The pace of AI-related innovation accelerated, to say the least, in 2023.
Expect the same this year — or even more.
That’s the word from a group of Seattle-area tech investors who shared their top prediction for the new year. Read on for their takes.
Madin Akpo-Esambe, investor at Tacoma Venture Fund
“Next year will bring an unprecedented wave of startup acquisitions and wind downs, but we’ll start to see the early innings of the next wave of future unicorns with proven applied AI innovations emerge. The genie is certainly out of the bottle on AI as a fundamental platform shift and it’s here to stay. Similar to the 2008 and 2009 wave of applications that rode the wave of mobile, new technologies that are cracking tangible applied-use cases of AI will start to pick up steam in 2024.”
Sheila Gulati, managing director at Tola Capital
“The integration of multi-modal models is set to unveil fresh opportunities at the application layer while simultaneously introducing new challenges and innovation prospects at the infrastructure layer. The remarkable speed at which open source models have matched, and in some cases surpassed, their proprietary counterparts in terms of performance is truly noteworthy. Looking ahead to 2024, the rapid pace will persist, accompanied by the rise of specialized vertical and domain-specific models entering the market, alongside the more generalized, pre-trained models. Brace for a year where innovation and specialization intersect to shape the future of model development.”
Greg Gottesman, managing director at Pioneer Square Labs
“By the end of 2024, machines will write more than half of the new code generated globally.”
Maria Gilfoyle, investor at Madrona Venture Group
“We will see innovative AI tools designed to meet users where they already are — in their workflow. The distribution of AI tools will become more critical than the model used under the application, as long as the model functions correctly. Additionally, for startups, I predict a shift away from text/chat-based UX for AI-native applications in 2024. The future lies in apps that take a multi-modal approach to perform tasks like updating records, scheduling events, booking a restaurant, editing paragraphs, leaving comments, and completing action items after approval from the user.”
Kellan Carter, founding partner at Fuse
“Large platforms will continue to innovate at a rapid pace and capture much of the AI momentum. It will continue to force Washington, D.C., to take notice, but likely nothing of regulatory substance given how new the category is.”
