Increasing adoption of AI in companies driven by early adopters

New research commissioned by IBM found that about 42% of enterprise-scale organizations (over 1,000 employees) surveyed have AI actively in use in their businesses. Early adopters are leading the way, with 59% of responding enterprises already working with AI intending to accelerate and increase investment in the technology. Ongoing challenges for AI adoption in enterprises remain, including hiring employees with the right skillsets, data complexity, and ethical concerns continue to inhibit businesses from adopting AI technologies into their operations.  

“We’re seeing that the early adopters who overcame barriers to deploy AI are making further investments, proving to me that they are already experiencing the benefits from AI. More accessible AI tools, the drive for automation of key processes, and increasing amounts of AI embedded into off-the-shelf business applications are top factors driving the expansion of AI at the enterprise level,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, IBM Software. “We see organizations leveraging AI for use cases where I believe the technology can most quickly have a profound impact like IT automation, digital labor, and customer care. For the 40% of companies surveyed stuck in the sandbox, I am confident 2024 will be the year of tackling and overcoming barriers to entry like the skills gap and data complexity.”

Highlights from the “IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2023,” conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, include:

Over the last several years, AI adoption has remained steady at large organizations surveyed: 

• 42% of IT professionals at large organizations report that they have actively deployed AI, while an additional 40% are actively exploring using the technology.
• 38% of IT professionals at enterprises report that their company is actively implementing generative AI, and another 42% are exploring it.
• Organizations in India (59%), the UAE (58%), Singapore (53%), and China...