100% willingness of companies to use artificial intelligence services despite the increase in costs

Ready-to-hand results from two surveys show that AI spending is increasing across companies and a wide range of industries. Despite these rising costs, not one of the 100 or so executives on CNBC’s Tech Executive Council said they wouldn’t invest in AI.

According to Hoshio, the AI ​​revolution is moving fast, with nearly half (47 percent) of companies surveyed by CNBC saying that AI will account for the largest portion of their technology spending over the next 12 months.

Additionally, 63 percent of respondents said their companies are accelerating spending on AI, compared to 37 percent who are proceeding cautiously. Notably, according to a poll of nearly 100 executives on CNBC’s Tech Executive Council, none said they wouldn’t invest in AI.

The council consists of CIOs, CTOs, CDOs and other technology leaders from companies including Accenture, Adobe, Eli Lilly, Ernst & Young, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Mattel, PwC, SAP, Tyson, Walmart and Zoom.

When asked what they see as a critical technology strategy for their companies, artificial intelligence came in second with 58% of votes, followed by cloud with 63% and machine learning with 53%. took

Also, less than half believed that AI would create more jobs.

However, 53 percent of executives noted that their spending on technology has decreased due to higher interest rates, which could potentially slow future technology growth or development.

This survey was conducted between May 15 and June 20.

AI budgets

In a separate survey, research firm Omdia found that 55% of companies have a dedicated AI budget, while 38% said AI-related spending is supported by other budgets. According to the report “Artificial Intelligence Budgets: Best Practices 2023”, only 5% of companies have not defined a budget in this area, while 2% of the surveyed companies could not provide a clear answer in response to the question of whether they have defined an AI budget. or not to provide

According to Omdia’s report, “many companies have made significant and dedicated budgets for artificial intelligence, and this trend is increasing.” This commitment reflects the continued maturation of the AI ​​market and shows that many companies are not just using AI for their experimental purposes, but are actually using AI for their day-to-day operations. In fact, this technology has become a large part of how businesses operate.

Also, 44% of respondents said that 70% of their AI budget is allocated to software, services and SaaS. Meanwhile, 20% stated that 70% of their AI budget is spent on personnel and resources. About 36 percent said their budget was split roughly equally between the two.

It is worth noting that companies located in parts of Asia spend more on artificial intelligence than countries in the West. Accordingly, 52 percent of respondents in Oceania, East and Southeast Asia are currently spending $1 million or more annually on artificial intelligence, compared to 47 percent in Western Europe and 38 percent in North America. These costs are in the field of artificial intelligence.

In terms of verticals, financial services (62%), manufacturing (51%) and telecommunications (49%) spend the most on AI. They are followed by healthcare and pharmaceuticals (35%), retail and CPG (33%), energy, utilities, oil and gas (27%), and media and entertainment (24%).

Also, based on the surveys conducted, no single use case dominates, and customer experience with 22.27 percent, development tools with 20.95 percent, and chatbots and virtual assistants with 20.89 percent are among the top AI applications right now.

The survey was conducted in February among 368 companies worldwide that employ artificial intelligence. Among respondents, 47 percent said their companies had annual revenue of $250 million to $999 million, while 31 percent had less than $250 million and the rest $1 billion or more.

Respondents are fairly evenly split across industries, with financial services including insurance (18%), manufacturing (18%), retail and CPG (18%), healthcare and pharmaceuticals (14%), telecommunications ( 13%), media and entertainment. (10%) and energy, water and electricity, oil and gas (9%).

Also, about a third of these respondents are located in North America, 26% in Asia and the Pacific, 25% in Western Europe, 6% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 4% in Africa, 4% in Eastern Europe, and 2% in the Middle East. .