2024 was a year of seismic shifts. From quantum breakthroughs to deglobalization and GLP-1 drugs, these ten signals aren’t just headlines—they’re glimpses into the forces shaping the future of business and leadership.
2024 has been a turbulent and transformative year, packed with events that signal where the world might be heading. For leaders, it’s critical to separate out the signal from the noise. And this year, the noise has been deafening. It’s too easy to get distracted by what’s happening right now and ignore what’s going to happen next.
At the end of the year, at Jump, we try to reflect on what the biggest headlines were. It might seem ironic for a future-focused strategy firm to spend time reflecting on the past. But underneath the noise lie signals that suggest where the world might be headed next.
As you think about next year and beyond, my colleagues and I have curated the ten most important headlines from 2024. These aren’t the biggest events of the past year. They’re the most important signals of what lies ahead. From technological leaps to cultural shifts in public perception, these headlines highlight the forces reshaping business, society, and leadership.
1. Companies Braced Themselves for an Era of Deglobalization
The pandemic, cargo ship crises, and geopolitical tensions have exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains. To adapt, companies have been working to strengthen their operations, while U.S. policies like the 2022 CHIPs and Science Act created incentives for reshoring manufacturing. This year, President Trump’s election and promises of tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico signaled even more changes ahead. Tightened immigration will put further constraints on a workforce with near-zero unemployment. Companies are already warning that this will create massive disruptions and are racing to prepare ahead of time. Leaders need to make sure their supply chains are diversified and that they have alternative revenue sources to balance out their product mix.
2. GLP-1 Drugs Continued to Curb Our Bad Behaviors
Originally developed to treat diabetes, GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro have reinvented how we approach obesity and addiction. In 2024, their popularity surged as the FDA approved several drugs for weight loss. And studies suggest that these innovations can also curb smoking and binge drinking. Restaurants and consumer brands are already adjusting to these shifts in behavior. With oral versions and Medicare coverage on the way, the ripple effects will only accelerate. For leaders in health, food, and retail, this is a wake-up call to rethink product strategies and align with evolving consumer priorities.
3. People Turned to AI Agents to Be Their Assistants, Shoppers…and Lovers
Just two years after ChatGPT’s debut, AI has become an essential part of work and daily life for many people. Microsoft Copilot is now embedded in nearly 70% of Fortune 500 companies, as consumers turned to ChatGPT and Perplexity to do their shopping for them. Meanwhile, new platforms like Character.AI and Replika attracted millions seeking companionship, sparking debates about loneliness and the psychological effects of relationships with machines. For businesses, the challenge now is to rethink customer experiences, e-commerce strategies, and larger ethical boundaries as these tools become central to everyday life.
4. Governments Began Handing Off Critical Decisions to AI
Federal, state, and local governments make thousands of crucial decisions daily, from allocating school funding to managing welfare programs. In 2024, we saw a shift as AI took on these roles at scale: Nevada began using AI to allocate education budgets and decide unemployment benefits. Ukraine may have deployed autonomous weapons without human oversight. This growing reliance on AI for high-stakes decisions raises urgent questions about accountability and control. Business leaders need to prepare to navigate a future where government agencies and partners increasingly rely on AI, reshaping the rules of collaboration and compliance.
5. People Started to See Social Media Less Like a Free Press and More Like Cigarettes
Social media, once hailed as a democratizing force, is now under fire for its addictive design and harmful effects on mental health. This year, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy proposed warning labels for social media use, while several state attorneys general pushed for similar measures. Australia went further, banning social media access for children under the age of 16. Meta has been at the center of it all this year, implementing many changes to protect young people. Still, Meta had to respond to testimony from whistleblowers about the company’s failure to implement meaningful safeguards for younger users. For business leaders, this shift demands a reevaluation of digital strategies and advertising, with a focus on balancing growth with consumer well-being and identifying sustainable channels for the future.
