2024 Futures Report
From disruption to business value
Executives who track the trends driving future disruption – and act now to take advantage of them – position their organization to realize new business value.
Managing the business is managing disruption. Yet a recent KPMG LLP Executive Pulse Survey reveals that only 60 percent of executives say their companies are fully prepared to manage the business through disruption.
Executives expect disruption to impact the business but aren't fully prepared to manage it
With the future coming fast, it’s time for companies to stop planning based on where the business has been and start planning based on the signals that reveal where it can go next. Doing this means zeroing in on frontiers of opportunity. These mega trends have the potential to disrupt the collective future of business and society. They can yield new business value and fall into different categories of disruption:
- Steady disruption is change with momentum that occurs over time.
- Big bang disruption is a sudden and significant change.
- Horizon disruption is change that is poised to happen for a time, and then finally does.
- Renaissance disruption is a version of past change reinvented for a new time.
Dive into our thinking:
Organizations that don’t see disruption coming miss massive opportunities to unlock new business value.
Read our report to track key business trends. Learning what to do now – to prepare for what’s next.
Download PDFHere is a snapshot of critical frontiers we are monitoring:
Steady disruption: Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 is a pivotal shift in industrial digitization, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, automation, machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain to transform manufacturing and production processes. This convergence fosters smarter, more localized, and highly efficient production capabilities tailored to meet specific consumer demands.
Big bang disruption: The AI age
We expect to see the integration of different types of AI, including generative AI (GenAI), multimodal AI, and neurosymbolic AI pushing AI’s capabilities to where it will reach human intelligence. The impact will be so pervasive—and will move so fast—that companies that aren’t shifting their strategies across technology and talent, culture, learning, and innovation today are already behind.
Horizon disruption: Quantum computing
With postquantum encryption standards coming this year, quantum encryption is likely to be the most immediate quantum priority. While it may be years out, quantum computers will become more accessible for general use. Experimenting around quantum use cases today is a good way for companies to get a head start in entering this space.
Renaissance disruption: Space economy
With falling launch costs, an expanding talent pool, and new risk-sharing partnerships that can lower costs, entering space as corporate player isn’t the stuff of science fiction. While regulation is still a step behind progress, there is a lot of support from the US government for developing the commercial space sector and making NASA “one of many customers.”
How to unlock frontiers of opportunity
- Look beyond technology to social, economic, environmental, and political indicators
- Combine signals and trends that can yield clear actions
- Consider diverse perspectives
- Balance research and stakeholder dialogues
- Position as a leader in some frontiers and a fast follower in others
- Focus on the long term with a full view of the implications of now for new business value
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