AI in Business: Coexisting in the New Era – How AI and Humans Thrive Together
In 2023, the capabilities of AI are no longer a source of amazement; they have become an integral part of the business landscape. Many companies have embraced a new paradigm: AI and Management working in tandem. An impressive array of AI-based tools now automates processes and simplifies tasks for humans. However, some skeptics view this alliance with caution. What lies ahead will become clear over time, but for now, harnessing the power of AI for the greater good is the path forward.
Half of Businesses Using AI Report Positive Results
Over half of the respondents to a new Omdia survey said they are measuring positive results from using AI to reduce costs and drive efficiency.
Omdia’s AI ROI: 2023 report found that 54% of respondents are measuring positive results of 1% or more and at least 14% seeing 11% or more. The research firm surveyed 369 enterprises in February just as interest in generative AI began to explode. Results on return on investment (ROI) were likely measured before companies ran any generative AI projects. The report suggested that following the largely positive results, AI spending will increase as senior managers will become more confident with expanding AI initiatives. Omdia’s analysts also state that if companies continue to achieve topline revenue growth and bottom-line cost savings through AI, it will have a positive impact on company financial results. Omdia’s report said that AI ROI will “likely accelerate AI output innovation,” more so in companies that have been working with AI for more than one to two years.
“The implications of AI’s proven ROI in 2023 will be far-reaching, impacting everything from corporate investment and venture capital to corporate financial results, labor markets, strategic planning, and innovation,” said Natalia Modjeska, research director at Omdia.
AI is the Top Spending Priority for Half of the Companies Surveyed
The AI revolution is truly well underway: Nearly half of companies (47%) surveyed by CNBC said AI is their top spending area in technology over the next 12 months. Moreover, 63% of respondents said their companies are accelerating spending in AI compared to 37% that are proceeding with caution. Notably, no one said they were not investing in AI, according to a survey of about 100 executives in the CNBC Technology Executive Council.
The council consists of CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, and other tech leaders from companies including Accenture, Adobe, Eli Lilly, Ernst & Young, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Mattel, PwC, SAP, Tyson, Walmart, and Zoom. When asked what they considered as a critical tech strategy for their companies, AI came in second only to the cloud – 58% vs. 63% − with machine learning coming in third at 53%. Also, just under half said they believe AI will create more jobs while 26% said there will be a net loss of jobs. Another 26% said it is too soon to tell. However, 53% of executives noted that tech spending has slowed down due to higher interest rates that could trigger a recession.
AI budgets
In a separate survey, sister research firm Omdia discovered that 55% of companies have a dedicated AI budget while 38% said spending on AI is supported by other budgets. Only 5% do not have a budget while 2% do not know, according to the “AI Budgets: Best Practices 2023” report.“Substantive, dedicated AI budgets are a trend,” according to the Omdia report. “This commitment reflects continued AI market maturity and indicates that many enterprises have progressed beyond PoCs (proofs of concept) and pilots into live, operationalized AI initiatives.”Also, 44% of respondents said 70% of their AI budget goes to software, services, and SaaS. Meanwhile, 20% said 70% of their AI budget goes to personnel and resources. About 36% said their budget is roughly evenly split between the two. Notably, companies in parts of Asia are spending more on AI than the West: 52% of respondents in Oceania, Eastern, and Southeast Asia currently spend $1 million or more a year vs. 47% in Western Europe and 38% in North America. By vertical, financial services (62%) manufacturing (51%), and telecommunications (49%) are top spenders in AI. They are followed by health care and pharma (35%), retail and CPG (33%), energy, utilities, oil and gas (27%), and media and entertainment (24%). Also, no use case dominates. Customer experience came in at 22.27%, followed by development tools at 20.95% and chatbots and virtual assistants at 20.89%. The survey was conducted in February among 368 enterprises globally that are deploying AI. Among respondents, 47% said their companies have annual revenues of $250 million to $999 million while 31% have less than $250 million and the rest clock in at $1 billion or more. The respondents are fairly evenly split among industries: Financial services including insurance (18%), manufacturing (18%), retail and CPG (18%), health care and pharma (14%), telecom (13%), media and entertainment (10%) and energy, utilities, oil and gas (9%). About a third are in North America, with 26% in Asia and Oceania, 25% in Western Europe, 6% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 4% in Africa, 4% in Eastern Europe and 2% in the Middle East.
A Generation Gap Emerges in the Use of AI at Work – Survey
Only 5% of surveyed workers do not use AI; 6% planning to incorporate it into their work, new research shows
Over half of workers above 35 are not using AI in the workplace, while 71% of younger employees do.
Business, education, and creative industries lead AI adoption at 11%, 10%, and 9% respectively, according to survey.
A generation gap is emerging in the use of AI: 89% of workers are using AI in their business or workplace but they are mostly professionals under 34. Survey results published by Instantprint found that 71% of those using AI at work were between the ages of 18 and 34. Among those who do not use AI, 57% were aged 35 and above. Just 5% of the surveyed 1,000 workers said they don’t use AI at all while a similar sized cohort – 6% – said that they are looking to start incorporating it into their work.
The top industries found to be using AI were business and information (11%), education (10%) creative, arts and design (9%), marketing, advertising and PR (8%), and finance and insurance (7%). The top industries where workers said they weren’t using AI include agriculture (8%); non-profit and charity (8%); personal services (8%); leisure (5%); and construction, utilities, and contracting (5%). Unsurprisingly, industries characterized by hands-on, labor-intensive operations and limited funding are “less inclined to adopt AI in their work environments.”Using AI for planning processes and copywriting were the top use cases cited by the survey’s respondents. Other top use cases included transcribing, virtual assistants, and image generation.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT was the most popular AI tool, with 34% saying it was their workplace tool of choice. Instant print said it was “no surprise” that ChatGPT was the top choice since the AI chatbot sparked the current wave of interest in AI. Among the other top AI tools respondents said they have used include Midjourney (23%), Google Bard (21%) and Adobe Firefly (21%). Free tools like Copy.ai (19%), Canva AI (17%), and Grammarly (15%) were also popular choices among respondents, while paid tools like Jasper appeared to be less favored (5%). However, Instantprint said that while workers are embracing AI, they “may not be fully inclined to allocate their budgets towards it just yet.”
Just 1% admitted to spending more than $190 (£150) on AI. The majority of respondents (28%) felt comfortable paying $63 (£50) to $127 (£100) for AI tools. Some 17% said they don’t spend anything on AI tools and instead only use free tools. The aforementioned Jasper, for example, typically costs around $99 (£77) per month. Broken out by gender, respondents who used AI in the workplace were mostly male while 68% of those who said ‘no’ were women. But women plan on catching up: Some 65% of respondents looking to incorporate AI were female.
