Generative AI, conversational AI named as Forrester’s top emerging tech

Generative AI and conversational AI have been named as Forrester’s top 10 emerging technologies for 2023.

In Forrester’s, Top 10 Emerging Technologies In 2023 report, it said generative AI will begin to deliver “significant” return on investment for most enterprises in the next two to four years.

To fully benefit from generative AI’s applications, firms will need to navigate its risks, including trustworthiness, evolving regulations, and potential intellectual property complications, the report noted.

Despite these risks, generative AI remains a top emerging technology to invest in due to its breadth of impact and ability to accelerate many other top emerging technologies, including autonomous workplace assistants (AWAs) and conversational AI.

Brian Hopkins, Forrester VP, emerging technology portfolio at Forrester said while many emerging technologies show great promise, it is imperative for tech leaders to assess whether these technologies can deliver value and if their business can navigate their associated risks.

“This means side-stepping misinformation, mitigating poor decisions driven by a fear of missing out, and narrowing focus from the shiny objects down to the few technologies that have real potential,” he said.

“Firms must also ensure that their time frame for implementing these technologies is commensurate with their overall risk/reward tolerance.”

Conversational AI, enabled by generative AI, is the second top emerging technology that will deliver the fastest ROI, the Forrester report noted.

E-commerce, B2B sales, and customer service functions will see the biggest impacts from conversational AI. AWAs will also deliver near-term benefits for most firms, as they are poised today to take over increasingly complex but repetitive human tasks.

According to Forrester, additional emerging technologies that will offer significant benefits for firms in two to four years include decentralised digital identity, edge intelligence, explainable AI and turingbots.

Turingbots are AI-powered software robots that help developers build applications. In two to four years, a substantial part of enterprise applications could be generated by this technology, Forrester explained.

Some emerging technologies that will take at least five years to deliver tangible value for enterprises include extended reality, Web3 and zero trust edge.

Zero trust edge embeds Zero Trust security principles into software-defined networks that are deployed to offices and physical spaces but controlled centrally via the cloud.

The improved security and performance promised by these tools will take more time as security and networking vendor offerings merge and mature.