Amazingly, 2024 is upon us. And while the year is certain to be noteworthy due to global events, there are a number of trends related to workplace collaboration that are top of mind. Here are my top five technologies to watch in 2024 (and perhaps beyond?).
As I mentioned in last month’s No Jitter post, it is no surprise that 2023 has been the year of Generative AI. In 2024 I see three key areas to watch:
The discussion of meeting room evolution is one that is driven by work location. As more and more companies seem to want to force employees back into the office, whether or not that offers any actual benefit to anyone, those companies will have to ensure that those in the office and those who are still remote are able to effectively collaborate. 2023 saw the introduction of a number of new technologies including AI-enabled framing and multi-camera solutions. 2024 is likely to see widespread adoption of such technologies provided costs are low and they are easy to use and manage. Metrigy’s Workplace Collaboration 2023-24 global study found that 37% of our 440 participating companies planned to deploy center room cameras while 30% were planning to use multiple in-room cameras to capture all participants, no matter where they sit.
Just 37% of our research participants have an enterprise-wide security strategy for their workplace collaboration applications and services. And, in most cases those who do are still focused around protecting against toll fraud.
While voice is still a critical business service, it has been supplanted by meeting and messaging apps as the primary way that employees communicate with each other and increasingly with customers. Security approaches must evolve to address risks of data leakage and attacks across multiple applications. And, they must ensure that companies are able to secure content generated from AI in the form of meeting summaries and transcripts, recordings, and other content. Security approaches must also ensure protection of company data from leaking into LLMs. Already some vendors, such as Zoom, are offering support for federated approaches that enable customers to use their own, privately controlled, LLMs.
A few years ago, email was the primary place where people went to communicate and collaborate with each other. That has since shifted toward messaging and chat apps for asynchronous collaboration and video apps for meetings. Going forward, the collaboration UI is set to undergo another transformation into contextual active connected workspaces that integrate chat and meetings with content. Apps like Microsoft Loop, Notion, and Slack Canvas, as well as the forthcoming Zoom Docs, evolve the collaborative workspace into one where people can easily create, share content, discuss, and embed components from other applications. For example, within a connected workspace team members can share documents, chat, and even start a meeting, all within the context of a project or team activity. As this space evolves, I expect to see a reduction in task switching and growth in the use of workflow automations to handle repetitive tasks such as review cycles.
It’s increasingly rare for companies to think about their contact center platforms separately from their workplace collaboration tools. Indeed, more than 76% of our research participants say they have already planned or plan to converge their customer-facing and employee-facing collaboration environments, either through a single vendor or via integrations between communications, collaboration, and contact center platforms.
On the vendor side, just about every UC vendor now has a fully integrated contact center offering while standalone contact center providers are increasingly focusing on integrations with leading communications and collaboration platforms. Integration and convergence generates tangible benefits including improvements in customer service and potentially reduced operating costs from management simplification.
2024 is going to be an exciting year in the communications, collaboration, and customer engagement space. I look forward to seeing what the year brings, and in meeting many of you in person at Enterprise Connect in March 2024!
About Metrigy: Metrigy is an innovative research and advisory firm focusing on the rapidly changing areas of workplace collaboration, digital workplace, digital transformation, customer experience and employee experience—along with several related technologies. Metrigy delivers strategic guidance and informative content, backed by primary research metrics and analysis, for technology providers and enterprise organizations
