Despite the explosion of AI technologies in the business world over the past year, it seems that many are still reluctant about using it.
A report from Daemon found nearly half (49%) of the 150 senior decision surveyed across various UK industries are not confident about implementing AI tools in their business, citing concerns over data security and privacy as the main reasons for their reticence.
To make matters worse, nearly all of the organizations it surveyed said they planned to implement AI within the next six months, giving decision makers a real headache as to how to overcome the pitfalls of the technology.
Staying ahead
The report also found that businesses’ investment in AI has increased by a sizeable 48% since 2021, in an effort to keep up with the competition. Daemon notes that this is atypical for technological spending, which “normally require[s] extensive evidence on the return on investment (ROI) and procurement processes.”
The retail and transport industries seem particularly keen on AI, as 97% of such organizations said they have adopted AI to either some or a significant degree. 91% of financial services surveyed said the same. But overall, 98% of all organizations “have some vision for the use of AI.”
In terms of how it is used, 60% of firms are working on using AI for analytical purposes, 51% for automation, and 40% for personalization. Further down the line, businesses hope to use AI for chatbots (32%) and real-time optimization (40%) within the next six months. AI implementation for forecasting and smart control systems is planned within the next 1-2 years for businesses too.
It also appears that small firms are actually more confident about AI implementation that large ones, especially when it comes to personalization and document processing. Daemon also suspects that larger organizations have a greater target on their backs from a cybersecurity perspective, making them more cautious about the security risks of AI.
The concerns mainly center on the data security and privacy issues of AI, as well as problems over finding a trusted AI vendor, being hampered by legacy technologies, and not having workers with the skills to use it.
However, the report also found that organizations are working to address these issues so that they can effectively implement AI within the next year. This includes taking steps to reduce their skills gap (33%), evolving the customer experience (29%), and moving away from legacy systems (28%).
