Generative AI is evolving so quickly that consulting leader Deloitte has released the first edition of a new quarterly survey exploring the impact of gen AI on the business. The state of generative AI in the enterprise: now is the time to decide what happens next surveyed 2,800 respondents, from director level to C-suite level, across six industries and sixteen countries.
One of the key findings of the survey showed that while optimistic about the use of generative AI in their organization (79% of respondents expect generative AI to transform their organization three years from now), they are now mainly focused on obtaining practical advantages. More than half of business and technology executives are particularly concerned that the widespread use of AI generation will centralize global economic power and increase economic inequality. Additionally, technical talent is seen as the biggest barrier to AI adoption, followed by regulatory compliance and governance issues.
Business leaders concerned about the societal impacts of the AI generation
Beena Ammanath, Global Head of Deloitte AI Institutetold VentureBeat in an interview that she’s been pleasantly surprised by how business leaders are thinking about the broader societal impacts of generative AI.
“It’s quite a high number which was a pleasant surprise, along with the fact that the majority of respondents agree that there is a need for more regulation and collaboration,” she said. “So that makes me very optimistic, because we’re not just focused on creating business value: there’s still a lot to do as this grows, but at the same time you try to balance it with the challenges societal. impact.”
Executives are positive about the AI generation, but they are also under pressure
Ammanath was also surprised to see how organizations still rely on off-the-shelf AI solutions instead of creating targeted, differentiated, industry-specific generational AI solutions.
“I hope that by the end of this year we can see these numbers change,” she said. “The technology is still relatively new from the company’s perspective, so it’s a metric I’ll be monitoring to see how the dynamics evolve.”
Another thing that emerged from the survey is that organizations with very high AI expertise tend to feel more positive about the technology, but at the same time more pressured and threatened, said Ammanath.
“Leaders at these organizations report higher levels of interest and technical readiness from their employees, but they also feel more pressure. If they don’t, the competition will pull ahead.” , she said.
Looking ahead to generative AI in the enterprise
Deloitte’s survey will be the first in an ongoing series of quarterly generative AI surveys, with the initial effort designed to establish a strong baseline to build upon.
“We will follow some of the same measures,” Ammanath said of upcoming investigations. “It’s still very early, so you’re probably going to see very similar questions in the next round.”
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