The early adopters of (generative) AI are moving up a gear with active integration, while other companies are stuck in the experimental phase. This emerges from research by IBM.

IBM has examined how far companies are on their AI journey to achieve this Global AI Adoption Index come. More than a thousand companies (> 1000 employees) took part in the survey. The survey shows that 42 percent are already actively using (generative) AI in daily operations. 59 percent of them plan to accelerate in 2024.

AI is everywhere

Greater accessibility of AI technology, the need to reduce the cost of key processes, and the increasing use of AI in standard business applications are the main factors driving the acceleration of AI adoption. Increased skills and simpler solutions also have a positive effect. According to the study, the five most important application areas for AI are:

• Automation of IT processes (33%)
• Security and threat detection (26%)
• AI governance (25%)
• Business analysis or intelligence (24%)
• Automate processing and document flow (24%).

Lack of skills is the biggest obstacle

IBM’s study also shows that the pace of AI adoption varies. That’s what it’s all about early adopters are already actively using AI, 40 percent are still in the experimental phase. These companies show interest in what AI offers, but have not yet managed to establish concrete use cases.

The biggest obstacle to this seems to be a lack of competence. One in five organizations say they do not have sufficient skills to use AI efficiently. 16 percent cannot find the right talent to close this skills gap. Yet only a third invest in training to update the knowledge and skills of current staff.

Generative AI brings with it additional privacy and transparency concerns. 85 percent say ethical AI practices are important, but less than half are taking concrete steps to do so. Finally, the complexity of the data and the costs of AI applications are also perceived as obstacles.