Welcome to the March 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 February 2024) and year-over-year (versus March 2023). We are currently monitoring over 270 topics, though our analysis focuses on the top 200 by volume.
Yes, Virginia, 2024 is still the year of AI: It may be three months after Christmas, but Artificial Intelligence is the conversational gift that keeps on giving. Overall this topic held strong at #1 and outpaced #2 Bitcoin by more than 65,000 stories. And while we don’t officially track companies via this analysis, NVIDIA was the big market mover last month with its GTC AI conference – which spurred the two fastest-rising topics: #92 Artificial General Intelligence (up 192%), and #179 Accelerated Computing (up 133%). Nearly all AI topics in our analysis posted gains in March, including #149 AI Networking and #153 Generative AI + Security (up 33%). Only one posted a decline: #122 Conversational AI (down 9%). Still, it’s clear that AI continues to dominate.
Top 10: The top 10 list stayed the same in March, though there were some notable rank changes – and conversation volume increased for most. #1 Artificial Intelligence was up 6% in volume, while #2 Bitcoin showed an impressive 33% gain. Cryptocurrencies (up 23%) jumped two positions to #3 in the rankings, displacing #4 Drones (the only top 10 topic to decline in volume, down 8%) and #5 Smartphone (up 7%). Supply Chain held position at #6 (up 7%). #7 Blockchain (up 18%) switched places with #8 Cybersecurity (up 3%). Similarly, #9 Compliance (up 8%) switched with #10 E-commerce (up 1%).
Generative AI continued to knock on the Top 10 door, moving up to #11 (from #12, up 7%). #12 User Experience also posted a gain in both rank and volume (from #13, up 6%). #13 Wi-Fi lost ground (from #11, down 2%), while #14 Machine Learning held position (up 10%) and #15 Misinformation, a key topic to watch this year, posted gains (from #17, up 17%).
March gains: Of the top 200 topics analyzed, 70% posted gains in March, with 34 of these 141 topics increasing citation volume by more than 20%. Topping the list was #92 Artificial General Intelligence, up 192% in volume and from #146 in ranking, fueled by news of Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman (“choosing profits over humanity”) as well as NVIDIA’s GTC AI conference. Five others posted increases over 50%, including: #179 Accelerated Computing (up 133%); #199 Nation State Attacks (up 80%, rejoining the top 200 from #218 in February); #108 Microservices (up 63%); #144 Enterprise Applications (#60); and #149 AI Networking (up 54%).
Within the top 50 overall topics, biggest gains were seen in:
- #2 Bitcoin – up 33%
- #3 Cryptocurrencies – up 23%
- #26 Disinformation – up 20%
- #31 Robotics – up 19%
Of note here is that the sizable percentage gains for Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies – already very high-volume topics that increased by more than 100,000 and 50,000 mentions, respectively. Gains for #26 Disinformation can be paired with gains for #15 Misinformation to create an overall sense of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, but we would expect little else in an election year. Robotics gains are tied in part to gains for Emotional AI (#240 overall), which posted a sizable increase in March conversation based on news about robotic companion developments.
March losses: Only 59 of the top 200 topics lost ground from February to March. Three topics slipped out of the top 200: #201 Passkey (down 16%); #206 Data Connectivity (down 11%); and #209 B2B Payments (down 15%). Only three top 200 topics shed more than 30% of their coverage volume: #157 Ransomware-as-a-Service/RaaS (down 40%); #95 Threat Intelligence (down 38%); and #197 Unified Communications (down 35%).
Within the top 50 overall topics, only nine posted declines, and only five by more than 5%:
- #23 Layoffs – down 26%
- #47 Augmented Reality – down 23%
- #43 Ransomware – down 13%
- #34 Virtual Reality– down 13%
- #4 Drones – down 8%
It’s interesting that both Augmented and Virtual Reality posted losses, along with #52 Metaverse (down 11% and dropping out of the top 50). Thankfully, discussions around Layoffs have slowed, at least for now. Ransomware was the highest-ranking security topic to post a drop, but this decline stands in ideological opposition to the sizable gains noted in Nation State Attacks. Something to watch as security professionals gear up for the RSA Conference in May.
Spring has sprung: With March comes springtime, even if the weather doesn’t totally agree. So far we’ve seen continued blooming of the AI conversation with all sorts of emerging applications, and a rebirth in bitcoin and cryptocurrency discussions after they emerge from their cyber-winter. As of this week, Bitcoin prices are up 45% for the year with minimal sign of stopping. And AI-related IPOs are looking increasingly likely to happen in 2024. The question is, what categories and (related) what conversations will generate the most interest?
Questions? Comments? See a topic we are not tracking? Please share below, and we will address in future installments.