Welcome to the January 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 December 2023) and year-over-year (versus January 2023). We are currently monitoring nearly 250 topics, but starting in 2024 our analysis will focus on the top 200 topics by volume.
Will 2024 be the year of AI? It’s certainly starting that way, with Artificial Intelligence holding strong at #1 and outpacing all other topics by a wide margin. Generative AI continued to climb as well, posting a 20% gain over December, and moving up from #13 to #11. Will it breach the top 10? Or should we just be asking when will it breach the top 10 and what will it displace? #13 Wi-Fi and #18 5G both held solid top 10 positions in prior years, but now rank consistently in the teens. Other AI topics posting gains in January: AI + Security (up 14%, climbing from #60 to #52) and AI + Ethics (up 37%, from #141 to #128). Two AI topics did lose ground: Conversational AI (down 3%, from #102 to #105) and Generative AI + Security (down 18%, from #162 to #172). Shifts do happen. The line can’t always go up, can it?
New year, same top 10: Although there was some marginal movement and rank changes, the top 10 conversations were the same list from December to January. #1 Artificial Intelligence reigned supreme, up 9% month over month. This reverses December losses, and has it outpacing #2 Drones – the biggest gainer in the top 10 with a 29% increase but not for any happy reason – by more than 68,000 stories. Bitcoin slipped to #3 (down 4%), while Smartphones moved up a spot to #4 (up 4%) displacing #5 Cryptocurrencies (down 1%). #6 Supply Chain held steady and posted a 7% gain. #7 Cybersecurity (down 3%) swapped places with #8 Blockchain (down 6%), while #9 E-Commerce (down 9%) and #10 User Experience (up 2%) held position.
January Gains: Of the 200 discussions analyzed, nearly two-thirds (129) posted gains in January. Top movers (those with over 60%) included:
- #171 Network Attached Storage – up 123%
- #68 Consumer Technology – up 97%
- #180 Voice Technology – up 91%
- #190 Software Defined Networking – up 81%
- #151 Network Monitoring – up 68%
Looking at the top 50 conversations by volume, we see a few significant gainers with tight links to mainstream news events, including #14 Layoffs (up 59% on job cuts throughout the tech sector), #2 Drones (use in Israel/Gaza and Ukrainian conflicts), #17 Semiconductors (Taiwan elections), #34 Augmented Reality (up 20% on Apple Vision Pro release date) and #47 Digital Media (AI content spreading false information/Taylor Swift deep fakes). The last one also links into the rise of #16 Misinformation (up 17%) which is a burgeoning topic as we move further into an election year and further down the path of accessible AI.
January Losses: Seventy of the top 200 topics posted drops. The drops were less pronounced, with the highest coming in for #150 Unified Communications (down 38%), followed by #164 Financial Applications (down 35%) and #183 Encryption Keys (down 32%). Top 50 topics that showed drops included:
- #31 Private Equity – down 30%
- #43 Data Breach – down 12%
- #49 Internet of Things – down 11%
- #25 Cyber Attack – down 10%
- #9 E-commerce – down 9%
Of note: Private Equity dropped to its lowest point in 18 months. Data Breaches and Cyber Attacks were quieter than normal but still present in cybersecurity discussions. Internet of Things fell to its lowest point since April 2022 after spiking last August. E-Commerce posted its second month of declines as post-holiday discussions focused on other things (spoiler alert: politics).
New year, new focus: Moving into 2024, we are likely to see increased discussion in technologies tied to global geopolitics. Why? Because nearly every region has or already had elections this year, multiple regions are unstable at best, climate change data is increasingly frightening, and AI is making it hard to tell what’s real and what’s faker than a $20 Super Bowl ticket. Either way, it will certainly be interesting to watch the ebbs and flows of technology conversations, the potential rise in security-related discussions and of course, the impact on network monitoring (one of this month’s big movers). Which is a good reminder that “background” technologies have the potential for massive impacts in our increasingly cloud-based world.
Questions? Comments? See a topic we are not tracking? Please share below, and we will address in future installments.
