One survey has unearthed a mix of optimism, concerns and uncertainties in the region considered a “hotbed” of GenAI/AI adoption

Based on an online/phone survey of 1,900 IT and business decision makers* across the Asia-Pacific-Japan (APJ) region on AI and generative AI (GenAI), some key trends were noted among respondents.

First, 88% of respondents cited being well positioned competitively and having “a solid strategy”. Some 50% cited being uncertain about what their industry will look like in the next three to five years. About 59% cited they were struggling to keep pace, due to: a lack of the right talent with the needed skills/competencies (41%); data privacy and cybersecurity concerns (36%); and the lack of right resources to manage the evolving legislative and regulatory landscape (31%). 

Second, 69% of respondents cited fearing that GenAI will introduce new security and privacy issues; 76% agreed to prompts that their data and IP was too valuable to be placed in a GenAI tool where a third party may have access. Also, 52% cited they had begun implementing GenAI, and 78% agreeing to prompts that the organization, rather than the machine, the user or the public, is responsible for any AI malfunction or undesired behavior.  

Other AI findings

Thirdly, investing in a modern, scalable infrastructure was cited as the number one area of improvement for respondents to accelerate innovation. Some 78% of IT decision makers in the survey cited preferring an on-premises or hybrid model to address the challenges they foresee with implementing GenAI. Also:

    • 36% indicated they can turn data into real-time insights today to support innovation efforts.
    • 84% indicated that data was the differentiator, and their GenAI strategy must involve using and protecting that data.
    • 47% indicated that they anticipate that the bulk of their data will come from edge computing in the next five years.
    • 74% indicated there was currently a shortage of talent required for innovation in their industry. AI fluency, learning agility and desire, as well as creativity and creative thinking ranked as the top skills and competencies they needed for the next five years.
    • 48% believed “driving environmentally sustainable innovations” was an important improvement area.
    • 79% indicated experimenting with “as-a-Service” solutions to manage their IT environment more efficiently; 76% indicated they were actively moving AI inferencing to the edge to become more energy efficient (e.g., smart buildings).
    • 85% of business decision makers in the survey had reasons to exclude IT decision makers from strategic conversations. Both groups ranked a stronger relationship as the second most important improvement area.

According to Peter Marrs, President (Asia Pacific & Japan and Greater China), Dell Technologies, the firm that commissioned the survey, respondents in the APJ region were “taking action to harness the transformative potential of technologies like GenAI and bringing AI to their data to unlock value and drive growth. Seizing the opportunity requires a strong ecosystem of trusted partners, with the right skills to create secure and scalable technology foundations for innovation, designed with sustainability in mind.”

*in firms with more than 100 employees; Asia Pacific countries surveyed from September to Nov 2023 were not specified in the report