Wishes for the digital year 2024

With generative AI, another big player has arrived in the mainstream in 2023. Few technologies in recent decades have had the same potential to shake up humanity. 2024 will also see further innovations and advances in the digital, social and sustainable sectors. Our //next columnist Markus Sekulla has therefore once again asked digital experts from a wide range of sectors about their wishes for the digital year 2024.

Sophia Tran – Founder & CEO at Spotlight! Ventures

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiatran/

For the digital year 2024, I hope for a continuation of the dynamic change we have experienced in the digital landscape in recent years. As part of the technology industry and dedicated advocate for innovation, I hope that we continue to experience significant progress that improves our daily lives and opens up opportunities for everyone.

My wish for the coming year is an increased integration of technology into education systems worldwide. I firmly believe that access to digital learning materials and modern teaching methods is essential to better prepare the next generation for the challenges of the future. I also hope that startups continue to drive new ideas and solutions, fostering a thriving startup landscape based on diversity, sustainability, and inclusion. Their potential to rapidly respond to changes and offer innovative solutions is crucial to addressing pressing global challenges. Supporting and promoting startups will continue to play a key role this year in advancing digital transformation and setting new standards for progress and innovation.

Thomas Riedel – Journalist

https://www.linkedin.com/in/triedel/

As a journalist, my wish for 2024 is that we manage to definitively leave X behind and let it fall into self-imposed irrelevance. Hypes and trends are accelerating more and more, new channels and possibilities are fragmenting attention or rendering it absurd. I wish for more calmness and serenity. Especially in our over-consumption society, we can and must afford it.

'Citius, altius, fortius' (Faster, higher, stronger) – the motto of the 1894 Olympics is inappropriate in the face of the challenges of our time. My proposal: 'Sozius, oecologius, sanus.' Social, ecological, and healthier. For us digital professionals, an appropriate motto.

Tanja Laub – Walkabout Media – Digital Concepts & Consulting

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanjalaub/

My wish for 2024: More authenticity and less noise on the internet. Less quantity, more quality; instead of reach, more genuine encounters and interactions. I wish for the loud voices that spread so much hate and incitement to become quieter. We need an atmosphere of respect and constructive conversations – a joint effort from all of us, including authorities, politics, and platform operators.

I wish that digital fakes continue to be recognizable. I love technology and digital advancement. But the distinction between reality and fake must remain possible. I wish for more composure and time to breathe amidst all the information overload and increasing speed. 2024 should be a year in which the digital connects us and does not separate us.

Hassan Jaffery – Deputy CEO, ERGO Travel Insurance Services UK

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassan-jaffery/

As a species, we have made great strides in, amongst other things, emerging technologies; bringing automation and artificial intelligence one step closer to mass adoption. Augmented and virtual reality hardware and software is improving at a promising rate and computing power goes from strength to strength.

For this, I am optimistic and excited for what lays in store when we combine the power of human creativity with the convergence of the aforementioned emerging technologies – I look forward to seeing what our truly remarkable species creates next.   

Kai Fischer – Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) - Woodblock

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fischerkai/

For 2024, I hope that the next development stage of the Internet is not only technologically brilliant but, above all, profoundly human-centered. In the era of immersive technologies and generative AI, the question arises whether our central focus should be solely on speed and efficiency or also on promoting authenticity, diversity, and security in digital worlds. My wish is that innovative technological developments strengthen our values, identities, and self-worth and sustainably drive human endeavors such as creativity.

In the digital year 2024, I hope that organizations prioritize sustainable growth models and responsibly consider the impact of new technologies on humanity. It is important to find the balance between meaning and utility, always keeping in mind that the journey is at least as valuable as reaching the goal – especially when new technologies make achieving goals easier.

Franziska Bluhm – Owner – Franziska Bluhm Digital Consulting 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/franziskabluhm/

The past year was primarily characterized by one trend: the use of generative artificial intelligence and plenty of tools that can help us communicate more efficiently. There are plenty of opportunities in this.

For 2024, I wish that we use the possibilities of the digital world to build bridges, exchange ideas, and support each other. Digital tools and platforms should help us promote harmonious coexistence and work together towards the future.

Mark Klein – Chief Digital Officer – ERGO Group

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-klein-cdo/

The past year was particularly characterised by large language models (LLM). ERGO has extensive expertise in the use of language models and rule-based language assistants. For example, we were at the forefront with our white paper on this topic when ChatGPT entered the mass market within a very short space of time. For 2024, I hope that people will continue to retain the same curiosity and openness to new digital trends that we have experienced when it comes to ChatGPT.

We will become faster and more efficient in dealing with new technologies by testing them live. It is particularly important that different people, departments and professional groups network and exchange ideas, as diversity and collaboration promote further development and practical application. As Chief Digital Officer, it is important to me to take my colleagues along on the digitalisation journey again this year, because cultural change remains an important part of successful digitalisation in the company. We will continue to pursue our ambition with full vigour in 2024: for ERGO to be the digital leader in the insurance industry by 2025 - both in Germany and in our international core markets.

Dörte Roloff – Consultant & Trainer for New Work, Corporate Innovation, Business Agility, Intrapreneurship

https://www.linkedin.com/in/d%C3%B6rte-roloff-b02824194/

For the year 2024, I wish that we continue to develop and use digital tools and technological innovations in a meaningful and impact-oriented way to address the social and ecological challenges of this time. Let's come closer together and harness the transformative forces – with the common goal on the horizon: to build a resilient, sustainable economic system.

I see untapped potentials in the collaboration between impact startups, large corporates, and SMEs. And there should be 

more "human touch" again. For this, we need to practice empathy, openness, a willingness to experiment, and a willingness to learn and change, being mindful of ourselves and our environment.

Markus Sekulla  – Freelance Digital Consultant

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markussekulla/

For 2024, I wish for all of us to find a good alternative to our lost favorite network Twitter. Also, I hope that we find a powerful global framework for AI (if the ship hasn't already left the harbor). But most of all, I wish that we don't spend so much time on our smartphones or computers anymore – I know, it doesn't sound intuitive at first for a digital consultant.

Technologies like our phones help us improve our lives. That’s great. But if we are simultaneously addicted to social media and spend hours and hours watching other people pretending to have a great life, then we made a poor choice. More improvement, less addiction. 

Sabine Saeidy-Nory – Spokeswoman Digital at ERGO Group

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabine-saeidy-nory/

There are many things we could wish for in the digital space. Less hate, less hate speech, less misuse of technology.

But what I would particularly like to see in 2024 is that we get a handle on deep fakes. With the boost from GenAI, realistic media content has taken on a whole new dimension. I can have practically anyone say and present anything.

We are therefore facing one of the biggest social, economic and political challenges in a long time, if not ever. Because in this way, political elections are being manipulated even more perfidiously. States are destabilised even faster. People defamed even more vilely. In the area of artificially created content, a wave is rolling towards us, the extent of which we cannot yet fully estimate. But we need to be prepared for it across society as a whole. After all, there are more than 70 elections coming up in 2024 alone - including the US presidential election and the European elections.