2023 Review & 2024 Preview

G’day G’day and Happy New Year!

It’s that time of year again when we start to see lots of thought leaders share their 2024 predictions however, the question I have is how right were they on the previous year’s predictions? This had me reflecting on how accurate was I, in 2023. So, before I give you my 2024 predictions let’s take a look at how I went with my 2023 fortune-telling. ?

A Year In Review

At the beginning of 2023 I predicted (in this article) that the following would occur:

• The 4-day week would gain real traction.
• The Anti-work movement would be a fleeting headline.
• Employers would shift measurable goals that align with business outcomes and not time-based input.
• The Tech Industry talent loss would be other industries' gain.
• There would be an increased global rise of the digital nomad.
• Employers will embrace employees using A.I. with conditions, such as ensuring there is a level of human peer review to ensure accuracy and non-bias.

So how did I do? Let’s break each one down quickly:

The 4-day week gained increased popularity according to research conducted by 4dayweek.com. I saw this in my own workplace too with 50% of my team working either a 4-day week or a compressed week (5 days in 4)

Accuracy self-rating 7/10

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The Anti-work movement - As predicted this was just a catchy headline with little substance. According to the Australian Bureau of Statisticas and the Bureau of Labor Statistcs Unemployment figures remained extremely low throughout 2023 at between 3.5 and 3.8 per cent in both Australia and the United States.

Accuracy self-rating 10/10

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Employers shifting measurable goals to business outcomes -? In a Deloitte study of skills-based organisations, it found that 79% of leaders believe that their organisation has a responsibility to create goals that help employees succeed holistically, not just professionally and financially. Goals should also contribute to and employee's physical and emotional well-being.?

It seems in 2023 many organisations have realised that measuring productivity is a flawed and uninspiring goal. In a state of work-study by Slack they found that employees are only spending, around 32% of their time on work that is measured as being considered productive work and yet in the same survey most employees surveyed say they prefer to be evaluated on output - milestones, quantity, quality and in my opinion the most important of all the impact of their work.

This one is a bit hard for me to quantify however I believe this narrative came through consistently in 2023 and will continue to be the trend of employers of choice.

Accuracy self-rating 8/10

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The Tech Industry talent loss would be other industries gain – This proved to be pretty spot-on according to Layoffs.fyi who reported 260-odd thousand tech staff losing their jobs in 2023 compared to 164K in 2022.

By no coincidence, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the number of available jobs particularly within hospitality and healthcare increased by 263,000. My prediction was further supported by previously mentioned stats of unchanging unemployment rates in Australia and the US.

That said with the meteoric rise of AI in 2023 many of the traditional tech roles are likely to have found a home in this new sector of the tech world.

Accuracy self-rating 9/10

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There would be an increased global rise of the digital nomad – With only a couple of dozen countries offering a digital nomad visa at the end of 2022 to now over 66 I would say that this prediction was a bullseye. It’s not just me who thinks this trend will continue – MBO Partners predict that there will be 60 Million digital nomads by 2030.

Accuracy self-rating 10/10

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Employers will embrace employees using A.I. with conditions, such as ensuring there is a level of human peer review to ensure accuracy and non-bias.

Chat GPT until recently held the record for the fastest application to reach 100 Million Users which it did in January of last year. A year later it has 180 Million users with approximately 1.5 Billion visits per month!

Despite early resistance from many organisations… even countries like Italy, who banned it entirely (it’s back now btw), many companies are working out the best ways to embrace AI particularly generative AI organisations that have mitigated their fears and concerns are now seeing the productivity benefits that GenAI can bring. In some way, this has also been forced on many organisations with many existing software providers integrating it into their platforms. This, in part, has assisted with the adoption.

There is still a way to go for it to be the norm but 2023 was definitely the year of AI in the workplace. Watch this space because we are now officially in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) which The World Economic Forum defines as the period of technological innovation that will increasingly rely on systems of interconnected smart technologies that will augment or human decision-making.?

Accuracy self-rating 7/10

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What do you think of my self-ratings? Did I get it as right as I think or am I way off? I would love to know your thoughts on this.

OK so this article so far is sooo 2023, let’s move on to what my predictions are for 2024 in the future of work, CX and EX!

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My Top 5 Predictions For The Future Of Work, Cx And EX in 2024

1.???? Orchestration and Curation will be the big winners thanks to RAG.

If you’ve been scrubbing up on your AI acronyms (LLM, NLU, NLP, GenAi) then add one more to the mix… RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation). And if you’re preparing your Buzzword Bingo cards for your 2024 meetings then add orchestration and curation in there too. Why? Because I believe they are the answer to the elusive personalisation at scale.

Knowledge bases are known for their ability to retrieve accurate answers quickly however the answers are not unique or personalised.

GenAI on the other hand can provide unique answers, just not always that accurate. I recently ChatGPT’d myself (curiosity not ego) and it was flattering how accomplished I was, so many awards… except that the awards didn’t exist.

RAG brings the best of both worlds. It orchestrates the correct information for the right channel and then curates a personalised response thanks to the power of GenAI.?

2.???? Sustainability

Customers and employees will continue to choose organisations to buy from and work for, based on their purpose and values. Organisations that have positive social and environmental alignment will be the winners in 2024, particularly for attracting top talent. Consumers will be willing to sacrifice some convenience which will continue to put pressure on companies like Amazon and Temu to offer more socially responsible options. There are already examples of this with Amazon who now offer slower delivery on multiple items to reduce packaging and carbon emissions. I see this trend being big in 2024.

3.???? Flexibility Will Be At The Heart Of Employee Experience

Employee experience will continue to be a focus in 2024 however it will be a battle of flexibility.? A sunk cost bias will pressure employers to force employees to return to the office and this will require a deft approach. Flexibility will be the lever that needs to be pulled to enable this. That and a continued focus on measuring output, not input.

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4.???? Customer Service Will Become A White Glove Service

AI will start to handle more customer service interactions, and this will mean that mundane or low-value tasks will be removed from the customer service agents' remit allowing for a greater focus on complexity, quality and empathy when there is a human-to-human interaction. This may mean a reduction in customer service representative roles however a higher value, from a remuneration, importance and strategic perspective will be placed on the position.

5.???? Customer Service Deep Fakes

Lending to the above 2024 will see a rise in AI-based phone calls and webchats. So real that people will struggle to tell the difference… at first. Having recently experienced a deep fake customer service call I can say that even with my many decades of call centre experience I was fooled. The call even had fake background contact centre noise. Once I had worked out it wasn’t a real person, I was pretty annoyed, I felt hoodwinked, and I was embarrassed. Had I known upfront that it was artificial I may have had a different feeling.

This will be the conundrum for many businesses in 2024. Drive growth through low-cost AI and risk a few people getting annoyed with the brand or come clean and risk low adoption of new technology that could save time and money.??

The Wrap Up

Well, another year down and another year ahead. What do you think is in store and do you agree or disagree with my predictions?

Reach out on any of my socials to let me know.

Until then and as always

Hooroo