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Around this time last year, I asked ChatGPT what would be “in” and “out” for 2024. It was a fun activity because people were posting their in / out lists for the year. After I published the article, I took the lists from ChatGPT and put them in my December 2024 folder because I wanted to revisit them and see how accurate the lists were.

I think this is an important part of the artificial intelligence (AI) learning process. If we ask AI a question like “What’s going to be in / out for the year?” then we need to go back and see how good the answers were. My expectation isn’t that AI will be perfect. But I also expect that it won’t be a complete fail either. 

On the pop culture side, I think ChatGPT was right when it comes to inclusive fashion, dystopian and science fiction themes, and true crime podcasts being “in” for 2024. And I think it missed the mark saying superhero franchises will be “in” – while I love a good Marvel movie, there’s still a lot of conversation about superhero fatigue. 

On the pop culture “out” list, I think there’s a trend away from print magazines, reboots and remakes, fast fashion, and reality TV. Not sure about sneaker culture – my sneaker collection would disagree.  

Granted, my interpretation of how ChatGPT did on the pop culture side is totally subjective but actually I think it did very well. It makes me wonder what’s going to be in / out for 2025. 

Now let’s look at the business side. On the “out” list, I would agree with ChatGPT that legacy software, organizational hierarchies and silos, and long commutes are definitely still considered “out”. But I’m not sure that I would agree that ignoring social media and overemphasis on short-term profits are out. 

On the business “in” list, I think this is much more nuanced. I do believe there’s been an emphasis on sustainability, health and wellness, and cybersecurity investments. The question for me becomes was the emphasis “all talk” or did it translate into tangible results for most businesses? Same with remote learning and upskilling. I think employees want it, but I’m not sure it actually happened. I do believe ChatGPT got it right with eCommerce being “in” for 2024. 

But the takeaways from this activity are less about was something in / out. It’s about using ChatGPT to talk about the future. How many organizations might ask artificial intelligence for information that they will use in their strategy meetings? How many business leaders will ask AI for insights and then say they came up with the idea on their commute into work? Call me cynical, but companies looking for their next big idea could be using AI to figure it out. That could be great … if AI is genuinely capable of good at helping organizations identify trends. 

The good news is that AI is capable of identifying trends. That could be great for organizations. The challenge will be recognizing what trends AI is better at identifying – and at what level. It’s possible that AI can identify high level general business trends but not specific industry trends. Remember that AI is constantly learning, so as AI technology gets more information, will it become better at recognizing trends? Only time will tell.

For individuals and organizations, this means we need to continue to do our AI experiments. Ask questions and evaluate results. Keep track of what AI did a great job answering as well as those questions that the response was … well, not so great. It will help us know the best way to use this technology. Because artificial intelligence isn’t going away and we need to get better at using it.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of San Francisco, CA
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23/01/2025 – 12:03 /Sharlyn Lauby
Twitter: @hoffeldtcom