SAS Forecasts 2024 AI Trends: Tackling the Dark Age of Fraud with AI Solutions 

CARY, N.C., Nov. 30, 2023 -- Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. And stories are rampant about its promise and its threat. Will AI's potential be realized in the year ahead? SAS, a leader in AI and analytics, asked executives and experts across the company to predict trends and key business and technology developments in AI for 2024. Below are some of the predictions they shared.

SAS AI predictions and trends for 2024. Credit: SAS.

Visit SAS' 2024 AI predictions page for more trends and forecasts.

Generative AI will augment (not replace) a comprehensive AI strategy

SAS Chief Technology Officer Bryan Harris said: "Generative AI technology does a lot of things, but it can't do everything. In 2024, organizations will pivot from viewing generative AI as a stand-alone technology to integrating it as a complement to industry-specific AI strategies. In banking, simulated data for stress testing and scenario analysis will help predict risks and prevent losses. In health care, that means the generation of individualized treatment plans. In manufacturing, generative AI can simulate production to identify improvements in quality, reliability, maintenance, energy efficiency and yield."

AI will create jobs

Udo Sglavo, SAS Vice President of Advanced Analytics, said: "In 2023, there was a lot of worry about the jobs that AI might eliminate. The conversation in 2024 will focus instead on the jobs AI will create. An obvious example is prompt engineering, which links a model's potential with its real-world application. AI helps workers at all skill levels and roles to be more effective and efficient. And while new AI technologies in 2024 and beyond may cause some short-term disruptions in the job market, they will spark many new jobs and new roles that will help drive economic growth."

AI will enhance responsible marketing

Jennifer Chase, SAS Chief Marketing Officer, said: "As marketers we must consciously practice responsible marketing. Facets of this are awareness of the fallibility of AI and alertness to possible bias creeping in. While AI offers the promise of enhanced marketing and advertising programs, we know that biased data and models beget biased results. In SAS Marketing, we are implementing model cards that are like an ingredient list, but for AI. Whether you create or apply AI, you are responsible for its impact. That's why all marketers, regardless of technical know-how, can review the model cards, validate that their algorithms are effective and fair, and adjust as needed."

Financial firms will embrace AI amid a Dark Age of Fraud

Stu Bradley, SAS Senior Vice President of Risk, Fraud and Compliance Solutions, said: "Even as consumers signal increased fraud vigilance, generative AI and deepfake technology are helping fraudsters hone their multitrillion-dollar craft. Phishing messages are more polished. Imitation websites look stunningly legitimate. A crook can clone a voice with a few seconds of audio using simple online tools. We are entering the Dark Age of Fraud, where banks and credit unions will scramble to make up for lost time in AI adoption – incentivized, no doubt, by regulatory shifts forcing financial firms to assume greater liability for soaring APP [authorized push payment] scams and other frauds."

Shadow AI will challenge CIOs

SAS Chief Information Officer Jay Upchurch said: "CIOs have struggled with 'shadow IT' in the past and will now confront 'shadow AI' – solutions used by or developed within an organization without official sanction or monitoring by IT. Well-intentioned employees will continue to use generative AI tools to increase productivity. And CIOs will wrestle daily with how much to embrace these generative AI tools and what guardrails should be put in place to safeguard their organizations from associated risks."

Multimodal AI and AI simulation will reach new frontiers

Marinela Profi, an AI/Generative AI Strategy Advisor at SAS, said: "The integration of text, images and audio into a single model is the next frontier of generative AI. Known as multimodal AI, it can process a diverse range of inputs simultaneously, enabling more context-aware applications for effective decision making. An example of this will be the generation of 3D objects, environments and spatial data. This will have applications in augmented reality [AR], virtual reality [VR], and the simulation of complex physical systems such as digital twins."

Digital-twin adoption will accelerate

Jason Mann, Vice President of IoT at SAS, said: "Technologies like AI and IoT [Internet of Things] analytics drive important sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, energy and government. Workers on the factory floor and in the executive suite use these technologies to transform huge volumes of data into better, faster decisions. In 2024, the adoption of AI and IoT analytics will accelerate through broader use of digital-twin technologies, which analyze real-time sensor and operational data and create duplicates of complex systems like factories, smart cities and energy grids. With digital twins, organizations can optimize operations, improve product quality, enhance safety, increase reliability and reduce emissions."

Insurers will confront climate risk, aided by AI

Troy Haines, SAS Senior Vice President of Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions, said: "After decades of anticipation, climate change has transformed from speculative menace to genuine threat. Global insured losses from natural disasters surpassed $130 billion in 2022, and insurers worldwide are feeling the squeeze. US insurers, for example, are under scrutiny for raising premiums and withdrawing from hard-hit states like California and Florida, leaving tens of millions of consumers in the lurch. To survive this crisis, insurers will increasingly adopt AI to tap the potential of their immense data stores to shore up liquidity and be competitive. Beyond the gains they realize in dynamic premium pricing and risk assessment, AI will help them automate and enhance claims processing, fraud detection, customer service and more."

AI importance will grow in government

Reggie Townsend, Vice President of the SAS Data Ethics Practice, said: "The workforce implications of AI will start being felt in government. Governments have a hard time attracting and retaining AI talent since experts command such high salaries, however, they will aggressively recruit for expertise to support regulatory actions. And like enterprises, governments will also increasingly turn to AI and analytics to boost productivity, automate menial tasks and mitigate that talent shortage."

Want more?

This spring, you can talk with SAS executives about their predictions and explore the latest in AI and analytics. Join business leaders and analytics experts for SAS Innovate, April 16-19, 2024, in Las Vegas. Sign up today for updates on the conference and early-bird pricing.

About SAS

SAS is a global leader in AI and analytics software, including industry-specific solutions. SAS helps organizations transform data into trusted decisions faster by providing knowledge in the moments that matter.

Source: SAS