Investments in AI, machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA) technology are set to reach $232 billion (roughly £176 billion) by 2025, a new report from KPMG has shown.
The study suggests that, although AI technologies currently account for $12.4 billion (around £9.40 billion) of global investment, this number will skyrocket in the next three years, with 40 percent of executives expected to increase their AI investments by 20 percent or more, and 32 percent of them increasing RPA investment by 20 percent or more.
However, many businesses also revealed they were unsure about the impact of AI and didn’t feel confident their employees were prepared for such a drastic change.
“Many traditional businesses with legacy approaches risk falling behind digital-first companies if they stay with the status quo,” said Cliff Justice, KPMG partner and co-author of the study.
“At the moment,” Justice and his co-authors state, “executives demonstrated high hopes but little readiness to drive AI deployment at scale and use it as a vehicle for organizational transformation”.
The most pressing challenge, the research has shown, is skills shortages, cited by two-thirds of executives. Roughly 50 per cent also report they are struggling to define clear goals and objectives for AI deployment and accountability.
To make AI really usable on an entrepreneurial level for businesses then, companies should focus on applications of the technology natively developed for businesses.
“It takes a comprehensive transformation of business and operating models to compete in their own market at the level at which a Tesla or Amazon do in theirs.”
Only by doing so, says Justice, the AI industry will reach its next stage of investments.