2024 tech trends: What's on the horizon for tech

Magnificent Seven tech stocks and AI were at the top of Wall Street's mind throughout 2023. The Magnificent Seven stocks alone hold 27% of the tech-driven S&P 500's (^GSPC) value. With 2024 just on the horizon, what's next for tech in the new year?

Yahoo Finance Tech Editor Dan Howley joins the Live show to answer that question as tech innovators seek to roll out or expand on AI offerings, autonomous vehicles, and AR and VR products.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Video transcript

BRAD SMITH: Well, ultimately, we're also tracking hype around generative AI. It allowed tech stocks to surge in 2023, dominating the rest of the market. Can we expect this to continue into 2024 or is there another trend on the horizon? Here with what's next for tech is our very own Dan Howley. Dan, what's next for tech?

DAN HOWLEY: I'm going to be the tech Kreskin over here. And I think that just because the clock strikes midnight on January 1st doesn't mean that AI is going away. It's still going to be a huge, a huge, huge presence in 2024.

I think one of the things that some of the analysts I spoke to are expecting is a play into what's called the AI PC. So the AI PC is basically a PC or a Mac, in this case, where you have chips that are specifically dedicated to running AI services locally.

So the idea behind that is OK, if I want to go through my email using some kind of AI software or my calendar or my notes, I can use an AI PC and everything is going to be done onboard my device rather than in the cloud. And so this way it ensures more privacy. It's going to be a little bit faster. So I think that that's something that we're going to see a lot of talk of. We're already seeing it, by the way-- AMD, Intel, Qualcomm. Google is now running onboard AI. Its new Gemini Nano generative AI model on the Pixel 8 Pro smartphone. So it's coming to everything. You can expect it to go to Apple as well.

One of the other things, mixed reality. It's going to get its biggest test yet because Apple is going to launch the Vision Pro. That's its big AR/VR headset spatial computer. If you're Apple, not a headset. They refer to refuse to refer to it as that. 3,500 bucks. It's going to be expensive.

It's also going to be able to do things like allow you to bring the world around you to a screeching halt and just go all VR. Turn the knob and it becomes AR. I tried it on. It blew away anything else that I had tried yet.

What's the use case, though? I'm still waiting for that I'm not completely sold. Even video games, you know, I'm a big gamer I got a 65-inch OLED. Why do I want to strap something to my face when I got a great TV in front of me. I can get up, go to the bathroom, go to the fridge without having to rip something off my head. So we're going to see if Apple can do that. Meta so far hasn't been able to.

And self-driving cars are still going to be a big deal despite the setbacks we saw with GM and Cruise. Despite the setbacks that we saw with Tesla and that two million vehicle recall. We're going into CES 2024. It's going to be one of the biggest themes. It's always, always, always a huge theme.

I think one of the things to keep in mind, though, is a lot of this was dramatically oversold as to how fast these companies could get their vehicles to be autonomous. The one company-- I went to a Ford event a while ago. Not to throw Ford under the bus or the F-150 or whatever you want to say. I went to a Ford event years and years ago. They said that we would have self-driving cars. Very quickly, Honda was like, guys, it's not happening until like 2050 the earliest.

BROOKE DIPALMA: 2050, my gosh.

DAN HOWLEY: So it's still coming. We're going to see more and more and more on that. But advanced driver safety and self-driving are still going to be huge trends in 2024.

BROOKE DIPALMA: Dan Howley, thanks so much for the breakdown, what to watch. I feel like AI was such a big topic in 2023. Now it goes into play in 2024.

DAN HOWLEY: Keep on rolling.

BROOKE DIPALMA: Keep on rolling for sure.