To properly prioritize sought-after competencies and prepare your workforce for the coming challenges and opportunities, a data-driven approach is needed.  

According to the third annual Coursera’s Job Skills Report, which stands as a valuable reference for developing innovative skill strategies, there are 8 key fastest-growing skills for 2024: 

• Leading Teams with Empathy  
• AI-Related Skills for Increased Productivity  
• Cybersecurity and Information Security  
• Business Skills & Digital Marketing as Core 
• Data Visualization for Faster Decision-Making  
• Cloud Computing  
• Audit and Compliance Skills  
• Customer Retention 

Top Job Skills Driving Innovation in 2024: Overview 

Here’s a quick summary of the fastest-growing job skills in business, technology, AI, data science, and cybersecurity for 2024: 

Fastest-Growing AI Skills  

Estimates at Bloomberg Intelligence show the market for AI solutions is set to grow to $1.3 trillion over the next decade, while job listing site Upwork reported a 1000% increase in the number of generative AI job posts made in the first half of 2023.  

Not surprised? So are we. Explore below the fastest-growing AI skills enabling learners to build ML models, facilitate automation, and more.  

Cloud Computing  

Gartner expects the global cloud computing market to have skyrocketed from $490.3 billion in 2022 to $591.8 billion in 2023.  

It presents an exciting opportunity for businesses and job seekers, with cloud computing jobs being some of the most in-demand roles in the tech industry.  

Cybersecurity  

With the critical need to protect against growing numbers of cyberattacks worldwide and the increasing capabilities of AI creating new security considerations, investment in cybersecurity skills will benefit employees and institutions alike in the year ahead.  

There’s an estimated shortfall of more than 3.4 million cybersecurity workers. That figure is likely to climb, with employment of information security analysts expected to grow 32% from 2022 to 2032 in the United States alone. 

Audit and Compliance Challenged by AI Regulations 

Only 37% of HR leaders, in-house counsel, and executives guide employees in using AI tools.   

Meanwhile, data privacy and security rank as the top concerns of Chief Intelligence Officers regarding AI.  

With generative AI transforming productivity, it will be crucial to develop the capability of employees to review and evaluate an organization’s compliance.  

Customer Success 

Customer success and relationship management skills are among the top ten fastest-growing business skills.   

According to McKinsey, unlocking new revenues from existing customers accounts for 80% of value creation in leading growth companies.  

So, there is a burning need for businesses to navigate customer retention and expand the value delivered to both current and potential customers. 

Leadership   

“Manager effectiveness” is ranked as the top priority for HR leaders—and employees are facing change fatigue, with willingness to support organizational change collapsing from 74% in 2016 to 43% in 2022.  

To effect change, the leaders of tomorrow will need to be agile, compassionate, and able to keep individuals and businesses aligned.  

Data-Literacy as a Baseline Expectation for Employers  

Today, only 11% of employees are confident in their ability to read, analyze, work with, and communicate with data—showcasing the vast need for upskilling and learning.  

Institutional leaders recognize the need to respond, with 85% of C-suite executives believing that being data-literate will be as vital in the future as the ability to use a computer is today.  

So, data visualization with the help of business intelligence software also joined the top of the fastest-growing skills.  

Digital Marketing   

The rapid growth of the global advertising and marketing industry, which is expected to rise to $1.5 trillion in 2030, illustrates the spurred demand for digital marketing skills. In the US alone, employment in digital marketing-related professions is projected to grow rapidly up to 2032.  

Meanwhile, shifting consumer behaviors—powering trends like increased social selling—with 76% of people making buying decisions on social media—call for upgraded skills from digital marketers.  

To adapt to a new paradigm, organizations should invest now in equipping learners with the skill sets to deliver modern marketing strategies. 

Your Workforce Check  

By addressing these questions, you may check if your organization has the right skills.  

Strategic Alignment:  

• Which job skills are most critical for achieving your business goals and strategic initiatives?  
• How do these skills differ across departments and levels within the organization?  
• Are there any skills gaps that could hinder our progress, and how can we address them?  

Talent Acquisition & Retention:  

• How can we attract and retain top talent who possess these critical skills?  
• What are our competitors doing regarding these skills, and how can we compete effectively?  
• How can we develop and upskill our workforce to meet these changing demands?  