6. Tech Companies Started Hunting for New Energy Sources
The rapid growth of AI has created an insatiable demand for new data centers—and the energy needed to power them. Tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are betting big on unconventional solutions, from small modular nuclear reactors to geothermal energy projects, as they race to meet both climate goals and soaring energy demands. These efforts blur the line between tech and energy companies, accelerating the push for alternative power sources. But with clean energy investments still catching up, the question for every leader going forward should be: what’s our energy plan?
7. Fusion Moved from Theoretical Research to Commercial Application
…And if you were worried about your energy plan, the dream of virtually limitless energy from atomic fusion may no longer be science fiction. Just two years after Livermore Lab’s historic net energy gain milestone and replications since then, fusion startups secured approvals to begin construction on several grid-scale plants, including in Virginia. These projects aim to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can move beyond the lab and deliver energy reliably at a commercial scale. This might pave the way for a new era in power generation. Both China and the U.S. are racing to scale up the technology. For business leaders, nuclear fusion represents a transformative opportunity to rethink energy costs, supply chains, and sustainability goals on a global scale.
8. A Healthcare Exec Was Assassinated… and Americans Cheered
The assassination of Brian Thompson on his way to an investor meeting was shocking. But what came next was perhaps even more unsettling: widespread celebration, crowdfunding for the shooter’s bail, and online memes turning the tragedy into dark entertainment. This response underscores the growing tensions between the public and the healthcare industry, fueled by frustration over rising costs and inequities. For companies, this is a stark warning that regaining trust and credibility with stakeholders is no longer optional. Transparency, consumer-focused innovation, and a renewed commitment to fairness must be at the top of every leader’s agenda.
9. Climate Change Continued to Break Budgets and Business Models
Eroding coastlines, intensifying storms, and rising temperatures have disrupted daily life for millions of Americans. In 2024, the financial toll of climate change reached new extremes. Insurers like State Farm pulled out of high-risk markets in Florida and California, while homeowners in Nevada faced skyrocketing premiums due to wildfires. Airlines burned more fuel to navigate increasingly turbulent skies, and lawsuits over dwindling water supplies in the Midwest revealed escalating tensions over natural resources. These challenges are no longer distant threats—they’re reshaping industries today. For businesses, climate resilience must be a core priority, requiring investments in strategies to help customers, suppliers and employees to adapt.
10. Google Made a Huge Breakthrough in Quantum Computing
Yes, we need more energy to power our tech, but we also need new ways to process information faster. Quantum computing, which uses subatomic particles to solve problems far beyond the reach of traditional computers, took a leap forward in 2024. Google’s Willow chip solved in five minutes a problem that would take today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years. That’s longer than the expected life of the universe. Google was able to achieve this by overcoming quantum computing’s biggest hurdle: error correction. With applications from AI training to clean energy, quantum is set to transform industries—and leaders should start preparing now.
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Okay, we said there were ten headlines from the future. But here’s one more, perhaps the weirdest and most provocative suggestion about what might happen next.
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11. Government Officials Acknowledged That UFOs Are Real
For decades, UFOs were dismissed as conspiracy theories and the U.S. government denied any involvement. That changed in 2020 with the creation of programs like the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to investigate unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs). In 2024, officials from these offices testified publicly about unexplained encounters in the air and underwater, offering mixed views on whether the findings suggest alien technology or even life. Prompted by U.S. warnings, Japan has launched its own investigations into a “hotspot” for sightings between western Japan and China. Once dismissed as fiction, UAPs are now the focus of serious investigation, with implications for aerospace, ocean exploration, and how we understand our world.
Looking Forward
The gap between what we understand and what’s emerging is growing. And the cost of ignoring it is too high. Leaders who focus only on what’s familiar are likely to be blindsided by what’s next. Instead, future-focused leadership means not explaining away the unfamiliar but leaning into it. Ask: What’s new here? What’s different? What doesn’t fit? These questions lead to understanding what could actually kill your business, and also opportunities others overlook.
You don’t need to predict the future. You just need to see the signals happening today and decide what role you’ll play in what’s next. That’s what leadership demands—and that’s where the future begins.
Happy holidays. I’ll see you in the new year!
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A special thanks to Mike Smith and Zach Person for their research and help in bringing this all together. Thanks, team!
