A turning point may have been reached in the way enterprises are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, with implementations beginning to deliver measurable results, according to new research by global technology provider Infosys.
The research report surveyed more than 1000 business and IT leaders with decision-making power over AI solutions or purchases at large organisations across seven countries: Australia, China, India, the United State, United Kingdom, Germany and France.
The survey found that AI deployments are becoming pervasive, with 86 per cent of organisations with middle- or late-stage AI projects. Of these, 73 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that AI has already transformed the way they do business, and 90 per cent of C-level executives have reported measurable benefits. Fifty-three per cent of respondents indicated that their organisation had also increased training in the job functions most affected by AI deployments.
Importantly, 80 per cent of those who reported measurable benefits from AI agreed or strongly agreed that their organisation had a defined strategy for deployment.
“While it’s fair to say that, like most promising new technologies, there has been a tremendous amount of hype around AI, it turns out that the vast majority of enterprises with AI deployments are realising clear and measurable results,” said Mohit Josh, president, Infosys.
“AI, as the research shows, is becoming core to business strategy, and is compelling business leaders to alter the way they hire, train and inspire teams, and the way they compete and foster innovation. The organizations that embrace AI with a clearly defined strategy and use AI to amplify their workforce rather than replace it, will take the lead, and those that don’t will fall behind or find themselves irrelevant.”
When it comes to achieving direct ROI from AI technologies, India (75 per cent), the United States (71 per cent) and China (61 per cent) are the leading geographies, while Australia lagged slightly behind at 57 per cent. By industry, retail and consumer packaged goods has the highest take-up of AI technologies (85 per cent), followed by telecom and communication service providers (83 per cent), and banking and insurance (80 per cent).
Though a majority of organisations (66 per cent) begin using AI to automate routine or inefficient processes, those in later stage of AI deployments are using it to augment existing solutions, or to build new business-critical solutions and services to optimise insights and the consumer experience.
Among the other findings of the report were that data management is a persistent obstacle with AI. Nearly half of IT decision makers reported that their organisation is unable to deploy the AI technologies they want because their data is not ready to support it, and 77 per cent are investing in data management.
IT professionals will continue to be the job function most affected by AI over the next five years, but it is also having a growing impact on marketing and communications (32 per cent), human resources (29 per cent) and legal departments (15 per cent). However, AI is also expected to provide opportunity, with 95 per cent of IT decision makers from organisations in the late stages of digital transformation saying that they plan to have a dedicated team of AI professionals.
For a full copy of the report, visit https://www.infosys.com/age-of-ai/.
