The rapid acceleration of AI innovation has sparked a surge in advancement in other emerging technologies

SINGAPORE, June 26, 2024 — According to Forrester’s (Nasdaq: FORR) The Top 10 Emerging Technologies In 2024 report, generative AI (genAI) for visual content, genAI for language, TuringBots, and IoT security are the top emerging technologies that will deliver the most immediate ROI for businesses in 2024 and beyond.

With new technologies emerging seemingly every day, business and technology leaders need to time those investments based on value, risk, and potential payout timelines. Forrester organizes its top emerging technologies by benefit horizon to help with these decisions.

Emerging technologies that will offer significant benefits within the next two years:

• GenAI for visual content. Advanced machine learning models that generate images or video from text, audio, or video prompts, this technology will help firms generate visual content for marketing, experiences, and products.
• GenAI for language. GenAI for language is already delivering value in customer support and content creation but continues to advance at a blinding pace. It is accelerating many other technologies as it goes.
• TuringBots. Accelerated by advancements in genAI for language, these AI-powered software robots help developers build applications that deliver more than just code generation.
• IoT security. The proliferation of devices has led to an exponential explosion in security attacks, raising the importance of security for IoT devices. Vendors are competing and colliding in a rush to offer capabilities.

Midterm emerging technologies that will deliver benefits in the next two to five years:

• AI agents. The role of autonomous workplace assistants or AI agents has expanded beyond the back office and employee assistance to customer-facing automation. These AI agents will grow increasingly sophisticated to better understand and respond to nuance and context.
• Autonomous mobility. This technology will accelerate commercial and urban transportation ecosystem collaborations to orchestrate personalized mobility experiences for both customers and businesses.
• Edge intelligence. Advanced edge intelligence capabilities such as edge machine learning are still not yet common, even though many foundational elements like Apple foundation models are becoming available.
• Quantum security. This technology will overhaul security systems for on-premises and cloud compute, storage and network infrastructure, commercial off-the-shelf software, commercial software-as-a-service offerings, and in-house built software.

Emerging technologies that will take at least five more years to deliver tangible value for most firms and use cases:

• Extended reality (XR). Only 8% of US online adults own a virtual-reality headset, and just 16% have used an augmented-reality device or app. While XR is advancing in training and onboarding, companies are resisting investing in tools like these until they see broad adoption.
• Zero Trust edge (ZTE). ZTE technology has the potential to protect remote workers, retail outlets, and branch offices with embedded local security, but only a handful of true ZTE solutions exist today, and legacy devices add additional management complexity.

“Tech leaders must be able to identify the right use cases and quantify potential benefits, costs, and risks across multiple horizons,” says Brian Hopkins, Forrester VP, emerging tech portfolio. “They need to spread investments out, with shorter-term technologies delivering quick returns and longer-term bets requiring more effort, more foundational investment, and the capacity to manage more risk.”

About Forrester

Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) is one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world. We help leaders across technology, customer experience, digital, marketing, sales, and product functions use customer obsession to accelerate growth. Through Forrester’s proprietary research, consulting, and events, leaders from around the globe are empowered to be bold at work — to navigate change and put their customers at the center of their leadership, strategy, and operations. Our unique insights are grounded in annual surveys of more than 700,000 consumers, business leaders, and technology leaders worldwide; rigorous and objective research methodologies, including Forrester Wave™ evaluations; more than 100 million real-time feedback votes; and the shared wisdom of our clients. To learn more, visit Forrester.com.

Beta showcase to support commerce and food ordering on WhatsApp

MUMBAI, India, June 26, 2024 — Gupshup, the world’s leading Conversation Cloud has announced India’s very first Conversational Buyer App on the ONDC network, at their flagship event Conversations 2024 in Delhi. It enables buyers to use a WhatsApp-based conversational UI to discover, browse, and buy products from sellers across the ONDC network, without needing to download any other mobile app. Soon, Gupshup will also offer this product capability to its enterprise customers that want to integrate conversational commerce into their chatbots. This launch demonstrates the perfect alignment of Gupshup’s vision of a conversational internet with ONDC’s mission of democratizing digital commerce.

“India’s diverse population uses different mobile tools, varied languages, and possesses different levels of tech-savvy. But they all know how to chat via WhatsApp. Delivering conversational experiences via the messaging app is the only way to reach everyone. Gupshup’s Buyer App on ONDC brings the vast commerce network to users nationwide, usable in any language, quickly and easily. This will truly transform digital commerce on a population scale in India.” said Beerud Sheth, CEO, Gupshup.

