Businesses are excited about adding artificial intelligence to their operations, but nearly three-quarters (72%) say they need a better way to assess its implementation, according to a business study by Tata Consultancy Services.
The IT giant’s survey reveals that companies are keen to prepare for AI. However, they have yet to define key aspects such as redesigning their operating models and how best to measure the success of their AI implementations.
For their study, the company defined AI as generative AI, along with more established AI tools such as predictive analytics, forecasting, machine learning, simulation, robotics, and other similar technologies.
Business leaders say they need to demonstrate that their investments in generative AI must be proven by performance indicators or they risk losing their budget. It is worth noting that given the rapid pace of technology development, the lack of standardized or adequate evaluation measures is not surprising.
Businesses have realized that AI is coming and will change the way they work. That’s why 55% of companies surveyed by TCS say they are changing their business models, offerings, and how they sell them.
But this has nothing to do with adapting AI to business needs. In this regard, only 17% of companies are discussing this technology and developing company-wide plans.
Companies around the world are racing to be at the forefront of AI, given the benefits they can reap in the coming years. The revenue potential of the gen AI industry is expected to grow extremely in the next decade or less. The gen AI market size is expected to reach $1.3 trillion, up from $40 billion in 2022, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence report last year.
But building a language model at scale is an expensive business. Stanford University’s AI Index 2024 report found that training OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 cost $78 million in compute, while Google’s Gemini Ultra cost about $191 million in compute. Even so, 51% of companies say they plan to build their own enterprise-specific models.
To circumvent costs, companies are turning to firms that can leverage their technology expertise. Among the companies surveyed, TCS found that 23% of non-tech entities use external vendors for all or most of their AI implementations. That figure jumps to 27% for tech companies.
It’s no surprise, then, that there are a lot of AI-focused startups popping up. Private investment in the field has quadrupled since 2022 to $25.2 billion, according to the Stanford University report.
TCS released its TCS AI for Business study shortly after its Q1 FY25 results and surveyed 1,272 companies across 12 industries and 24 countries. Of the respondents to the survey, 16% were CEOs, 35% were division/business unit heads, and 49% were product owners at the VP or SVP level.
