AI’s promise shows little sign of slowing with 42% of businesses also considering it their most important IT project.
Appetite for the potential of AI projects is at an all-time high, according to research conducted by the Cloud Industry Forum, which revealed that 42% of businesses now consider it to be their most important IT project, ranking ahead of other considerations such as security, IT sustainability (both 40%) and controlling costs (38%).
AI’s prominence in modern business is also supported by the finding that 96% of organisations believe AI will be at least somewhat important to their organisation in the next five years. This figure is a significant increase from 2023, when 86% of organisations reported the same.
David Terrar, CEO, Cloud Industry Forum, said: “The data from this year’s report indicates that much of the remaining scepticism (around AI) has entirely been quashed. Businesses are now further informed and fully on board with AI’s ability to reduce costs, save time and enhance their offerings.
“Crucially, the past 12 months have served as a welcome opportunity for businesses to do some of the dirty work that often comes with AI implementation, before they can reap its rewards. It has long been clear that getting the best out of AI requires time, effort and resources. Collecting the right data and ensuring that enough of it is available to train models, for example, can be a long and laborious task. Most organisations seem to be wise to this now.”
Elsewhere, the research reveals, businesses have also had new legislation and regulations to contend with as lawmakers have made strides to keep the progress of AI in check.
“Now though, businesses have had time to get to grips with these new regulations and are firmly on their way to AI implementation – if they haven’t implemented already,” said Terrar.
Though AI projects are not limited to Gen AI, it remains a popular form of adoption. 94% of organisations report that they are either planning to or are already using Gen AI. Specifically, 62% of businesses report that it is already in use across at least some parts of their organisation.
For many businesses, the motivations for adoption are clear. Ninety-six per cent of respondents in this year’s report said that Gen AI will or has already benefited their organisation, including improving data analytics (46%), customer service (45%) and/or products and services (43%).
“For cloud service providers, Gen AI can and will be an important tool for improving their offerings in several ways. Not only will it assist in personalising offerings for users, but it will also help potential customers to better understand what cloud can do for them. For vendors, Gen AI will be vital in offering innovative solutions to challenges that have historically been complex, which will help optimise workloads and unlock new opportunities for growth,” said Terrar.
