It can be said that every era has its own IT trends, whether it be the Internet revolution in the 1990s, then the emergence of the cloud, followed by the rise of mobile devices and the importance of Big Data. Those who really want to stay at the forefront of business are constantly looking for new trends like these, and not just to join in for the sake of fashion or prestige: forward-thinking leaders know that embracing the latest IT business innovations as soon as possible gives them a real competitive advantage.

But what are be the hottest IT trends of the 2020s? There are plenty of contenders, but according to leading analysts, there are two frontrunners: artificial intelligence and enterprise knowledge management. So the real winning solution for a company is obvious: to apply both of these areas combined.

Organized Knowledge is a Company's Real Asset

The pace of business competition is accelerating, and leading companies are becoming increasingly complex. Specialized departments and experts with extensive know-how work side by side within the ever-growing organizations, and the value of the knowledge they have accumulated should not be underestimated. Today, the information accumulated within these businesses is one of their greatest assets, as by collecting and analyzing it in a structured manner and, if necessary, accessing and applying it in an instant, the company is able to respond to challenges more quickly and effectively.

Of course, forward-thinking and organized companies have always had information management solutions, but these were limited by the technological environment of the time. However, it is difficult to explain why a given organization still collects quotes, contracts, and documentation in paper-based files, why different teams ask each other questions in ad hoc emails, and why meeting notes are stored in local documents.

Therefore, the first step is to design and implement a knowledge management system in which these previously independent elements are brought together into a single, searchable, transparent system that is accessible and usable by anyone. "No man is an island" – this quote is perfectly true in this situation, as the experience gathered by individuals and the knowledge accumulated in various departments during the company's operation thus becomes available to everyone.

But today's technological background allows for even more, as artificial intelligence not only speeds up the collection and systematization of data, but also makes it easier to search for it later, retrieve the relevant details, and analyze them.

New Technology is Not Enough – it Must Also be Done Well

Several companies have specialized in knowledge management solutions in recent decades, and it is not surprising that, with artificial intelligence becoming increasingly popular, more and more companies are trying to incorporate this technology into their services. But how you do it matters – just slapping a "powered by AI" label on something doesn't necessarily make it useful.

Of course, finding solutions that are proven to work well is a difficult process, especially for those who are not deeply familiar with this field — and this is precisely the case for most corporate decision-makers, whose job is not to know the IT background in detail, but to equip their companies with the best tools for market success. That is why deep reports prepared by renowned analyst firms, which summarize the advantages and disadvantages of potential competitors, can be of great help to them.

One major source can be the Forrester Wave. It is a graphical representation, created by Forrester Research, that evaluates and categorizes vendors in a specific technology or service market. It helps buyers understand the competitive landscape by visually mapping vendors based on their current offering and strategy, ultimately assisting in vendor selection. One of the latest reports, called Forrester Wave: Knowledge Management Solutions, Q4 2024 explores the most advanced knowledge management platforms — and how GenAI is unlocking new performance levels.

The report features the most important players in the knowledge management solutions market, including Atlassian, Guru, KNS Lighthouse, eGain, Verint, Shelf, Upland Software, USU, Grazitti Interactive, Evalueserve, and Stack Overflow. The analysis ranks these solution providers based on strength of offering and strength of strategy, but a detailed table also shows the elements of the offering and the long-term strategy, indicating which competitors are considered strong or lagging in which areas.

Based on the overall results, Atlassian came out on top in Forrester Wave's analysis. But what factors played the most important role in this result? Among other things, the report highlights the areas of automation, generative knowledge creation, community and collaboration, also considers content ingestion and suggested answers, ML, AI or cognitive services, accessibility sustainability to be outstanding. Scalability and globalization also have a top score which means that the solutions offered by Atlassian are future-proof and can be used anywhere in the world.

In the summary, the report says that Atlassian’s differentiated vision encourages an open-by-default approach and expanded view of knowledge sharing across the enterprise within the Confluence product. The strengths lie in a project-based approach to knowledge creation and collaboration, pulling knowledge from a vast set of sources into a centralized workspace. Integrated asynchronous videos are innovative, taking knowledge worker engagement into the modern era of video-first strategy. The company has a large customer base, community, and marketplace with 5,000-plus apps to extend the solution’s capabilities.

Atlassian offers rich knowledge creation and collaboration capabilities for various knowledge artifacts to transform unstructured information into structured knowledge. The solution includes a robust library of reusable templates for various tasks, allowing customers to extend the capabilities of the solution without writing code. GenAI improves the creation and transformation of knowledge artifacts with summaries, content outlines, and creation workflows. Integration with popular chat tools ensures seamless knowledge sharing and meets employees where and how they work through collaboration and conversation.

So, returning to the question of how a corporate decision-maker can choose the best knowledge management tool for their organization, one that supports their work with the most advanced artificial intelligence capabilities, the conclusion of the Forrester Wave is more than convincing: "Atlassian is the best fit for customers seeking to transform traditional silos into an enterprisewide collaborative practice heavily embracing an AI-first strategy."

View the Detailed Forrester Wave Report - and Contact Us to Know More!

A detailed analyst report is not a marketing material or advertising: it is a review that combines the opinions of experts who have in-depth knowledge of the segment and a clear understanding of the market and its players, as well as feedback from real users, which anyone can rely on with confidence. The Forrester Wave: Knowledge Management Solutions, Q4 2024 is available in its entirety and discusses in detail the advantages and potential challenges of market players and the solutions they offer. Click here to read the full report, and if you would like to know how all this can be applied to your company, don't hesitate to contact us!