Future-Proofing the Organization:  

• What emerging technologies and trends might impact the skillset we need in the future?  
• How can we invest in skills that will remain relevant and valuable in the long term?  
• What kind of culture and learning environment do we need to foster continuous skill development? 

How to Find and Hire Sought-After Specialists with Digital Mindsets in 2024 

While a business-driven digital mindset is critical for increasing competitive advantage, leaders need well-established best practices to find and onboard it or unlock it in current employees.  

Wherever you are on your digital journey, we’re ready to help. Our experts can support you with extracting your potential to transform, innovate, and grow by:    

• Delivering digital mindset—the only one that can help with innovation: technical expertise ensures your digital programs and processes are up to date and as efficient as can be.  
• Integrating top talents with your current team through the Remote In-Sourcing® model.  
• Forming the most efficient distributed teams through the just-right Team Formation methodology. 

With a digital mindset, you’ll ask the right questions, make smart decisions, and appreciate new possibilities for a digital future. Leaders who adopt advanced approaches will be able to develop their organization’s talent and prepare their company for successful and continued digital transformation. 

Feel free to connect with our experts to discuss your unique needs and what it really takes for your business to thrive in the age of data, algorithms, and AI.  

Summing Up  

All in all, companies looking to boost competitiveness in 2024 have a wealth of opportunities:  

• Make data-driven decisions while identifying priority skills.  
• Invest in upskilling and reskilling of your workforce. 
• Embrace automation and AI with qualified audit, cybersecurity, management, and marketing professionals on board. 
• Rely on a trusted technology partner to help you source and acquire sought-after specialists with Digital Mindsets. 

The post Futureproof Your Organization with Digital Minds: Top Job Skills Driving Innovation in 2024 appeared first on Intetics.

As we bid farewell to this remarkable year, it’s impossible to ignore the exhilarating journey of technological breakthroughs that have unfolded before us.

While AI certainly stole the spotlight, it wasn’t the sole hero of this tale. Generative AI models took center stage, captivating industry giants and innovative newcomers.   

However, the 2023 revolution extended far beyond just AI; Web3, AR/VR, and quantum computing emerged as catalysts, propelling generative AI into uncharted territories and promising an exciting future filled with endless possibilities.   

Join us on a journey through the top innovations of 2023, a year that redefined the IT industry and offered a glimpse into the tech-driven world of tomorrow tailored to your needs and interests. 

I. ChatGPT: Impacting Industries and Shaping the Workforce

ChatGPT, despite technically being launched in November 2022, became the standout narrative of 2023. The key breakthrough lay in ChatGPT’s ability to humanize technology. Unlike traditional search methods requiring specific phrases, ChatGPT responded to natural language.  

Now, it’s transforming industries, including software development, and raising questions about its impact on jobs as it takes over tasks once done by humans. 

Evolution and Advancements 

Over the past year, ChatGPT has learned to adapt to a range of user needs, from writing emails to enhancing resumes and even supporting the creation of businesses.  

At the start of 2023, there was only a free version with text-based responses available.  

Now, users can subscribe to ChatGPT Plus to access the latest version, ChatGPT-4. 

According to OpenAI, ChatGPT-4 has seen improvements in training on more data, generating fewer errors, and understanding nuanced instructions.  

A notable addition is its ability to “see, hear, and speak,” which allows subscribers to have voice conversations and share images for ChatGPT to process. For example, they can take a picture of a flower and ask about its type and care instructions. 

At the core of ChatGPT’s prowess are Large Language Models, and OpenAI’s GPT-4 served as the driving force. The LLM landscape expanded in 2023 and featured newcomers like Google’s Gemini LLM (empowering Bard, a ChatGPT competitor) and others, including Meta’s Llama 2 and Amazon’s Olympus. 

Google programmer Kenneth Goodman tested ChatGPT on examinations; it scored 70% on the US Medical Licensing Exam and a legal Bar Exam. It also did well on other tests—78% on a high school chemistry exam and reached the 40th percentile on the Law School Admission Test. 

The Use of ChatGPT in Software Development Tasks 

One key advantage of ChatGPT for developers is its ability to comprehend and execute precise coding instructions. Developers can articulate the purpose, parameters, and expected outcomes of their tasks in a conversational manner. They can also engage ChatGPT in a dialogue to explore various AI libraries and coding resources.  

