DAVOS, Switzerland,
January 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
- AI Maturity Index
Reveals Early Adopters Already Reaping Rewards
- AI Adopters Expect 39 Percent
Revenue Rise by 2020
- 80 Percent of AI Adopters Replacing
Roles Will Retain and Retrain Employees
Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology,
and next-generation services, today released multinational research
findings on artificial intelligence (AI) business impact, market
maturity and expectations. The research report,
Amplifying Human Potential: Towards Purposeful
Artificial Intelligence, polled 1,600 senior
business decision makers at large organizations across the
world.
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The report revealed a clear link between an organization's
revenue growth and its AI maturity: Organizations who report faster
growth in revenue over the past three years were also more likely
to be further ahead when it comes to AI maturity. AI is perceived
as a long-term strategic priority for innovation, with 76 percent
of the respondents citing AI as fundamental to the success of their
organization's strategy, and 64 percent believing that their
organization's future growth is dependent on large-scale AI
adoption. While there are ethical and job-related concerns, 62
percent believe that stringent ethical standards are needed to
ensure the success of AI - most respondents seem optimistic about
redeploying displaced employees with higher value work. The
majority, 85 percent, plan to train employees about the benefits
and use of AI, and 80 percent of companies replacing roles with AI
technologies will retrain or redeploy displaced employees.
Sandeep Dadlani, President
& Head of Americas, Infosys, said, "Artificial Intelligence
(AI) adoption is on the rise and we are excited to see the
investments in AI that businesses are gradually making to derive
meaningful and creative change. The achievements are remarkable and
the opportunities AI is bringing forth are vast. As we are seeing
AI mature and gain momentum, our research shows that the next four
years will witness further spikes in interest, and general
bullishness about the significant value and benefits that can be
obtained through AI adoption. As an industry therefore, we must
take necessary steps to ensure AI is developed morally and
ethically across every part of society and that employees are
actively engaged and provided with the necessary training to be
central to this journey."
Key research findings:
- Businesses expect noticeable AI adoption and growth
by 2020: Organizations that have already deployed or have plans
to deploy AI technologies expect to see a 39 percent average
increase in revenue by 2020, alongside a 37 percent reduction in
costs. 76 percent of IT and business decision makers see AI as
pivotal to the success of their organization.
- Businesses plan to invest in skills development:
In 80 percent of cases where companies are replacing roles with AI,
organizations are redeploying or retraining staff to retain them in
the business. Furthermore, 53 percent are specifically investing in
skills development. Organizations that have fewer AI related skills
are more likely to re-deploy workers impacted by AI adoption,
whereas those with more AI-related skills are more likely to
re-train employees, according to the study. The leading industries
that plan to retain and retrain their workers are: fast-moving
consumer goods (94 percent); aerospace and automotive (87 percent);
energy, oil and gas (80 percent); and pharmaceutical and life
sciences (78 percent). The research reveals AI will cause greater
investment in workforces, specifically China (95 percent), France (90 percent), Germany (89 percent), the UK (82 percent), and
the US (76 percent).
- Addressing ethical concerns is
essential for AI success: Two-thirds of
those surveyed have not fully considered the ethical issues related
to AI, such as employee concerns about handing over control, and
industry regulations. Further, 90 percent say their organization's
employees face challenges or concerns with AI adoption, and 88
percent report challenges or concerns from customers and suppliers.
In total, 53 percent agree that ethical concerns are a significant
obstacle to effective application of AI technology.
- Market and Industry results
show differences: Based on the responses, companies
in India and China are much more likely to state that they
are ahead of their industry competitors when it comes to AI use,
followed by Germany, the US, UK,
France. Fast moving consumer goods
(57%) and telecoms (48%) are much more likely to report that they
have already felt AI disrupting their sector. Pharmaceuticals and
life sciences reported the widest usage of AI technologies that are
working according to their expectations, leading to the highest AI
Maturity Index scores by industry.
- Businesses are at the start of their AI
journey: Only one in ten respondents that have deployed
AI technologies believe that their organization is fully maximizing
the current available benefits and capabilities of AI. The majority
(90 percent) report that their organization's employees face
challenges or concerns relating to the adoption of AI. Around four
in ten respondents believe that the time to implement, ease of use
and the interoperability with other systems and platforms are areas
of AI that require the most improvement before it can be effective
in their organization. There are also areas of AI adoption that
need to be addressed with training, education and transparency in
the workplace. Safety of data (43 percent), job security (40
percent) and pay rates (30 percent) are the foremost areas of
workforce concern despite the broadly positive outlook for AI
adoption.
Other key research findings include:
- AI in action: Big data automation (65 percent) and
predictive/prescriptive analytics (54 percent) are the primary AI
applications today. On average, the companies surveyed have
invested $6.7 million in AI in the
last year, and have been actively using AI for an average of two
years. The IT department is the leading adopter (69 percent),
followed by operations (34 percent), business development (33
percent), marketing (29 percent) and commercial, sales and customer
services (28 percent).
- Risk and reward: 71 percent agree the rise of AI in the
workplace is inevitable, citing positive change for business
prospects, employees and society. However, over half (51 percent)
admit that cost reduction is an area of AI that requires the most
improvement before it can be effective for their organization.
- Deployment: 88 percent also report that their
organization's customers and suppliers face challenges and concerns
relating to the adoption of AI. Four in ten point to a lack of
understanding of the benefits and intended uses for it, while 38
percent flag a general mistrust of the technology. A similar number
(37 percent) indicated their preference to work alongside and
interact with human workers rather than machines.
Overall, the study demonstrates the role AI can play in business
growth, create opportunities for people to do more than what their
current job and education enables, and drive long-term macro
environment benefits. Decision makers believe AI will bring out the
best in their organization's people (65 percent), and feel it can
deliver positive societal (70 percent) and economic (76 percent)
change.
For a full copy of the report and AI maturity index, please
visit: Infosys.com/AImaturity
METHODOLOGY
The research report, Amplifying Human Potential: Towards
Purposeful Artificial Intelligence, commissioned by Infosys and
conducted by independent research agency Vanson Bourne, polled 1,600 senior business
decision makers at large organizations across seven markets.
For the purposes of this research, AI was defined as an area of
computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent
machines that work and react like humans. Some of the activities
computers with AI are designed for include speech recognition,
learning, planning and problem solving. Examples of applied AI
technologies include but are not limited to: machine learning,
predictive/prescriptive analytics and avatar technologies.
About Infosys Ltd
Infosys is a global leader in technology services and
consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to create
and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From
engineering to application development, knowledge management and
business process management, we help our clients find the right
problems to solve, and to solve these effectively. Our team of
199,000+ innovators, across the globe, is differentiated by the
imagination, knowledge and experience, across industries and
technologies that we bring to every project we undertake.
Visit http://www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can
help your enterprise thrive in the digital age.
Safe Harbor
Certain statements in this press release concerning our future
growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our
future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe
harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995,
which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those in such
forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to
these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and
uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in
foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense
competition in IT services including those factors which may affect
our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain
highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on
fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration,
restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our
ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for
technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication
networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete
and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our
service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys
has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of
governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional
conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring
companies outside India, and
unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic
conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could
affect our future operating results are more fully described in our
United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including
our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended
March 31, 2016. These filings are
available at http://www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to
time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements,
including statements contained in the company's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders.
In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements
contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be
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SOURCE Infosys