Artificial intelligence is the highest priority among IT leaders globally, but businesses still need to prepare to employ it, based on a survey of chief information officers conducted by Lenovo Group Ltd.
The Beijing-based company, which offers business hardware, software, and services, conducted a survey of 750 technology executives in ten international countries to find out how they felt about AI.
CIOs are shifting focus to core IT functions, with AI/ML and cybersecurity topping priorities. 84% are now evaluated on business outcomes, reflecting a shift toward driving business impact over operational maintenance.
CIOs are upbeat about AI’s potential effects; 80% believe that new advances in the field will have a big influence on their company. Nonetheless, CIOs believe that security and adoption speed are the biggest obstacles to scalable AI.
IT’s capacity to swiftly grow AI is being adversely affected by the fact that vast portions of their enterprises are not AI-ready. They specifically criticized the supply chain (74%), new product lines (78%), business policy and ethical use (76%), and IT’s technological capabilities (51%).
The majority believed several areas, such as business ethics policies and computer infrastructure, were not yet “AI-ready.” Additionally, 42% of respondents stated they couldn’t demonstrate a return on their AI efforts for at least the next two years.
CIOs are being forced to spend due to the rush to incorporate AI into various organizations, both inside and beyond the tech industry. The poll indicated that 96% of them expect to raise their expenditure over the next 12 months.
Many, meanwhile, struggle to show the return on investment from these endeavors, and the question of whether investing in AI can result in profitable business outcomes is becoming more and more pressing.
Ken Wong, president of Lenovo’s Solutions and Services Group, “After years of IT expanding into non-traditional responsibilities, we’re now seeing how AI is forcing CIOs back to their core mandate.”
Ken added that this is motivated by the obvious benefits of adopting AI as well as the demand on IT leaders to demonstrate the return on their investments.
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