ChatGPT prompts increase in AI investment
June 2023
IT in Manufacturing
In a recent Gartner poll of more than 2500 executive leaders, 45% reported that the publicity of ChatGPT has prompted them to increase artificial intelligence (AI) investments. Seventy percent of executives said that their organisation is in investigation and exploration mode with generative AI, while 19% are in pilot or production mode.
Gartner reports that the generative AI frenzy shows no signs of abating. Organisations are scrambling to determine how much cash to pour into generative AI solutions, which products are worth the investment, when to get started and how to mitigate the risks that come with this emerging technology.
The poll found that 68% of executives believe that the benefits of generative AI outweigh the risks, compared with just 5% that feel the risks outweigh the benefits. However, executives may begin to shift their perspective as investments deepen.
Initial enthusiasm for a new technology can give way to more rigorous analysis of risks and implementation challenges. Organisations are likely to come across many trust, risk, security, privacy and ethical questions as they start to develop and deploy generative AI.
Despite ongoing economic headwinds, only 17% of executives indicated cost optimisation as the primary purpose of generative AI investments. Customer experience was the most common primary focus of investments, cited by 38% of respondents. As organisations begin experimenting with generative AI, many are starting with use cases such as media content improvement or code generation. While these efforts can be a strong initial value-add, generative AI has vast potential to support solutions that augment humans or machines and autonomously execute business and IT processes.
Gartner concludes that autonomous business, the next macrophase of technological change, can mitigate the impact of inflation, talent shortages and even economic downturns. CEOs and CIOs that leverage generative AI to drive transformation through new products and business models will find massive opportunities for revenue growth.
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