Recommended Free Tools
Gartner’s December 5, 2023 outlook named six trends it expected to significantly affect infrastructure and operations (I&O) over the next 12 to 18 months: machine customers, AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (AI TRiSM), the augmented-connected workforce, Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), democratized generative AI, and nationalism versus globalism. This is a historical 2024 forecast, not a new 2026 prediction or evidence that its forecasts came true. Its practical value is as a planning lens for I&O teams assessing emerging business needs, operational risk, skills, and dependencies.
What Gartner’s six trends mean for I&O
The six trends are not six equivalent technology products to buy. They touch different parts of the I&O remit: changing customers and business models, AI governance and use, employee services, security operations, and geopolitical exposure. Gartner did not rank them against one another.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
1. Machine customers
Gartner uses “machine customers” for nonhuman economic actors that obtain goods or services in exchange for payment. Examples include virtual personal assistants, smart appliances, and connected cars. Their activity may create new digital-commerce demands and systems that must serve machine-driven interactions as well as people.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
For I&O planning, Gartner advised identifying likely use cases and the technology processes and skills needed to support them, including capabilities in digital commerce and generative AI. The operational question is not simply whether a device is connected, but whether systems can reliably support an automated customer journey and its associated services.
#1 Best Overall
2. AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (AI TRiSM)
AI TRiSM is Gartner’s umbrella for supporting AI model governance, trustworthiness, fairness, reliability, robustness, efficacy, and data protection. The I&O implication is that adopting or hosting AI is not only a deployment task: teams must help provide the controls and security practices needed to manage the models and data in use.
Gartner predicted in 2023 that organizations operationalizing AI TRiSM would see a 50% improvement in AI-model adoption, business goals, and user acceptance by 2026. That figure is a forecast, not a measured result in the cited announcement.
3. Augmented-connected workforce
Gartner describes this trend as the intentional management, deployment, and customization of technology services and applications to support workforce experience, well-being, and skill development. It broadens the I&O view beyond system availability to how technology fits into employees’ work and helps them build skills.
Rank #2
That broader remit can require new skills and workflow perspectives, collaboration with teams outside I&O and IT, and sometimes executive involvement. It is therefore a service-design and organizational coordination challenge, not just a device-management project.
4. Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)
CTEM is an integrated, iterative approach to prioritizing potential threats and continually refining security-posture improvements. Gartner’s framing extends exposure management across on-premises infrastructure as well as cloud and edge environments.
The shift is away from relying only on prevention toward combining preventive controls with detection and response capabilities. As Jeffrey Hewitt, Gartner vice president analyst, put it, “CTEM produces a shift from a preventative-only approach to more mature, strategy-augmenting-preventative controls with detection and response capabilities.” For I&O, this means treating exposure prioritization and the ability to respond as ongoing work, rather than assuming a set of preventive controls is sufficient.
5. Democratized generative AI
Gartner describes democratized GenAI as making knowledge and skills accessible through conversation and natural language. It presents two linked responsibilities for I&O: using GenAI within I&O workflows and handling the impact of GenAI use on I&O services and infrastructure.
PC Slower Than It Used to Be?
A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Outdated Drivers Are Slowing You Down
One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchGartner’s caution was to assess cost and environmental effects rather than treating every possible use as worthwhile. Hewitt said GenAI could bring agility, adaptability, and composability improvements to I&O, but warned that overuse or unnecessary use could generate unacceptable costs and negative environmental impacts.
6. Nationalism versus globalism
Gartner uses this label for country-led efforts to reduce dependencies on foreign products, talent, and services. Such changes can affect infrastructure choices, sourcing, staffing, and continuity planning when national regulation or policy shifts.
Gartner advised I&O leaders to identify dependencies and their risks, then prepare action plans for potentially consequential changes in national rules and policies. This is a practical digital-sovereignty concern: know which suppliers, services, and skills depend on particular countries or cross-border arrangements, and understand what a change could mean for operations.
How to turn the outlook into an I&O planning exercise
Because the trends differ in kind, compare their implications using common planning questions rather than trying to rank them as products or technologies:
- Risk reduced: What operational, security, data, workforce, or policy risk would a response address?
- Skills and workflows: What new capabilities, processes, or cross-team decisions would be needed?
- Coverage: Does the plan account for on-premises, cloud, and edge environments where relevant?
- Cost and environmental effects: Particularly for GenAI, is the expected value worth the resource use?
- Dependencies: Which suppliers, services, talent pools, or policies could affect continuity?
A useful sequence is to identify which trends plausibly affect the organization, map the dependencies and capabilities involved, then choose response tactics proportionate to their likely impact. Gartner’s advice was to focus on the trends most likely to affect an organization and implement effective responses, rather than attempting to track every emerging trend with limited time, skills, and budget.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What Gartner’s dated figures do—and do not—show
Gartner’s announcement included three figures that should be read in their original time context:
| Figure | What it refers to | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| 50% by 2027 | Gartner’s 2023 forecast that half of people in advanced economies would have AI personal assistants working for them every day. | A forecast, not an observed adoption result. |
| 50% by 2026 | Gartner’s 2023 prediction of improvement in AI-model adoption, business goals, and user acceptance among organizations that operationalize AI TRiSM. | A prediction, not a measured outcome reported in the announcement. |
| 55% in September 2023 | A Gartner poll of 1,400 executive leaders, reported as finding that 55% of organizations were in GenAI piloting or production mode. | A dated poll result. The announcement does not provide the question wording or poll methodology, so it should not be treated as a current adoption rate. |
Why the year matters
Gartner published this outlook on December 5, 2023, as a view of trends expected to affect I&O over the following 12 to 18 months. Gartner later published a separate 2025 I&O outlook on December 11, 2024, confirming that the six-item list belongs to an earlier forecast cycle; that later publication does not validate or update the 2024 predictions.
For the original definitions and recommendations, see Gartner’s December 5, 2023 announcement. The subsequent annual outlook is documented in Gartner’s December 11, 2024 announcement.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
