AI MOMENTUM, MATURITY roughly a third say analytics will play a “minor” role in AI or no role at all. To what extent do you expect to see analytics having a role in your organizations artificial intelligence? 9 It seems clear that the more experienced you are in AI, the more likely you are to appreciate the central role analytics will play in your efforts. “Among those who have deployed AI, they recognize that success in AI is success in analytics,” says Schabenberger. “For them, analytics has achieved a front and center role in AI. In fact, in many ways, AI is analytics.” Perhaps that is why 66 percent of respondents agree that “AI will enable us to mine massive volumes of data faster to inform business decisions.” “In many ways, AI is analytics.” Oliver Schabenberger Chief Operating Officer & Chief Technology Officer for SAS AGREE AI WILL ENABLE US TO MINE MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF DATA FASTER TO INFORM BUSINESS DECISIONS To what extent do you expect to see analytics having a role in your organizations artificial intelligence, based on whether you have deployed or considering deploying AI? 66 % 10 FULL DEPLOYMENT LEVELS SIGNAL HEALTHY MOMENTUM If you, like many observers, assume that AI is still primarily a sandbox exercise, these survey results hold some surprises. To be sure, some respondents 28 percent of those who have deployed or are deploying AI indicated that they have AI “partially deployed as an experiment.” No surprises there. Interestingly, though, slightly more respondents (32 percent) report that their AI capabilities are “fully deployed, in multiple use cases or lines of business.” Whats going on here? There are a number of possible interpretations. Rumman Chowdhury, Accentures Responsible AI Lead, suggests that its important to understand adoption rates through the lens of industry. “There are pockets of real progress,” she says. “Just look at the financial services industry, where theres widespread use of AI, both internally and customer-facing. In others, not so much. In retail, for example, only 9 percent report that AI is fully deployed. Among those Im talking to every day, I tend to see much more tentative deployment in the overall marketplace but its accompanied by a ton of interest.” “Generally speaking, the progress of AI is unparalleled,” says Intels Greer. “Weve seen some very positive first impressions regarding how AI can actually be used and we have a long way to go. Weve seen more sophistication from our customers, who are looking for us to be much clearer in our explanations of AI, and in illuminating important differences between different types of AI and analytics technologies from augmented reality and machine learning to deep learning, automated forecasting and many more so we dont treat AI as the hammer to every nail.” How would you characterize the status of your organizations deployment of AI? 11 WHERE IS AI BEING APPLIED? In which of the following functional areas are you deploying or considering deploying AI? Deploying Considering 12 71 % 5 % EMERGING BEST PRACTICES What sets successful AI adopters apart? In this survey, respondents were asked whether they had successfully deployed AI capabilities in their operations. When the results of a number of survey questions are viewed through this lens, we can identify areas in which successful organizations stand apart from their less successful counterparts particularly in areas where there are stark divergences. Consider these to be early-phase best practices adopted by those who are finding real success in their AI efforts a beacon for others at earlier phases of their AI journeys. PROCESS MATURITY Reviews AI output at least weekly Any complex business processes - especially those with multiple contingencies and potential points of failure are monitored frequently by successful organizations, and AI is no exception. Have processes in place for augmenting or overriding questionable results As organizations mature in their AI capabilities, they find that, just as with any other business capability, AI is not infallible. It will never have 100 percent accuracy and more sophisticated organizations develop processes that account for this reality. Anticipate more than 25 percent of processes being improved by AI in next three years The more leaders are exposed to AI capabilities, the more they seem to understand its potential to transform the organization. MORE SUCCESSFUL AI DEPLOYMENTS LESS SUCCESSFUL AI DEPLOYMENTS 43 % 33 % 74 % 28 %