What If In 2024…
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #185 ❤️
Welcome to 2024, readers.
What will this year have in store in the world of tech, work and marketing?
Will AI actually take over the world, will we all be working a four day week this year, and most importantly, will Elon Musk finally shut up?
Well, we can pretty safely say that whatever else happens in 2024, it won’t be that…
Let’s get into it.
Were you forwarded this? Not a subscriber? 👉 Sign up here
#1 - What If X Went Bankrupt?
Could X actually go bankrupt? The Financial Times seem to think so.
In their 2024 predictions, they were pretty confident that Musk’s management of X could lead it into bankruptcy this year.
Citing the fact that he has a habit of using warnings of bankruptcy as motivation at his other companies, Tesla and SpaceX, they reckon that this time, however, there’s a good chance it may actually happen.
With X’s advertising completely tanking in 2023 as a direct consequence of his free (hate) speech policy, and Musk’s attempts to find new revenue streams falling flat as well as being slammed by Stephen King, a bankruptcy is looking entirely possible.
Richard Waters at the financial times got two great shots in. Once, when referencing Musk’s recent “emotional outbursts” at advertisers – we love this because outbursts from men in power don’t often get called out for what they really are.
And secondly, when he mused that Musk may actually be reckless enough to think that he can put X through bankruptcy and still come out on top.
We agree with him that Musk fighting for control over X in bankruptcy would be quite a gripping sequel to the drama that was the Twitter acquisition.
#2 - What If AI Wasn’t That Big Of A Deal?
Last year, venture capital firms across the globe poured over twenty billion dollars into generative AI start-ups. To put that into perspective, in 2022 only five billion was invested in AI.
So while 2023 can definitely be described as the year of AI, industry experts aren’t so sure that it’s actually going to live up to the hype this year.
Ben Wood, chief analyst at CSS Insight, went so far as to say that generative AI will have a “cold shower” in 2024. He stated that the hype has “ignored” a few obstacles that will be slowing it down in the short term.
For example, the fact that it’s extremely expensive to develop and run a generative AI system, as it requires a lot of computing power along with expensive computer chips that are in short supply.
He thinks that in order to mitigate some of those costs, some AI will move to a hybrid system where some of the process is done locally – meaning on your laptop or phone.
In addition, Wood predicts that regulation and legal battles might also cool off the generative AI mania. Firms might want to avoid ending up in a situation where they invest a load of money in an AI powered service only to have to roll some of it back to comply with regulation.
Microsoft, for example, who invested over ten billion dollars in OpenAI, are starting off the year embroiled in a hefty lawsuit with the New York Times over ChatGPT’s alleged copyright infringement, being named as a defendant along with OpenAI.
Nobody wants that, no matter how good the predictive text feature is…
#3 – What If Tech Freelancers Were The Next Big Thing?
While Tech companies have always relied on freelancers to keep up with change, the generative AI buzz made them even more valuable, and that may well continue to be the case into 2024.
According to LinkedIn’s Future of Work report, the skills tech workers need to do their jobs will be disrupted by generative AI, changing by up to 65 percent by 2030.
Highly skilled tech freelancers are being brought in to bridge skill gaps, and in the context of mass layoffs which have seen 240,000 tech workers made redundant, and the reprioritisation of work-life balance following the pandemic and The Great Resignation™, there are a lot of them to choose from.
The outcome is that big and small tech firms are learning to work with a blended workforce. Rather than looking for contractors to work on one particular task or project, they want highly skilled workers who can slot into teams, and in some cases lead them.
Top-tier freelancers will have the upper hand in 2024, let’s see where they take the industry.
#4 - What If Pinterest Had A Moment?
Pinterest did a pretty cool 2024 predictions “board” where they distilled down their predicted trends for the coming year, with surrealist visuals and catchy names.
Some examples are “Dirt Flirts” and “Kitschens, which are the uptake in people wanting to go hiking and camping and the revival of kitschy kitchen décor, plus a wildcard called “Be Jelly” which predicts jellyfish inspired items will be on trend….
How could they possibly know that, you may be asking? Well, when you click on Dirt Flirt’s groovy image they show you the evidence – Pinterest searches for Overland Gear are up by 110%, Off-Road Camping is up by 90% and Adventure Car is up by 80%.
Pinterest actually should have their finger on the pulse for these sorts of things, as their boards are literally made up of things people like, aspire to, and want to have or do. As they say, people use their boards to “plan for the future” - so who better to predict it?
Plus, according to Wired Magazine, Pinterest are having a moment right now anyway.
They’re hailed as a space online which is Social Media but without the negativity we’ve all been struggling with since X became the wild west for Neo Nazis.
Pinterest is a space to share and save your interests without being in a constant state of like searching or opinion giving – it’s just good clean fun, and for that reason Gen Z users skyrocketed in 2023, giving Pinterest the inside track on a whole new demographic.
And if Pinterest Predictions kicks off, they could be onto as much of a winner as Spotify Wrapped in terms of a marketing piece. And as an extra bonus, Pinterest’s data predictions are actually useful, and not just an Instagram story filler.
#5 - What If The Four Day Week Became Normal?
Gartner released their 2024 predictions for the world of work this week, and we were interested in what they had to say about what the year has in store. Here are the highlights:
A cost of work crisis – After having experienced remote working, employees being forced/coaxed back into the office have a sharper understanding of how much it costs to work outside the home. Companies may have to offer monetary incentives or share costs if they want people to stay in office-based roles.
A 4-day workweek becomes routine – The four-day week has been at the centre of many performance studies and union negotiations in the past year, and Gartner predicts that more companies will try and shift the way they work to fit into a four day working week.
Skills will overtake degrees – Gartner predicts that organisation will increasingly shred the “paper ceiling” in 2024, removing degree requirement from job postings and looking for talent in a much broader pool.
We’re interested to see how these trends will pan out this year and we’ll be keeping a close eye on them as we go…
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
Stanley Chaos
If you spend a lot of time on Instagram or TikTok you may know the obsession across the globe for something called a Stanley cup, which is a huge metal water bottle with a straw that comes in different colours.
The craze has now caused chaos in the real world, as influencers, yummy mummys and teenagers got involved in a rugby scrum in stores when the brand released limited edition red and pink.
To find out more on how you can retain your top talent, or how we can help you with digital solutions to your business and marketing challenges, check out our case studies.