45% of executives state ChatGPT has increased AI investment
Gartner Inc has issued the results from its latest research highlighting that 45% of executives have said that ChatGPT has prompted an increase in artificial intelligence (AI) investment. In addition, 70% of executives said that their organisation is in investigation and exploration mode with generative AI, while 19% are in pilot or production mode.
The release of this study coincides with the news of so-called AI Godfather Geoffrey Hinton resigning from Google, after citing his concern over the rapid rise of AI platforms.
The poll consisted of more than 2,500 executive leaders as part of a Gartner webinar series in March and April 2023 discussing the enterprise impact of ChatGPT and generative AI. Of these participants, 45% reported that the publicity of ChatGPT has prompted them to increase AI investments.
“The generative AI frenzy shows no signs of abating,” said Frances Karamouzis, VP Analyst at Gartner. “Organisations are scrambling to determine how much cash to pour into generative AI solutions, which products are worth the investment, when to get started and how to mitigate the risks that come with this emerging technology.”
Executives Claim Benefits of Generative AI Outweigh the Risks
Additionally, it was found that 68% of executives believe that the benefits of generative AI outweigh the risks, compared with just 5% that feel the risks outweigh the benefits. As investments deepen, however, executives may begin to shift their perspective to considering the benefits to AI.
“Initial enthusiasm for a new technology can give way to more rigorous analysis of risks and implementation challenges,” said Karamouzis. “Organisations will likely encounter a host of trust, risk, security, privacy and ethical questions as they start to develop and deploy generative AI.”
Customer experience was also confirmed to be the primary focus of generative AI investments, with the below chart confirming that 38% of respondents saw that as a priority. Despite what Gartner described as ‘economic headwinds,’ only 17% of executives cited cost optimisation as their primary purpose of generative AI investments.
As organisations begin experimenting, or continue to experiment, with generative AI, many are starting with use cases such as media content improvement or code generation. Yet, it is clear that this type of AI has great potential to offer support solutions that assist humans or machines as well as executing business and IT processes.
According to Karamouzis, “autonomous business, the next macrophase of technological change, can mitigate the impact of inflation, talent shortages and even economic downturns.
“CEOs and CIOs that leverage generative AI to drive transformation through new products and business models will find massive opportunities for revenue growth.”
