Failing at Artificial Intelligence?

AI Autumn — a Product or a Business Overhaul

Businesses are apparently failing at implementing solutions within the field of artificial intelligence. That is the sentiment I was left with after reading an article in Forbes published the 15th of October 2019 called Why Most Companies Are Failing at Artificial Intelligence: Eye on A.I. Yet perhaps the wrong questions are being asked. A survey released by MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group had some interesting findings:

“The survey, based on responses from nearly 2,500 executives, found that seven out of ten companies report little to no impact from their A.I. projects so far. Overall, 40% of the surveyed companies that have made ‘significant investments’ in A.I. have yet to report any business gains.”

Which means three out of ten companies report an impact from their A.I project, which I honestly find unsurprising. The report identifies winners and losers within the application of solutions within the field of artificial intelligence. The successful companies are those that build the right competencies, strategies, leadership and personnel.

The success is reported through business gains. KPMG also made a survey in 2019 of 400 executives, all of whom had artificial intelligence projects in progress within their companies. It seems expectations to what the technological advancement can do or not have been adjusted:

Just over half of the executives surveyed, 51%, said it will take three-to-five years before their A.I. projects create a “significant return on investment.” That’s in sharp contrast to last year’s survey, in which only 28% said it would take that long — highlighting how much executives have reconsidered their initial rosy expectations.

According to the article in Forbes interviewing the CEO of Boston Consulting Group companies that are successful in using A.I. often create their own mini-IT departments. These are built specifically for A.I. projects. Through this it is possible to enable processes like forecasting products or letting data scientists choose the different techniques to have an impact.

Considering the novelty of artificial intelligence I think we are seeing quite an extensive degree of progress with more executives initiating projects successfully than before. It must be realised that AI is a field which means it is seemingly often a joint research and business undertaking in its most successful cases, at least as far as I have seen.

I hope you enjoyed this short article. This is day 135 of #500daysofAI. I write one new article about or related to artificial intelligence every day for 500 days.