How much should you prioritize AI solutions in your technology investments?
We knew technology was the key to transformation, but the disruptive effect of generative AI on the business landscape is still incredible. Since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, the AI market is growing exponentially and predicted to reach a value of $407 billion by 2027. Every day, hundreds of new AI solutions become available. It’s a market flooded in terms of both supply and demand as many see AI as the key to gaining a competitive advantage.
A Forbes survey found that 97% business owners believe ChatGPT will help their business in some way, but we want to know what considerations tech leaders should bear in mind when making their AI investment decisions; where does AI fit into business? What are the challenges of implementation? And what competing tech priorities are there for the average enterprise? Should AI be the number one priority?
What is the role of AI in business?
AI solutions continue to be developed for almost every function within a business, offering unprecedented opportunities to automate processes, enhance decision-making, and unlock new sources of value.
Some of the main areas businesses are focusing their AI strategies are:
- 1. Customer service
- 2. Project management
- 3. Market research
- 4. Marketing and sales
- 5. Recruitment and employee management
- 6. Data processing and analysis
- 7. Software development and testing
- 8. Cybersecurity and risk management
- 9. Business operations and optimization
Choosing the right areas to integrate AI solutions is important when considering where to assign budget within your transformation plans. You need to assess what the existing tech stack within that function is, the departmental appetite for change, whether your network infrastructure is currently capable of supporting massive amounts of AI data, amongst many other things!
What are the significant obstacles to implementing AI?
Regardless of which business function you’re integrating AI solutions into, there will be obstacles to overcome for successful integration that sees the desired ROI, efficiencies and time savings. Some of the most common obstacles include:
- Ethical and social implications
- Regulatory and compliance challenges
- Lack of buy-in from top to bottom
- Resistance to change and cultural shifts
- Lack of quality data
- Data privacy and security concerns
- Limited AI talent
- Complexity and integration challenges
- Cost and resource constraints
However, which of the concerns listed above impact AI solution implementation the most will be unique from enterprise to enterprise based on factors like growth plans, company culture, existing tech stack, etc.
What are the most important business priorities driving technology investments outside of AI?
While AI solution integration may feature highly in some enterprise technology leaders’ priority list, there are many other priorities to consider, including:
- Expanding network infrastructure
- Data/analytics
- Security/cybersecurity
- Public cloud applications or infrastructure
- Cloud or multi-cloud connectivity
- Software defined networking (e.g. SD-WAN, SD-LAN, SASE)
- Edge computing (e.g. IoT, mobile private networks, on-premise cloud stacks)
- Ecosystem business model (e.g. participating in an industry cloud)
- Digital customer engagement technologies
Some technology leaders will prioritize AI solutions integration above other transformative technologies, some will focus on integrating a wide range of technologies including AI, and some will look to perfect the AI integrations they already have, others yet may need further consideration and planning time before committing to AI implementations.
Expereo is no stranger to the benefits of integrating AI solutions. We are looking at ways to increase our own performance, efficiency and customer services and have already found a way for AI to improve the lives of our customers, if not the very Internet itself. Find out more about our Enhanced Internet solution.
In the race to leverage AI in the best way possible, before your competitors do, it’s important to understand what the current AI trends are and how other technology leaders are approaching their AI application investments.
Available now: Enterprise Horizons 2024
If you’re interested in the strategic technology investment decisions 650 other technology leaders are making, then you’ll be pleased to know that IDC, a leading provider of global IT research and advice, has conducted the IDC Technology Leaders Survey, commissioned by Expereo. Data from this survey will feature in the latest publication, IDC InfoBrief, Enterprise Horizons 2024: Technology Leaders’ Priorities on their Digital Business Journey.
From exploring the current attitudes to business and technology investment strategies, to seeing exactly what the appetite is for AI solution integration, this upcoming publication provides a snapshot of the current transformation landscape. Perfect to use when benchmarking your own decision making!
One thing that’s important to remember when considering your options for AI solution integration is that optimal network connectivity is essential to the success of all of the above technology investments!
So if you’re looking for support ensuring global connectivity for all of your people, places and data needs, wherever you do business, then get in touch with Expereo today.