François Bitouzet, Managing Director, Viva Technology, on the findings of an international survey assessing technology adoption and competitiveness.
Over the last few years, the pace of technology development has been incredible. At Viva Technology, we’ve seen flying taxis, bionic exoskeletons and AI that can create personalized fragrances. We’ve also heard how quantum computing transforms farming to ensure consistent yields, how AI identifies illnesses before they advance and how wine grapes are tested at zero gravity to assess mildew resistance.
The ingenuity driving this progress is undeniable, but these developments also pose serious questions. The same quantum computers used to develop medicine can also thwart all classical encryption that secures our digital infrastructure, like the internet or banks. The AI algorithms we use to predict weather patterns have been leveraged in cybersecurity attacks and have accelerated the spread of misinformation.
For many of us, this leaves us wondering where we stand and, more importantly, where we’re going.
To better understand this critical juncture, we surveyed business leaders across Europe and North America to uncover what role they see technology playing in the future of business. We discovered a shared optimism about technology’s potential, alongside concerns regarding its climate and ethical impact.
Technology continues to be seen as central to business growth and development
Globally, we’re united by the belief that technology is not only conducive to economic growth but vital to business success. A resounding 97% of business executives identify technology as thecore determinant of their companies’ ability to compete. This is set against the backdrop of a globalized world, where the business landscape is more competitive than ever. All executives surveyed agreed that implementing technology has made their organizations more productive (62%) and efficient, which, for most, has reduced their operational costs (48%) as a byproduct. This locates technology as a critical enabler to stand out, as businesses successfully leveraging technology can optimize processes, support teams, and develop cutting-edge products at a competitive price.
However, we see regional variances in how far and in what ways technology supports businesses. In general, there is greater optimism amongst US respondents, who identified 35% and 25% more benefits from implementing technology than French and German respondents. This likely reflects the reality that 42% of American executives can link technology usage to increased financial performance versus just 28% of German and 33% of Italian executives. There is much discussion about why these differences occur, despite similar intentions to use and invest in technologies. One popular explanation is that the US economy favours fast tech development and adoption, whereas greater regulations across Europe contribute to a slower rate of adoption.
If technology is the backbone of growth, AI is the nervous system
Confidence in technology is driven by seeing tangible results. The advent of ChatGPT in 2022 turned AI from a futuristic concept to a concrete and accessible proof point of the capabilities of AI. In the years since, we have seen the rapid development of AI tools, networks and programs and widespread adoption to match. Today AI is already helping companies to automate tasks, support their customers, analyze swathes of data, build code and predict outcomes.
For instance, Vitainfluence uses AI to accelerate drug discovery – in some cases reducing pharmaceutical research time by 10 years. These proof points underscore why 65% of our respondents believe that AI is the most likely to have the most significant impact on their business of all technologies available and 85% of surveyed companies planning to increase their investment in AI over the next 12 months.
As AI development, investment and implementation continue, we expect business growth and innovation to accelerate in tandem. However, amid this optimism – there are still reservations about the wider impact of technology – and AI.
Reframing the risk reward equation
Throughout the research, it became very clear that technology is perceived as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, technology promises to resolve some of the biggest challenges of our generation – and on the other, it threatens to advance them. For instance, 77% of respondents thought that technology may contribute to the invasion of privacy, proliferation of fake news and difficulty identifying it. These are valid concerns; one particular threat is the growth of AI generated images, which are becoming harder to detect and can be used to spread misinformation. However, our research also found that over half of UK and Spanish executives identify technology as the best tool to combat mis and dis-information. This cause for optimism is equally well-founded. Last year at Viva Technology, we saw firsthand how Everdian combats misinformation by analyzing large quantities of data with AI to uncover any mis/disinformation. This is just one example of the new frontier of companies leveraging AI to mitigate mis and disinformation.
Similarly, where 2/3rds of French respondents rightly expressed unease about technology’s carbon footprint, 37% of executives highlighted technology’s positive role in mitigating climate change. Overall, however, 90% of all respondents see technology as a solution to the major challenges of our time – suggesting the reward is itself, the reduction of risk and resolution to existential issues.
Looking ahead
Innovations in technology promise to transform all aspects of our daily lives. In business, keeping up with the rate of change will be vital to staying competitive and growth. It’s also vital that we consider technologies as a whole, understanding the multifaceted ways they will impact our daily lives – whether that’s wholly positive or not.
It’s precisely this tension between innovation and responsible implementation that our research seeks to expose. Every year, we confront the challenges and solutions created by technology to highlight the importance of people, collaboration and idea sharing to overcome the challenges and reach new frontiers. As executives race to invest in technology to support business growth, there must be an equal race to understand how technology works and how we can ensure ethical, considered uses of brilliant technology.
