Forrester’s 2024 Planning Guides: Economic Uncertainty Tempers 2024 Budget Expectations — Except In Technology
August 01 2023 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Eighty-four percent of US technology leaders
expect a budget increase in 2024;
AI will snag the biggest increase
According to Forrester’s (Nasdaq: FORR) 2024 Planning Guides,
more realistic budget expectations will serve leaders well as they
enter 2024, but now is not the time to hunker down, as stakeholder
expectations for growth remain steadfast. Additionally, to
accelerate growth and keep pace with the evolving expectations of
empowered digital customers, leaders should consider investing in
and experimenting with AI. A versatile AI approach can deliver a
broad range of solutions across operations that create customer
value, cut inefficient complexity, and drive innovation.
Forrester’s Planning Guides help leaders across technology,
marketing, digital, customer experience (CX), product, and sales
functions during annual budgeting and prioritization cycles. They
provide relevant benchmark operational data and recommendations for
areas to experiment, deepen, or divest budget allocations for the
coming year. Key insights from Forrester’s 2024 Planning Guides
include:
Areas to increase investment in 2024:
- AI strategies and tools that deliver customer value. To
deliver greater customer value, leaders must leverage AI for
efficiency and effectiveness. This includes using synthetic data
for training and refining AI models and AI-powered TuringBots to
build and deliver higher-quality customer software faster and
cheaper.
- Digital B2B buyer interactions and self-serve routes to
market. B2B buyer composition and practices have changed. As
such, go-to-market strategies must change, as well. In 2024,
businesses should create seamless digital experiences that enable
buyers to make product purchases independently through websites,
marketplaces, and app stores.
Areas to decrease investment in 2024:
- Redundant cloud environments and tools across functions.
While 78% of US enterprise technology decision-makers anticipate
that their organization’s cloud investment will increase over the
next 12 months, leaders should gauge whether adding new cloud
environments will shift workloads seamlessly and help their broader
IT design.
- Digital service providers. Digital leaders should
evaluate each provider they work with to determine whether the
partnership is helping them create customer-focused solutions that
advance their organization’s business strategy.
Areas for experimentation in 2024:
- Advanced AI capabilities — including autonomous workplace
assistants (AWAs). Generative AI’s rapid business progression
will prompt organizations to experiment with AWAs to accelerate
workplace productivity and innovation.
- AI and machine learning security. Security leaders
should explore new frameworks and vendors in the AI and machine
learning security space to both maximize generative AI’s potential
and put guardrails in place to minimize its risks.
“While most leaders in every function expect at least some
increase in overall spending in the next 12 months, budgets will be
tight next year,” said Sharyn Leaver, chief research officer at
Forrester. “Given the continued economic volatility, leaders need
to be extra cautious and prioritize those investments that create
customer value, improve efficiencies, and create differentiation.
Forrester’s Planning Guides provide detailed guidance on where to
invest, pull back, and strategically experiment to grow and succeed
in the coming year.”
Resources:
- Explore the 2024 Planning Guides hub here.
- Read more about the key actions that business leaders should
prioritize in 2024 to deliver customer value.
- Register to attend Forrester’s upcoming Planning Guides 2024
webinars for B2B marketing leaders, CX leaders, and technology
leaders.
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; 70
million real-time feedback votes; and the shared wisdom of our
clients. To learn more, visit Forrester.com.
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Ira Kantor Forrester Research ikantor@forrester.com
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