Read also: ChatGPT for Software Developers: Better Code, Increased Productivity, and Premier Product Quality [With Examples of Prompts] 

ChatGPT as the Biggest Fear in Replacing the Workforce 

2023 was full of debates about work replacement. Can ChatGPT replace developers, for example? Not in the present moment, or at least not as of now.  

ChatGPT operates at the proficiency level of a skilled first-year programming student with a tendency towards idleness. The tool makes coding easier for programmers and saves time, especially for those with less experience; however, it can’t handle complex projects on its own now.  

However, the chatbot’s capabilities have exceeded expectations. According to Google, the search engine would consider hiring the bot as an entry-level coder based on its performance. Moreover, according to a recent study by Goldman Sachs, generative AI tools may impact around 300 million full-time jobs globally. 

Anu Madgavkar, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, emphasized seeing these tools as helpers for productivity, not total replacements. She also highlighted the need for a careful approach to using them. 

II. First AI Legislation in the US

The surge in popularity of ChatGPT was followed by concerns about AI’s impact on jobs, misinformation, and its potential intelligence, and this has led to regulatory efforts. In November 2023, President Biden issued an executive order introducing the first set of rules for AI systems in the United States.  

The regulations require rigorous testing for advanced AI products to prevent their misuse in biological or nuclear weapons. Also, to address fears of AI-generated deep fakes and disinformation, there are recommendations (though not requirements) for watermarks on AI-generated photos, videos, and audio. 

For now, these rules apply only to American companies. To overcome this, the US administration is urging other countries, both allies and adversaries, to adopt similar regulations. The European Union’s AI Act was finally agreed in December. 

III. New AI-Driven Marketing and Design: Midjourney, Genmo, and AI Podcasts

In 2023, AI-based text-to-image generators like Midjourney, Genmo, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion reached new levels of realism. This led to a wave of viral AI-generated photos, like a Midjourney-generated image of Pope Francis in a white puffer coat. What this showed to industry professionals and the public is that creating viral marketing campaigns could now be done with just a few prompts. 

There was also an interesting case of Coca-Cola collaborating with OpenAI and launching the Create Real Magic campaign, inviting consumers to create Coke-related artwork using generative AI. 

In the podcasting space, text-to-speech systems convert written content into natural-sounding audio. The first AI-generated podcast that gained traction took a unique approach — it used the cloned voice of popular podcaster Joe Rogan. The Joe Rogan AI Experience simulated conversations between AI Rogan and fake guests like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former President Donald Trump. 

Despite its AI nature, the episode garnered over half a million views on YouTube, with some listeners overlooking its artificial origin. It’s unclear, though, whether people’s initial interest was just because it was something new and different or a lasting attraction.

IV. Growth of AI Assistants

2023 was also the year of AI assistants. Microsoft is investing heavily in gen AI tools to transform how users engage with Windows PCs using the AI assistant. 

The idea is simple: with just one click on the taskbar, more than half a billion Windows 11 users can use Copilot for various tasks, like creative support in Microsoft 365, shopping advice on Edge, and meeting summaries on Teams. No third-party application or extension is needed. 

MIT Technology Review already reports that if you asked a group of computer science students or programmers if they used Copilot, many would raise their hands. According to Iansiti, a Keystone Strategy co-founder, professor at Harvard Business School, and one of the interviewees, Copilot and similar tools might add $1.5 trillion to the global economy by 2030. 

Though it’s a rough estimate, Iansiti thinks the actual impact could be even larger. On the one hand, companies could obtain more code for less money. On the other hand, they could expect more people to become coders because these tools make it easier to get into software development. 

For example, Intetics has adopted AI in its teams and uses it for tasks like development, testing, business analysis, UI/UX design, and management, including talent acquisition and talent management. This confirms the growing recognition of AI’s transformative impact on business functions. 

V. Interest and Practical Applications of Digital Twins

Digital twins, virtual replicas used to simulate real-world behavior, are proving invaluable and notably reduce time to market. McKinsey reports revenue increases of up to 10% through customer-focused digital twins. Daimler’s customer twins, that allow virtual “test drives,” are a perfect example of this. 

Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Truck are digitizing their entire automotive value chain, which sets the stage for the future of manufacturing. Their breakthrough solutions are set to enhance data flow, reduce costs, and boost operational agility. 

Several other developments were showcased at SPS 2023 by AWS Partners, including:  

• Bosch demonstrated an Integrated Asset Performance Management solution using AI/ML to prevent asset failures and reduce unplanned downtime. 
• Software AG can now help equipment manufacturers build digital twin platforms for connected machinery. These allow manufacturers to create precise digital representations of their asset fleets and incorporate real-time performance data. 

VI. Metaverse for Enterprises: A New Platform for Leads Generation, Sales & Marketing, Events, and HR

The metaverse is enhancing the ongoing trend of personalized user experiences driven by mobile internet. Consumers are expected to use the metaverse as an advanced virtual space to enrich their real-world experiences. 

In 2023, businesses became better at harnessing the potential of the metaverse as the preferred digital realm for consumer engagement. For example, TCS, a major IT service provider, is investing in its metaverse project, ThemaTICS, and aiming to create immersive experiences in areas like e-commerce and workplace training. Nike is doing Nikeland, a “micro metaverse” within the Roblox ecosystem. And there is more to come. 

Like any evolving trend, the move to the metaverse will unfold gradually and continually, without a clear start or end point for the metaverse era. 

VII. AR and VR Experiences: Apple Vision Pro

Generative AI amplifies the potential of AR and VR and leads to better products as a result. The game-changer this year was Apple’s headset. 

Apple’s Vision Pro headset was unveiled at the Worldwide Developer Conference after seven years of development. The project is described not as a mobile device but as a “spatial computer.” 

Despite its $3,500 price tag and limited initial audience, the Vision Pro is anticipated to open the door to a new level of mixed reality experiences. ZDNET’s Editor in Chief, Jason Hiner, left WWDC convinced that Apple’s breakthroughs would redefine the next decade. It became available for purchase on February 2, 2024, in the United States. A worldwide launch has yet to be scheduled.

VIII. Hyperautomation

The term Hyperautomation, referring to a methodical, business-centric strategy, was first coined by Gartner in 2020. So, it isn’t new. The key change from previous years to 2023 is that hyperautomation is speeding up. There is an increasing shift towards digital-first strategies, which is why IT teams are dealing with a surge in processes and data, and they need automation more than ever.  

Boris Krumrey, UiPath’s Global VP of Automation Innovations, highlighted in a recent talk with Technology Magazine that AI-powered automation is going through a big change with the introduction of generative AI. Krumrey believes that when generative AI collaborates with automation, it brings revolutionary benefits to businesses and ushers in a new era of efficiency and innovation. 

IX. Quantum Computing

McKinsey estimates that by 2030, there will be around 5,000 operational quantum computers. Despite their limited number, Quantum AI is believed to be one of the key reasons quantum computers stand out from the computers we use today. So, what happened in the field in 2023? 

IBM introduced the Heron processor at its Quantum Summit, and the product featured architecture designed to provide the highest performance and lowest error rates among all its quantum processors. Additionally, IBM presented the Quantum System Two, its first modular quantum computer, located in Yorktown Heights, New York. The system operates with three IBM Heron processors and control electronics. 

UC Berkeley, Harvard University, University of Cologne, University of Washington, Argonne National Laboratory, The University of Tokyo, Fundacion Ikerbasque, Qedma, Algorithmiq, and Q-CTRL all focus on the potential of large-scale quantum computing. This goes beyond solving problems native to quantum computing, as they’re also figuring out how to combine quantum and classical systems. 

Recent breakthroughs in AI have brought new energy and optimism to the tech industry, and some would even say they’re filling a void from previous years. 

Think about this: ChatGPT has over 100 million active users, and even C-suite executives personally leverage gen AI tools for work. Ignoring or dismissing gen AI as a passing trend is no longer an option.  

Extend your business opportunities with advanced solutions and stay tuned with Intetics, AI-First SoftDev Company. 

The post 2023: IT Revolution–Top Innovations That Redefined the Industry appeared first on Intetics.

It’s understandable to feel hesitant about overhauling your team structure. After all, who wants to go through the hassle of recruiting and onboarding again? Well, there’s a way around that: Remote In-Sourcing®. But more on that later! For now, let’s look at the advantages of hiring from other regions, as well as the most promising tech hotspots.