More than 650 million Indians are now active on social media and messaging platforms. Despite this massive engagement, only 30% of users (approximately 200 mn) shop online. And a whopping 50% of the remaining 450 million haven’t even used any apps beyond social media and entertainment. Furthermore, 65% of savvy digital users find app downloads frustrating and 40% abandon a purchase if pushed to install apps.

“Gupshup Conversation Cloud makes it easy for businesses to build rich conversational commerce experiences with AI-powered natural language interactions, in any language, over text and voice, with deep personalization, across the entire customer lifecycle. This ONDC Buyer App is the perfect demonstration of the significant impact of conversational experiences and the unique ability of Gupshup’s platform to enable them”, said Gaurav Kachhawa, Chief Product Officer at Gupshup. 

The Buyer App is in Beta and will initially have limited availability, allowing users to order food & beverages like biryani on WhatsApp. Customers will be able to share their location over chat, browse sellers close to them, order food, and make payments right from WhatsApp. Support for additional conversational channels such as Google RCS and Voice is also coming soon. With these capabilities, merchants, and businesses looking to participate in the ONDC eCommerce ecosystem can leverage the Gupshup ONDC Commerce Platform and speed up their time to market.

ONDC, which stands for Open Network for Digital Commerce, is a collaborative initiative that brings together various merchants and brands on a unified digital commerce platform. This interconnected network was developed by the Indian government’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. The primary goal of ONDC is to foster an open and inclusive e-commerce ecosystem in India.

According to various reports, the initiative has seen significant traction since its official introduction in January 2023. It has processed over 49.79 million transactions to date with transportation services, particularly ride-hailing apps like Namma Yatri accounting for more than half of the monthly order volume. Among other sectors, the food and beverages category is another one experiencing rapid expansion.

To understand how Gupshup is building an inclusive e-commerce ecosystem with ONDC, watch this video.

About Gupshup

Gupshup is the world’s leading Conversation Cloud that enables businesses to advertise, communicate, and converse with their customers by leveraging AI and CPaaS. Gupshup’s conversational engagement solutions enable 45,000+ brands across India, Latin America, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the United States to deliver better customer experience, and increased revenue while saving costs. Citibank, AkzoNobel, Khan Academy, Unilever, Dream11, Netflix, Flipkart, and Ola are a few of its leading clients. With an industry-trained Conversational AI platform and real-time unified profiles, Gupshup powers over 10 billion messages per month. Valued at $1.4 billion, the company has marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Fidelity Management and Research Co. LLC, and others on its cap table.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/gupshup-announces-indias-first-conversational-buyer-app-for-ondc-302181839.html

This News has been Published in Partnership with PR Newswire

SEOUL, South Korea and LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, June 26, 2024 — HMM, Korea’s largest and the world’s eighth-largest container carrier, has announced a strategic partnership with CargoX, a leading provider of electronic trade document solutions. This collaboration introduces electronic bill of lading (eBL) features on the HMM digital service platform.

Through this partnership, HMM customers will benefit from the advanced functionalities of the CargoX Platform, which will be integrated into HMM’s digital services. This integration aims to modernise and streamline eBL workflows, enhancing the efficiency and security of global trade documentation.

“We are delighted to announce the launch of our electronic bill of lading service in partnership with CargoX, a leading provider of electronic document solutions. This new eBL capability will enable us to deliver an enhanced service to our customers and spearhead the digitalisation of the shipping industry,” said Kurt(Wonjun) Jang, SVP of HMM Container Operation Office.

“We are thrilled to partner with HMM, a global shipping leader. This collaboration advances global trade by implementing efficient, fast, and secure electronic bills of lading. As the logistics industry digitises, we are proud to support HMM in leading this transformation,” said Bojan Čekrlić, CEO of CargoX.

Customers using HMM services can now generate eBLs within the HMM digital service system and seamlessly transfer them through the global CargoX Platform.

The eBL document lifecycle includes features such as transfer, surrender, and document acceptance, ensuring comprehensive support for all equivalent paper-based functions. Each eBL is recorded on the public ledger, guaranteeing secure and immutable documentation, with audit logs accessible at all times.

Initially, the service supports electronic bills of lading in PDF format, with structured data eBLs based on the forthcoming DCSA eBL standard to be available soon.

The HMM digital services platform and CargoX Platform integration will be available to all HMM customers globally starting on 8 July 2024.

About CargoX
CargoX is a leading provider of electronic trade document solutions. The platform is used by more than 125,000 businesses and organisations globally in their daily operations. They have sent more than 7 million electronic trade documents through the CargoX Platform so far.