WARNING: This feels and reads like a broad quarterly survey of executives at large companies. It could be awesome, but it never mentions their sample size or respondent demographics. WTF Bain?
No demographics.
Probably large companies that tend to hire Bain Consulting
After the initial wave of enthusiasm for generative AI, signs of skepticism started to appear. Analysts and investors began to ask more pointed questions: Where are the returns on investment? What applications are best suited to generative AI? Is this another bubble?
Bain’s third quarterly survey on AI readiness has found that, for the most part, executives and the enterprises they manage aren’t buying into that narrative. They’ve continued to invest in generative AI, increased the number of pilot programs as well as deployments in production, and continued to express high levels of satisfaction with this powerful new technology.
Generative AI continues to be a top 3 priority for about half the executives we surveyed, and a top 5 priority for another 28%.
Only 1% said it isn’t a priority.
One reason it remains a priority is that across industries, 75% of executives told us it poses a significant risk of disrupting their industry. The perception of risk has held steady across all three surveys.
Just over half say that generative AI has already delivered business value.
Companies are more likely to say they don’t understand how to use the tools.
As companies gain more experience with pilots, many are realizing that their data is not ready for generative AI.
Companies outside the technology sector are more likely to manage AI initiatives from their information technology departments.
Technology companies are more likely to manage AI initiatives from their engineering, R&D, data science, or product development departments.
Leaders, those companies with a greater percentage of successful use cases, are more likely to centralize their ideation and prioritization.
Building is still more common than buying for generative AI use cases, but the trend is toward buying, as more products become available.
Leaders buy a higher percentage of their apps off the shelf, compared to others – maybe because they are more familiar with their own limitations.
The results of our third quarterly survey show that companies continue to see generative AI as a top company priority, and they continue to invest in pursuit of new business value. Most executives believe that generative AI poses a real risk of disruption in their industry, not only in terms of cost but in changing products and business processes. Companies continue to invest in a wide range of use cases, some of which show greater promise than others, including code development, marketing, operations, R&D, and more. Where generative AI has failed to meet expectations, executives are most likely to blame their own lack of skill with tools. In addition, the percentage of respondents who identified data unreadiness as a roadblock has grown with each survey.
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