A survey of medium- to large- sized corporations’ GenAI plans and challenges offers how generative AI usage and governance levels vary
In a February to April 2024 survey of 1,600 decision makers* around the world^ on generative AI (GenAI) strategies and trends, the following observations were disclosed.
Some 83% of respondents from China indicated they were using the technology, compared to those from the United Kingdom (70%), the United States (65%) and Australia (63%).
In terms of respondents citing their organizations were “mature” in having “fully implemented GenAI technologies”, China respondents were at 19%, those in the UK were at 11%, and those in the US were at 24%.
Other findings
| Region/Topic | The US and Canada | Brazil and Mexico | The UK/Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark | France, Germany, Italy, Benelux, Spain and Poland | Australia, China, Japan and the UAE/Saudi Arabia |
| % of respondents whose organizations were indicated to be fully using and implementing generative AI into their organization’s processes | 20 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
| % of respondents indicating their organizations have implemented GenAI use policies | 63 | 52 | 58 | 60 | 71 |
| To what extent do those planning to invest in GenAI in the next financial year have a dedicated budget? | 89 | 84 | 91 | 91 | 94 |
At the industry level, the derived rankings for full implementation of GenAI into regular business processes, versus already using GenAI daily “to some extent”, were:
- Banking: 17%/23%
- Telco: 15%/29%
- Insurance: 11%/22%
- Life sciences: 11%/19%
- Professional services: 11%/23%
- Retail: 10%/27%
- Public sector: 9%/13%
- Healthcare: 9%/17%
- Manufacturing: 7%/16%
- Energy and utilities: 6%/17%
At the functional level, the percentages of respondents’ organizations’ departments using or planning to use GenAI were: Sales – 86%, Marketing – 85%, IT – 81%, Finance – 75%, Production – 75%.
In terms of obstacles cited in the usage and implementation of GenAI:
- The lack of a clear GenAI strategy was the most challenging
- 9% of respondents indicated they were extremely familiar with their organization’s adoption of GenAI.
- 25% of respondents whose organizations indicated to have fully implemented GenAI cited they were extremely familiar with their organization’s GenAI adoption strategy.
- 90% of respondents who were senior technology decision makers overall indicated they did not fully understand GenAI and its potential to affect business processes.
- 45% of respondents who were CIOs cited understanding their organization’s AI adoption strategy; 36% of respondents who were Chief Technology Officers claimed the same.
- 75% of respondents indicated they have set aside budgets to invest in GenAI in the next financial year.
- Data-related problems cited were: insufficient data to fine tune large language models; lack of the appropriate tools to successfully implement AI; and concerns about data privacy and data security.
- 10% of respondents cited they were fully prepared to comply with impending AI regulations, and one third of those whose organizations have been indicated to have fully implemented GenAI believed they can comply with regulations.
- 7% of respondents in organizations with full GenAI implementation were providing a high level of training on GenAI governance, and 5% indicated having a reliable system in place to measure bias and privacy risks in large language models.
- 89% of respondents whose organizations were early GenAI adopters reported improved employee experience and satisfaction; 82% indicated savings in operational costs; and 82% stated higher levels of customer retention.
According to Bryan Harris, Executive Vice President and CTO, SAS, the firm that commissioned the survey: “With any new technology, organizations must navigate a discovery phase, separating hype from reality, to understand the complexity of real-world implementations in the enterprise… As we exit the hype cycle, it is now about purposefully implementing and delivering repeatable and trusted business results from GenAI.”
*working in banking, insurance, the public sector, life sciences, health care, telco, manufacturing, retail, energy and utilities, and professional services — and holding job titles including data manager, IT director and chief information officer — where the smallest organizations involved employed a workforce of 500-999 people, and the largest had more than 10,000 employees.
^from USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico (550), the UK/Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark (300), France, Germany, Italy, Belgium/Netherlands/Luxemburg, Spain, Poland (475), and Japan, Australia, China, UAE/Saudi Arabia (275)
