attacked.
Telecom is like most other industries. We’re protecting our customers, and by extension we must protect ourselves. We must make sure our network is up to date and that we are continually monitoring our network redundancies. Providing the most secure experience for all of our customers is paramount.
Remember: security is more than cybersecurity. It’s IP and data ownership. If you use AI tools for your company’s data and you don’t have an enterprise version, you are putting your company data out in the world. IT data ownership will become really interesting in 2024. Who owns the IP utilizing AI? Do the AI platforms own everything they create? Who owns the data? Where does the data go once it’s ingested into the applications? These questions should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind.
#3: Data Quality is Key to Succeed in a Digital Landscape
If you don’t have quality data, you will not achieve the output you’re looking for from an AI platform. Data quality is fundamental. You can’t utilize strong digital platforms, let alone AI, if you don’t have a good handle on your data.
From our perspective, that means clean inventory and customer data. Make sure you can run models utilizing your data, so you know what your systems of record are. Are those documented? Do you have a good data transition integration layer so you can move data in real time or close to your data lake or data warehouse and then feed into these models? These foundational layers are the key to leveraging the new digital technology.
#4: 5G evolution will be Big
From a telecom perspective, 5G will continue to be huge. Every day, our customers expect their data at their fingertips, along with security and privacy, zero latency, higher capacity and increased bandwidth. Thus, 5G is what they want.
The benefits of 5G depend on strong, secure robust networks. We must explore ways to offer the capabilities of 5G networks through the telecom services that connect the mobile network. To accomplish this, we need to ask ourselves: how do we partner with hyperscalers and other large telcos to deliver the best 5G experience?
#5: Provide Learning to Innovate
How well does your team understand AI technology? How can you help your team learn new platforms that are evolving daily? How can you stay on top of what’s happening technology-wise and make sure your team has the skillset to manage the new technology platforms while keeping customers, employees and the company secure?
I believe that getting your hands on the keyboard helps you best learn the new technology. And once you understand the technology, it becomes the experience and understanding how you can leverage the technology day-to-day. On the job training works!
#6: Final Thoughts
For me, professionally, as a CIO, and personally, my theme for 2024 is innovation and continual improvement.
There are numerous digital strategies we’re working on, and AI will be a part of that innovation. AI has advanced tremendously and will continue to evolve. Yet continual improvement overall is just as important. What is happening in your existing structure? How do you continue to make improvements with what you already have and not simply jump in for that new shiny thing that may not last? From my perspective, it is imperative not to automatically react but to take a measured approach on how to best leverage any new technology.
