AI’s honeymoon with the enterprise is coming to an end. It’s time to get to business.
That’s one of the main themes from IDC’s recent predictions report, “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Artificial Intelligence and Automation 2024 Top 10 Predictions”.
But even though IT decision-makers will be scrutinizing AI and automation investments, you can rest assured they will invest. In 2023, enterprises worldwide spent $166 billion on AI solutions (AI software, hardware, and services), but that spending is expected to grow 27% per year to $423 billion by 2027, according to IDC’s report.
With FutureIT Los Angeles coming up on March 12, we asked event speaker Maureen Fleming, Program Vice President at IDC, to discuss her top three predictions for AI and automation business adoption. Read on for her thoughts.
Prediction 1: AI will be judged more by its tangible business impact
Until now, GenAI has been seen as an exciting new technology without the pressure of business outcomes. But that’s about to change, said Fleming, as executive leadership seeks to understand how AI and automation benefit the bottom line.
“Many organizations have been happy experimenting with AI and automation,” she said. “But by next year, leadership will ask hard questions, such as: ‘How much will it cost to integrate Gen AI into our business?’ ‘What new skills will our people need to manage AI and automation initiatives?’ and ‘How does it improve our financial performance?’
As for how Gen AI’s benefits will be measured, Fleming said it depends on each organization’s existing business KPIs (key performance indicators). Some KPIs are tied to customer satisfaction scores or revenue growth. In DevOps, KPIs may be improvements in software quality or time to value. For IT operations, the KPI could be a reduction in manual activities.
