Dive Brief:
- CEOs think AI is the technology most likely to impact their industry in the next three years, according to 21% of respondents to a Gartner survey released Wednesday. The firm surveyed 400 CEOs and other senior executives.
- AI's potential to accelerate productivity matches the top two strategic priorities CEOs are working on in 2023: growth and technological development, according to the survey.
- "AI is reaching the tipping point where CEOs who are not yet invested become concerned that they are missing something competitively important," said Mark Raskino, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, in a release.
Dive Insight:
A heated competition is playing out in the vendor market, with tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google vying for enterprise buy-in into their generative AI solutions and products.
The argument for implementing the technology is simple: generative AI will enhance efficiency by augmenting the capabilities of workers and lead to new income streams.
Executive leaders are starting to overcome the major changes of recent years, and moving toward an age in which talent, sustainability and next-level digital change will drive competitive performance, Raskino said.
This marks AI's fourth-consecutive year atop the list of technologies CEOs perceive as disruptive. By comparison, the next closest technology in this year's survey was digitalization, seen as most impactful by just 12% of respondents.
Interest in the outcomes generative AI can deliver is outweighing concerns over risk or privacy issues, according to a previous Gartner survey. Two-thirds of executives say generative AI's benefits outweigh potential risks. Nearly 1 in 5 leaders say their companies have advanced pilots or are in the production stages of using generative AI.
As the technology powering generative AI applications evolves, regulation is still playing catch-up.
Experts agree generative AI and its potential effects on society require a more cohesive, thoughtful approach to legislation.
