Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2024. Read them in this 16th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
The Digital Revolution: Embracing E-Signatures, AI, Blockchain & Beyond in 2024
By Sameer Hajarnis, Senior VP and GM of
Digital Agreements, OneSpan
With the rise of
technological advancements in 2023, it was undoubtedly a year of growth and
learning for companies. With breakthroughs like Generative AI emerging,
following digitization stemming from the pandemic, businesses around the globe
were forced to take a hard look at their digital processes and technology
stacks. This march towards digital business is relentless and showing no signs
of a slowdown in 2024. It's becoming clear that embracing the digital landscape
- and adopting the technology that supports it - is now a means for business
survival, not just a choice.
Despite the rapid
digital transformation many organizations experienced during the pandemic, many
still lag behind in regards to the adoption of digital processes, particularly
around e-signatures. I predict that, in 2024, e-signatures will shift from a nice
to have to a must have, symbolizing a widespread shift towards efficiency and
convenience.
While teams like
procurement and finance are utilizing this technology day in and day out,
broader democratization of e-signatures hasn't happened across most industries.
That will change in 2024. Those organizations lagging behind in the adoption of
digitized processes will join the ranks of progress, ensuring that the digital
revolution becomes an integral part of their operation.
In 2024, we'll
also see the evolution of e-signature methods redefine the landscape of digital
agreements and play an important role in establishing digital identities. The
shift from physical documents to digitized formats represents just the initial
phase of this transformation. With this evolution, we'll see wider adoption of
alternative e-signature methods, potentially leveraging technologies like
facial recognition or even audio-based authentication. This rapid pace of
innovation will however contrast with the relatively slow progress in
regulatory frameworks and compliance standards, so organizations need to be
certain of the security of their e-signature solutions.
My colleagues in
the technology sector have complimentary thoughts about where we are headed in
2024, and there's a clear underlying theme: leading with a trust-first mindset
for business while adopting new critical technologies, such as e-signatures, quantum
encryption, security, and blockchain tools will prove paramount to business
success.
Here are four
additional outlooks centered around the rapid shift towards digitization and
technology adoption.
Frederik
Mennes, Director Product Management & Business Strategy, OneSpan
The
rise of security and digitization tools in 2024:
As we look to 2024, there will be an uptick in
new industries investing in security and digitization tools. Industries that
have been slower to digitize, such as the energy, mortgage, and transportation
sectors are being hit with new regulations, forcing investment in security
measures like mobile and cloud authentication along with the adoption of secure
e-signatures.
With so much business now conducted online,
there's a renewed focus on protecting the transaction, forcing both companies
and consumers to take a closer look at their security posture. As new
regulations are adopted, such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)
in the EU, more organizations will adopt FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) and
phishing-resistant solutions in the financial sector. Our world of connection
is changing, and to compete in 2024, security and digitization must be at the
forefront - across all industries.
Will
LaSala, Field CTO, OneSpan
Reestablishing
trust within the digital world in 2024:
In 2023, we saw generative AI take off and
many companies jumped on implementing and using genAI-powered technologies and
they are now realizing the implications of this rapid adoption both internally
and externally, namely in regards to trust and security. To account for this,
in 2024, the market will need to create and adopt new solutions focused on
reestablishing trust within today's digital world. We can expect to see an
uptick in solutions that focus on verifying digital assets online, as well, digital
agreements. With digital transactions at the core of every business, we need to
prepare ourselves for an upgrade in innovation and bleed confidence into every
interaction we have with customers.
Guy
Harrison, Enterprise Architect, OneSpan
Blockchain
is a slow burn and will continue to gradually evolve in 2024:
This past year, we've seen organizations
incorporate blockchain technology into their offerings and platforms. The NFT
craze was a bubble of activity, but now that the bubble has burst, we are left
with a mature mechanism for tokenizing assets, and I'd expect to see more
serious use of NFTs to represent real-world assets in 2024. 2024 will likely be
a quieter period for blockchain technology; however, it will play an important
role when it comes to immutable storage, and organizations should keep that in
mind.
Blockchain also has an important role to play
in combating deep fakes generated by AI.
Within a few years, we'll be seeing digital photographs and videos
generated by AI, which are indistinguishable from the real thing. Trust in a
digital artifact will depend on the artifact having a watermark or other
certification from a trusted provider such as Reuters. Only blockchain technology can provide an
irrefutable timestamp for these certifications, so companies like Reuters are
experimenting with the use of blockchain to prove digital integrity. I think
those proof of concepts will progress rapidly in 2024.
Digital
agreements are primed for quantum encryption in 2024:
In 2024, the National Institute of
Technologies (NIST) will release the official quantum secure algorithms, firing
the starting gun for the transition of the web to quantum-safe cryptography.
This is a huge effort - every PDF reader, web server, Linux server, and
essentially everything everywhere on the web needs to transition to
quantum-safe private keys and many organizations will need to re-encrypt
important assets. This will be the biggest global infrastructure conversion in
terms of absolute engineering since Y2K. But unlike Y2K, we don't know when Q
Day is going to come...
Once the NIST-certified quantum safe
algorithms are released, we will see a fairly rapid transition to these new
algorithms across industries because there is a huge amount of uncertainty as
to how rapidly quantum computers will advance. The digital agreement industry
is particularly motivated to adopt these new algorithms, as new threats
potentially place long-term artifacts at risk. For example, if you sign a
long-term digital agreement now, you will need that agreement to stand up in
court 10 or even 20 years from now - and Q-day will most probably occur before
then. Because of this, I predict all digital agreement providers will be racing
to provide quantum-safe documents and signatures, as they are facing the most
immediate threat from Quantum computing.
In the fast-evolving landscape of 2024, as
businesses navigate the digital revolution, one thing is certain - those who
embrace cutting-edge technologies like e-signatures, AI, blockchain, and
quantum encryption are not just adapting; they're pioneering the future of
business success.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sameer Hajarnis is OneSpan's Senior Vice
President & GM of Digital Agreements. Sameer has more than two decades of
experience in enterprise software and SaaS companies leading cross-functional
teams, including managing business development, sales, strategic alliances, and
customer success to improve the customer product and service experience.