Among Gartner poll of more than 2,500 executive leaders, 45% reported that the publicity of ChatGPT has prompted them to increase artificial intelligence (AI) investments. About 70% of executives said their organisation is in investigation and exploration mode with generative AI, while 19% are in pilot or production mode.
“The generative AI frenzy shows no signs of abating,” said Frances Karamouzis, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “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 benefits outweigh the risks
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.
According to Karamouzis initial enthusiasm for a new technology can give way to a more rigorous analysis of risks and implementation challenges.
“Organisations will likely encounter a host of trust, risk, security, privacy and ethical questions as they start to develop and deploy generative AI,” she added.
CX: the primary focus of generative AI investments
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 focus of investments, cited by 38% of respondents (see Figure 1).
Fig. 1: Primary Focus of generative AI Investments (percentage of respondents)
As organisations begin experimenting with generative AI, many start 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.
Karamouzis says the next macrophase of technological change, autonomous business, 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,” she opined.
