Generative AI: Who’s disrupting whom?
Given the speed at which generative AI has penetrated every major sector of human endeavor, no expert in any field should pretend to know how to cleanly separate the disruptors from the disrupted.
After all, right now even the biggest disruptors are among the most disrupted.
Worded another way: Over the coming months and years, high proficiency with GenAI will “distinguish leaders from followers.” However:
Building end-to-end capabilities to handle large datasets, accurately contextualize the data for business value and ensure the responsible and ethical application of AI is extremely challenging.
The quote is from Geraldine Kor, an executive with the global tech company Telstra International. Telstra commissioned MIT Technology Review Insights to survey 300 business leaders across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific on the topic at hand. Among the researchers’ key findings as presented in a report published online March 4:
1. Executives expect generative AI to disrupt industries across economies. Overall, 6 of 10 respondents agree that generative AI technology will substantially disrupt their industry over the next five years, the survey analysts report. More:
Despite inevitable variations, respondents who foresee disruption exceed those who do not across every industry.
2. A strong majority do not see AI disruption as a risk but, instead, hope to be disruptors. Rather than being concerned, 78% of respondents see generative AI as a competitive opportunity, the report authors write. Just 8% regard it as a threat. More:
Most hope to become disruptors: 65% say their businesses are actively considering new and innovative ways to use generative AI to unlock hidden opportunities from data.
3. Despite expectations of change, few companies went beyond experimentation with, or limited adoption of, generative AI in 2023. Although most companies surveyed, some 76%, had worked with generative AI in some way in 2023, only 9% had adopted the technology widely. The rest who experimented had deployed it in only one or a few limited areas, according to the survey report. More:
The most common use case was automating non-essential tasks—a low-to-modest-gain, but minimal-risk usage of the technology.
4. Companies have ambitious plans to increase adoption in 2024. Respondents expect the number of functions or general purposes where they will seek to deploy generative AI to more than double in 2024. They expect to frequently apply the technology in customer experience, strategic analysis and product innovation areas by end-2024, MIT Technology Review Insights points out. More:
Meanwhile, respondents plan to increase use of generative AI in specific fields relevant to their individual industries. These areas include coding for IT firms, supply change management in logistics and compliance in financial services.
5. Companies need to address IT deficiencies or risk falling short of their generative AI ambitions. Fewer than 30% of respondents rank IT attributes at their companies as conducive to rapid adoption of generative AI. Moreover, these results may be overly optimistic:
Those with the most experience rolling out generative AI have even less confidence in their IT. Many in this group (65%) say their available hardware is, at best, modestly conducive to rapid adoption.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.