Docusign leaders share their biggest technology predictions for 2024

Technology is evolving at breakneck speed. We’ve come a long way from the early days of the internet and smartphones — indeed, ‘smart’ has taken on a whole new meaning with the advent of artificial intelligence. As AI rapidly picks up pace, what’s next? What tech trends will impact the way we do business in 2024?

To find out what’s around the corner, we asked three of Docusign’s leading experts what their biggest technology prediction is for the year ahead. Here’s what they had to say.

CIO perspective: Realising value from AI

Shanthi Iyer, CIO, Docusign, made this prediction: “CIOs will be laser-focused on realising the value of AI to optimise organisational processes and redefine what’s possible with data, while balancing data privacy and hygiene concerns.”

What does this mean? Firstly, as the adoption of AI continues its rapid growth and as generative AI picks up the pace, companies will need to focus closely on building the proper foundations and scaling their infrastructure to support the massive workloads required to get the most from these tools. 

She also thinks more scrutiny will be required when companies vet AI products, with leaders increasingly focused on value-based use cases. Trust will be evaluated across every step of the process to address privacy and security concerns. 

What’s more, in 2024, CIOs will be laser-focused on sifting through the noise to identify the primary areas of opportunity and the data insights that will drive tangible business outcomes. Shanthi expects that AI will become more prevalent in activities like new-hire onboarding, the management of support cases, and automating product testing and releases.

Product perspective: Effective AI wins. Novelty AI loses.

Inhi Suh, President of Product & Technology, Docusign lays out a clear and simple prediction, again relating to AI. That is, “Effective AI wins. Novelty AI loses.”

She notes that, after a year where we’ve seen some innovative and creative applications for AI, 2024 will see AI incorporated into the practical tasks of our day-to-day lives. From dealmaking to daily work, AI will make everything simpler, faster and generally more intuitive. 

“In the agreement space, for example, we’re already applying AI beyond CLM to eSignature and at every stage of the agreement workflow — from drafting and negotiating contracts to verifying identity from anywhere in real-time, to synthesising several pages of dense legal language into easily digestible summaries. AI is empowering us to completely revolutionise intelligent agreement management,” she says.  

“We expect to see the tangible results of this transformational shift in the year ahead: projects will be completed in less time, people will make more informed decisions that minimise risk, employees will have more time to dedicate to innovative work, and business will speed up.” 

And it’s not just Inhi who sees the value in this shift. Recent research from McKinsey shows that gen AI’s impact on productivity could add trillions of dollars in value to the global economy.

GVP and CISO perspective: It’s play time

Kurt Sauer, our Global Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, made this prediction about technology in 2024: “Playing in the sandbox is good for enterprises too.”

Let’s break this down. As Kurt explains, organisations want to apply AI and other disruptive technologies to transform and innovate, but know that this new territory can be risky. They want to approach it carefully, which is why, in the year ahead, we’ll see more organisations take a sandbox approach to innovation. This delivers all the benefits of trialling new technologies, methodologies and processes — but in a closed, less risky environment. 

According to Kurt, sandboxing not only enables organisations to experiment at faster speeds, but to catch vulnerabilities in technology or identify areas that may require specific guardrails early on.

“In fact, this is a key driver behind Docusign’s launch of AI Labs — a program specifically designed to enable us to enhance the performance of AI models through model training and obtain feedback from customers on how Docusign’s AI capabilities can best meet their needs,” he says. “AI Labs is a new way to engage with current and future customers, giving them a safe space to test, learn and refine.”

What will your 2024 hold?

Whether you’re still considering AI or starting to put it to use in your business, it’s clear that this game-changing technology will have an impact on your professional life in the year ahead. As it moves into the mainstream, the question is, how will it help you work faster or smarter?

Interested in learning more about what Docusign is doing with AI? Read this article next.