Gartner’s IT Symposium on the Gold Coast, Australia, predicts that by 2027, 40 per cent of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) solutions will be multimodal, integrating text, images, audio, and video. This marks a significant increase from just 1 per cent in 2023.
The report emphasises that multimodal GenAI, recognised for its high-impact potential in the 2024 Gartner Hype Cycle for Generative AI, alongside open-source large language models (LLMs), is poised to provide considerable competitive advantages and expedite time-to-market within the next five years.
The shift towards multimodal GenAI is expected to enhance enterprise applications by introducing new features and functionalities. While many current multimodal models are limited to two or three modalities, this variety is anticipated to expand in the coming years. The integration of different data types will allow AI to better support human tasks across diverse environments.
In addition to being easier and less costly to train, open-source LLMs allow customization, better control over privacy and security, model transparency, ability to leverage collaborative development, and potential to reduce vendor lock-in.
Further, Gartner has identified domain-specific GenAI models and autonomous agents as technologies with the highest potential over the next decade.
Domain-specific GenAI models, tailored for particular industries, business functions, or tasks, can improve alignment with use cases in enterprises. These specialised models offer increased accuracy, security, privacy, and contextualised responses while minimising the need for complex prompt engineering. They are expected to facilitate faster time-to-value and enhance performance for AI initiatives.
Autonomous agents, which can operate independently to achieve goals, represent a significant advancement in AI capabilities. Their ability to make decisions and generate outputs without human intervention is likely to improve business operations, enhance customer experiences, and create new products and services, ultimately providing cost savings and a competitive edge.