Why Should You Look to Other Regions to Find Developers.

There are many benefits to working with an offshore development team, including:

1. Cost savings: Offshore development teams are often much cheaper to work with than in-house teams or even local freelancers. You can hire teams from countries with lower costs of living; salaries will likewise become more affordable.
2. Access to a global talent pool: Don’t limit yourself to your own locale! By broadening your scope, you can find the best developers in the world, no matter where they are located.
3. Increased efficiency: To maximize this benefit, you can hire developers from multiple regions of the world. Upon doing so, you’ll have a workforce distributed across multiple time zones — if you strategize right, this can significantly reduce your product’s time to market.

Top Regions to Source Talent.

1. Eastern Europe.

Eastern European countries like Poland or Moldova are home to a large number of talented software developers and have become a popular destination for outsourcing in recent years. The region offers a number of advantages, including competitive pricing, a large pool of talent, and a good communication infrastructure.

What’s more, the tech landscape is rapidly growing — for instance, Poland has become a destination for outsourced business services; this sector has grown three times faster in Poland than in India.

There are also tax incentives in Eastern European countries that aim to attract IT employers and developers. Furthermore, Eastern Europe is home to some of the best tech universities in the world, including the Warsaw University of Technology and POLITEHNICA. These universities each produce 1,000-2,000 graduates per year, making the talent pool even wider.

2. Caucasus.

If you turn your gaze a little further Southeast, you’ll find another rapidly-developing tech region: the Caucasus. The countries therein (Georgia and Armenia, in particular) are viable sourcing candidates. While the Caucasus might not be as popular of an offshoring region as Eastern Europe, it is experiencing continuous, sustainable growth in the IT sector. For example, over the last fiscal year, Armenia managed to increase the YoY growth rate of ICT revenue from 2.8% to 7.4%.

Caucasus has a well-educated, English-proficient workforce, strong IT university programs, and solid government support for the IT sector. And yet, labor and operating costs are even lower than in Eastern Europe. 

Selecting a Team Model.

After you’ve determined which regions you want to source developers from, you’ll need to choose a team model. Distributed development is one of the most common methods of working with overseas developers, but it comes with its own challenges. Remote In-Sourcing® addresses those challenges and combines the benefits of in-house and offshore development.

Let’s take a look at both models. 

Distributed Teams Model.

If you follow this model, you’ll hire decentralized teams located across various regions — where those regions are is up to you. The teams will use collaborative technologies to plan, design, build, test, and manage software. This model is excellent for saving costs and improving efficiency, but you’ll have to scour the globe for top talent, which can be time-consuming.

Remote In-Sourcing® Model.

With this model, you’ll work with a vendor who handles all of the logistics and hiring. Unlike the distributed team model, you won’t have to deal with the hassle of recruiting developers, setting up workspaces, or maintaining operations. You’ll receive a dedicated remote team that integrates with your in-house team and is exclusively dedicated to your project — and you get to keep all of the intellectual property.   

Ready to Access a Global Talent Pool Without the Hassle of Recruitment?

If you want to unlock the cost savings, productivity, and flexibility of a distributed team — but without actually scouring the globe for talent — then Intetics’ proprietary Remote In-Sourcing® Model might be the right solution.  

Do you need extra resources to sustain a long-term project? Do you want to use global markets to your advantage? Do you need a quick turnaround time for team formation? If so, reach out to us, and we’ll get the ball rolling.

Related Materials:

1. How to Safely Migrate Your Software Projects to a Different Development Team
2. How To Transition to a Different Development Team Model

The post Best Regions to Source a Software Development Team. appeared first on Intetics.

This data was obtained through research by Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and American anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell.  

That’s all clear. But you may ask: how does this apply to my business?  

It’s all about the missed opportunity. Getting the correct meaning of the emotions of your clients or partners brings many benefits. Here emotion recognition technology also referred to as Affective Computing, comes in handy. 

Emotion recognition software powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning interprets human emotions from non-verbal visual data. By leveraging those unspoken reactions, businesses can better understand their customers. As a result, they can improve the customer experience and increase their profits.  

In the article, we will find out what emotion recognition is, how it works, and where one can use it. Let’s start! 

