What impact will automation have on our businesses? A recent survey by research firm Gartner Inc. found that 80% of executives believe that automation and AI can be applied to almost any business area, and that many companies are currently expanding their strategies on an ongoing basis.
According to the survey, companies are slowly beginning to move away from a purely tactical approach and develop an automation strategy with AI. One-third of respondents said they are already using AI across multiple lines of business and are experiencing a competitive advantage. In particular, differentiation from other companies was frequently cited as a reason.
Despite the positive reports, companies are still struggling to move AI from the pilot phase into production. Only slightly more than half of the piloted projects make it into production. Scaling artificial intelligence in particular is a major challenge. The international countries surveyed often struggle to connect the algorithms they develop to a business value proposition, making it difficult for IT and management to justify the investment to operationalize the models.
40% of the companies surveyed said they have several thousand AI models in use. However, this volume makes it difficult for those responsible for data-driven processes to demonstrate and justify the return on investment of each model.
It was also interesting to note that this difficult justification was the biggest problem with automation strategies, rather than the lack of AI talent as expected. 72% of managers surveyed said they had or could easily acquire the AI talent they needed. Training internal talent would also be a good opportunity for the projects, they added.
The study by Gartner shows very well that the companies are on a very good way to use the opportunities of artificial intelligence and automation, but it is now necessary to optimize the internal communication of the innovation processes and it is necessary to involve the most important decision makers directly from the beginning.
