Expleo today announces new research which finds that 98% of business leaders believe AI will have transformed their industry within the next three years. In response, 24% have already deployed AI tools as a further 72% expect to deploy AI tools in the next 12 months.
The report: "Integrating AI: Navigating the next wave of business transformation", comprises insights from 803 key decision-makers at large- and mid-size businesses in France, Germany, the UK and Ireland to provide a strategic overview of AI adoption and the challenges organisations face when deploying AI. Through a qualitative survey conducted by leading research firm IPSOS, respondents also provide detailed insight into how the technology is reshaping eight transformative industries: aerospace and defence, automotive, BFSI, energy and utilities, life sciences, manufacturing, retail and transport.
Adoption of AI gains momentum
Expleo’s research points to a clear momentum shift for AI, moving beyond a period of promise to one where adoption is growing as businesses start to demand more from their deployments. This is characterised by four key trends:
- Deploying AI an urgent priority: While only 24% of businesses have already deployed AI tools, 72% expect to do so in the coming 12 months. The survey suggests that many business leaders fear being left behind, with 80% considering their industry to have been changed or changing thanks to AI, yet just 56% believe AI is doing the same to their organisation and its processes.
- AI will have a real financial impact: The increased urgency to deploy AI at scale is closely linked to a desire to see returns, particularly in areas that directly correlate to the bottom line. Better time-to-market (91%), financial gains (90%) and improved quality (90%) were cited as the top three measurements of ROI for AI deployments.
- Scaling AI remains a challenge: Despite a clear impetus to begin realising ROI from AI deployments, obstacles remain. Chief among these are technical integrations with existing tools (39%) and controlling costs (35%). In fact, just 17% of those surveyed did not see any major barriers to deploying AI.
- Proven expertise is in demand: The complex integration landscape has put AI skills in high demand. Sixty percent of businesses are turning to outside expertise to support their deployments today. Equally, more than half (55%) of businesses are investing in equipping their workforce with the competencies needed by investing in AI training for employees.
Six steps to successfully integrating AI at scale
In addition to insights from European decision-makers, Expleo’s report offers businesses guidance based on the company’s real-world experience as to how they can avoid common pitfalls when adopting AI tools and successfully integrate them at scale:
- Identify a real and viable business model.
- Evaluate technical and financial feasibility.
- Choose the right technology architecture.
- Develop robust and automated data pipelines.
- Train and validate models on representative data.
- Monitor and maintain data and models.
Rajesh Krishnamurthy, CEO of Expleo, commented: “AI is a technology for today, not tomorrow. But the optimism that abounds around the technology often isn’t matched by the success of deployments. After years of promise, businesses are at the point where they are demanding to see a return on their investments. The challenge now is to convert promise into meaningful impact.
“Successfully moving AI deployments from proof of concept to production at scale is more than a technical exercise. Capable data scientists are a critical component to the success of AI deployments, but so is business knowledge. Building teams with techno-functional expertise and implementing a process to ensure adoption across the user base will ensure AI applications are both technically sound and generate value too.”
Learn more about Expleo AI, data and digitalisation services.
Share