What Is Emotion AI? 

As a natural progression of facial recognition technology, emotion recognition is a field of computer vision that is gaining more and more attention in mass media. It involves facial emotion detection and the automatic assessment of sentiment from body language, voice patterns, gestures, facial expressions, and other non-verbal signals.  

The technology comes from the model of six universal expressions, proposed by Paul Ekman, an American psychologist and a pioneer in studying emotions and their relation to facial expressions. According to the model, there are seven universal facial expressions of emotions: anger, contempt, disgust, enjoyment, fear, sadness, and surprise.  

Emotional AI Use Cases 

Emotion AI products and solutions are incorporated into many industries to help deliver an emotionally rich experience. It can aid in the diagnosis of mental and neurological disorders in healthcare. Help educators engage students more in the lessons they are teaching. Assist talent acquisition specialists in locating the best prospects for hiring.  

Let’s explore the most common industries utilizing emotion detection solutions. 

Healthcare

Medical centers use AI facial recognition to determine patients’ emotions in the waiting rooms. That helps doctors prioritize those patients who are feeling worse and get them to appointments sooner.

Another project is designed to help children with autism spectrum disorder understand the feelings of others. The system is installed on Google Glass. When another person is near the child, the glasses use graphics and sound to suggest that person’s emotions. Tests have shown that children socialize faster with such a “digital advisor”.

Finance & Banking 

The typical use case in the finance sector is banking apps with the integrated functionality of Emotion AI. It uses the already embedded sensors to detect facial expressions. You can utilize eye tracking, as front-facing cameras on recent smartphones may now be used to precisely track a user’s gaze position. If the customers’ attention is lost and they begin to roll their eyes away, then that is something to notice and make changes.  

Recruitment

Another area in which emotion detection technology is in demand is recruiting. Large companies are implementing artificial intelligence to monitor employees’ behavior and psychological state. Cameras with video analytics modules installed in the office can detect signs of stress among employees and give alerts to HR departments.

Current State

Despite the many benefits of technology, there are some concerns too. The emotion recognition disputes growth has been influenced by privacy and transparency issues, racial bias danger, and ethical considerations.  

In May, Microsoft announced it would stop allowing broad access to cloud-based AI technology that infers people’s emotions. But it turns out that the corporation will keep its emotion identification capacity in an app used by persons with eyesight loss, despite their acknowledgment that technology has “risks.”  

Microsoft and Google will continue to include AI-based capabilities in their products despite rising worries over creating and applying “controversial” emotion recognition in software applications. 

Since we are aware of these issues, why is there such a massive demand for emotion detection technology? Remember a rule: only how technology is utilized determines whether it is intrinsically good or bad. And many other sectors, as mentioned above, are already gaining from the use of emotion recognition software. 

So, does emotion recognition matter to your industry? Despite doubts around the overall technology concept, this does not imply that the technology isn’t worth the effort. In fact, the opposite is true: as the demand for emotion recognition expands, facial recognition models and algorithms will evolve and keep getting advanced, secure, and more applicable to real-life situations. 

How to Build an AI Emotion Recognition Solution? 

Here comes the Intetics AI and ML Center of Excellence, created to help you find a solution to your bold technological ideas. 

We accumulated expertise in various technologies, unique customer project experiences, efficient methodologies, and best practices. Let’s train your program to investigate, assess, foresee, identify, and communicate! 

Here is the tech stack we use in AI/ML projects for our clients:

• TensorFlow
• StanfordCoreNLP
• CatBoost
• Scikit-Learn
• NLTK
• Keras
• GPT-2

And this is how your machine will learn:

Check Your Emotions and Get Advice with Our Fun Demo

Just follow the link emotions detection AI demo. 

Follow the path of companies prioritizing AI breakthroughs that recognize, understand, and react to human emotions while fostering more robust customer relationships.

Still wondering how to apply emotion recognition solutions for your industry to add extra value to customer experience? Reach out today and step up your Emotion AI journey.

Related Materials:

Intetics Created a Machine Learning Algorithm that Recognizes Human Emotions to Improve Wearables for Sport Fans

The post How AI Facial Recognition and Emotion Detection Helps Businesses. Check Yourself with Fun Demo. appeared first on Intetics.