Business bosses love AI but employees aren't so keen

A new survey, sponsored by Riverbed, has found that while top-level execs remain highly favourable to AI, their subordinates are less convinced. Meanwhile, confusion reins among organisations as to how their AI efforts are performing compared to their peers.

Enthusiasm for AI is strong among the upper levels of management: 94% of respondents said their C-suites are the ones driving adoption, the research found.

However, sentiment among the decision-makers who took part in the research appears more muted. Over a third (37%) described their companies as “neutral” about AI and a further 4% said they were “sceptical”. The remainder (59%) felt “positive” about the technology.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that there’s a degree of ambivalence around AI. Around a quarter of AI projects (23%) didn’t meet expectations, the survey respondents said.

At the same time, businesses’ view of their own AI performance may not match up to reality.

The research found that 82% of companies think they’re ahead of the competition when it comes to AI implementation, with the average spend on AI-related projects among respondents’ companies hitting $14.7 million over the last financial year.

At the same time, companies are worried their business rivals might get the drop on them with AI. 91% of those surveyed said they are concerned that their competitors will have an advantage if their AI implementations are more developed.

Perception gap

“This gap between perception and reality indicates that many are overconfident about where their IT function is on their AI journey,” the research noted.

“It’s important for organisations to be realistic about their achievements in the context of their peers by keeping an eye on what competitors are doing, and focusing on their own AI strategy and execution.”

So, how is everyone else performing?

The majority of organisations surveyed (65%) are at the stage of accelerating their AI adoption, increasing their spending on “infrastructure and talent”, according to the report. Another 23% describe themselves as having AI fully integrated into their operations.

A smaller proportion of companies are at an earlier stage in the AI lifecycle: 3% are still looking into how AI could be used in their business, while 9% are running pilots and proof of concepts.

Around two-thirds of businesses (66%) describe AI as a “key strategic priority”. Businesses’ reasons for turning to AI are almost evenly split between making savings and generating revenue: the most common reason for deploying AI – cited by around half (54%) of organisations – was to drive operational efficiencies, while a similar number (46%) are using the technology to boost growth.

The survey used responses from 1,200 business and IT decision-makers from countries in Europe, the Middle East, the US and Australia. All respondents worked for companies with annual revenue over $250 million.