Uncovering Motives Behind Enterprise Adoptions of Generative AI

Question: Why are companies reaching out for generative AI components to add to their enterprise software solutions?

Answer: (Well, sort of.) This essentially boils down to a variety of reasons. Quite important among them, however, are better employee productivity and improved customer engagement.

This, notably, is according to a new survey conducted by Insight Enterprises (in partnership with The Harris Poll). The study found that two-thirds (66%) of business leaders say their company has deployed private, secure generative AI tools to the workforce, and a similar number (65%) say their department has been tasked to identify use cases for their organization.

Respondent companies were asked to identify and rank the top benefits they are hoping to gain from generative AI initiatives. More than half (54%) reported improved productivity as a top outcome expected from the technology. Additionally, around two in five cite improved customer experience (42%), improved customer service (40%), and/or reduced human error (37%).

The research also identified that roadblocks to the implementation of generative AI do, of course, remain. Employee knowledge and training on generative AI tools remains a top barrier to implementation (32%), indicating that more education and training is surely required.

Insight’s latest research, a follow-on to its June 2023 report, “Beyond Hypotheticals: Understanding the Real Possibilities of Generative AI,” is designed to garner the latest insights on how 600 director level or above professionals at companies with more than a thousand employee are exploring generative AI technologies.

“It’s remarkable that most IT budgets did not even anticipate generative AI a year and a half ago. But now, as we enter 2024, just about every business leader is fixated on how this technology can reinvent their operations and create new business models,” said David McCurdy, Chief Enterprise Architect and Chief Technology Officer at Insight. “That said, there’s a certain ‘finesse’ that many employees still need to acquire in order to effectively leverage generative AI in their work. As we shift gears into the next phase of adoption, advanced training will be crucial to success.”