Welcome to the February 2024 edition of Top Conversations in Technology, where we break down which topics are leading, rising and falling each month. Our monthly analysis is designed to help technology marketers maximize their relevance and adapt to changing market dynamics. This month’s data focuses on variations in news and blog citation volumes month-over-month (versus January 2024) and year-over-year (versus February 2023). We are currently monitoring over 260 topics, though our analysis focuses on the top 200 by volume.

Will AI continue to dominate in 2024? It’s certainly starting that way, with Artificial Intelligence holding strong at #1 and outpacing all other topics by more than 150,000 stories. We also see continued strength with modest fluctuations for AI-related subtopics like #12 Generative AI (down 10%), #14 Machine Learning (down 2%), #20 Chatbots (down 1%) and #35 Large Language Models (up 2%). Plus, AI continues to boost other conversations like #50 Digital Health (up 53%) and #176 Accelerated Computing (up 197%), both up on AI-related news. And even though #33 Robotics posted a 15% drop from January to February, it’s likely to rebound in March based on the new OpenAI/Figure partnership to develop humanoid robots.

Top topics this month: AI posted a 6% gain to remain in the #1 spot. Bitcoin moved up to #2, displacing #3 Drones (down 23%), despite posting a 13% drop in mention volume as Bitcoin’s valuation climbed to new heights. From there, rankings were more stable despite volume shifts. #4 Smartphones (down 9%), #5 Cryptocurrencies (down 6%), #6 Supply Chain (down 2%), #8 Blockchain and #9 E-Commerce (each down 3%) all held position despite declining volume. Only #7 Cybersecurity posted a gain (up 5%), but not enough to climb in the rankings. Compliance (up a marginal 0.3%) moved back into the top 10 (at #10), climbing from #12 in January and outpacing #11 Wi-Fi (down 0.1%, previously #13), #12 Generative AI (down 10%, previously #11) and #13 User Experience (down 18%, previously #10). Keep in mind that February was a shorter month, even during a leap year, so month-over-month volume declines are impacted by having two to three fewer days of news time.

February Gains: Of the top 200 topics analyzed, 43% posted gains in January, but gains were comparatively smaller than normal with only six topics up more than 50%. The three biggest movers included #131 Ransomware-as-a-Service/RaaS (up 211% as RaaS pioneer LockBit was taken offline after a massive law enforcement operation), #176 Accelerated Computing (up 197% due to Nvidia earnings), and #110 Domain Name System (up 119% due to an ENS/GoDaddy partnership linking wallets to domains).

Of the top 50 topics, biggest gains were seen in:

• #21 Cyber Attack – up 29%
• #50 Digital Health – up 53%
• #37 Ransomware – up 20%
• #22 Video Conferencing – up 13%
• #24 Digital Transformation – up 13%

Cyber Attack and Ransomware conversations grew in part due to the AT&T outage, as well as the LockBit group apprehension and a massive cyber attack on healthcare in the U.S. that companies are still struggling to come back from. Digital Health also climbed on the cyber attack news, as well as discussion about how health care systems are using AI in everything from research to patient management. Meanwhile companies are pushing digital transformation to offset growth and layoff challenges, and position themselves for the next technology revolution (spoiler alert: AI).

February Losses: Of all the topics analyzed, only three slipped from the top 200: #218 Network Attached Storage (down 61%, previously #180), #206 Voice Technology (down 35%, previously #189) and #203 API Security (down 21%, previously #195). Within the top 200, just over half (57%) posted drops from January to February. Declines were relatively more modest than in previous months, with the average decline at 11% and only three topics shedding more than 40%, including #104 Consumer Technology (down 57%), #121 Industry 4.0 (down 44%) and #120 Wi-Fi 7 (down 42%).

Looking at higher-ranking topics, 32 of the top 50 posted drops, including:

• #49 Smart Homes – down 34%
• #3 Drones – down 23%
• #15 Layoffs – down 19%
• #13 User Experience – down 18%
• #29 Encryption – down 16%
• #33 Robotics – down 15%

Many of the topics above were down from January highs but actually in line with prior months’ volume. #3 Drones was down from January but level with December, as January and February were its two high points since last summer. #15 Layoffs was down from a January spike but posted its second highest volume since July. #13 User Experience hit a four-month low after posting highs throughout Q4 2023. #29 Encryption was the biggest-declining security topic, but a few others in the top 50 also posted declines – #43 Phishing (down 8%), #39 Data Security (down 4%) and #41 Data Breach (down 1%). #33 Robotics posted a month-over-month decline, but its article count was in line with December.

Settling into Q1 2024: We are steamrolling our way into an uncertain year with continued layoffs despite a growing economy; two U.S. presidential candidates that don’t inspire the voting public; and society’s vacillation between AI-related optimism – think of all the things it can do! – and pessimism – it will be the end of us all! Whichever camp you’re in, it makes the news cycle anything but boring. Stay tuned as we continue to look at how technology discussions impact and are impacted by current events around the world.

Questions? Comments? See a topic we are not tracking? Please share below, and we will address in future installments.