Study Finds Businesses are Still Struggling to Utilise AI

15 AI risks businesses must confront and how to address them

Regularly assess models for fairness, especially regarding sensitive attributes such as race, gender or socioeconomic status. It offers natural language processing and AI-powered data analytics and automation tools. Watson is particularly noted for its ability to process and analyze large volumes of data, making it a popular choice for industries like healthcare, finance and customer service. This shift towards AI-driven operations has forever transformed how companies manage internal processes and interact with customers. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are no longer just buzzwords in the world of e-commerce.

For manufacturers, embracing AI now represents a strategic move towards modernizing operations and staying ahead in a competitive landscape. High-risk AI systems are those which pose a threat to safety or rights, including those used in products like medical devices or in areas such as infrastructure, education, and law enforcement. The main goal of the EU AI Act is to warrant a responsible development of AI, minimizing risks without limiting innovation.

New capabilities and business model expansion

It’s a reminder that AI is an incredibly powerful tool with the potential to remake our businesses for the better, but its benefits can also escape or elude us. As AI attracts investor attention and piques executives’ interest, companies have been quick to rebrand as AI companies or promote AI implementation across core business functions. Manufacturing environments generate massive amounts of data, but often the data is incomplete, inaccurate, or unstructured. This hampers the effectiveness of AI, as AI systems rely on high-quality, reliable data to deliver meaningful insights. AI-driven predictive maintenance is revolutionizing how manufacturers handle equipment upkeep. By predicting equipment failures before they happen, this technology minimizes downtime and enhances operational efficiency, saving both time and resources.

Fostering a culture of innovation encourages employees to embrace change, explore new ideas and participate in the AI adoption process. Creating this culture begins with leadership that promotes openness, creativity and curiosity, encouraging teams to consider how AI can drive value and improve business operations. Leadership can support a proinnovation mindset by communicating a clear vision for AI’s role in the organization, explaining its potential benefits and addressing common fears. Connected factories are prime examples of how artificial intelligence can be incorporated into production processes to build intelligent, networked ecosystems. Leveraging artificial intelligence in manufacturing helps evaluate real-time data from machinery, anticipate maintenance requirements, streamline operations, and reduce downtime using IoT sensors. By leveraging AI-based analytics manufacturing software can, speed up time to market, optimize semiconductor layouts, cut down expenses, and increase yields.

Software agencies can also provide expert validation, leveraging their domain expertise to ensure that AI solutions are technically sound and aligned with industry standards. Your company must engage with end-users, soliciting feedback, and fostering cross-functional collaboration, to ensure that your AI initiatives deliver tangible value and drive organizational success. Companies that have failed to do so have faced innovation restrictions, risk aversion, and scalability challenges, ultimately hindering their organization’s ability to harness the full potential of AI. However, launching your AI initiative with overwhelming scope can result in resource misallocation and stakeholder skepticism. Instead, you should be prioritizing quick wins to allow your organization to secure early successes, build momentum, and pave the way for larger-scale implementations. Despite its immense benefits, the improper implementation of AI can lead to setbacks and even reputational damage for your business.

Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR & AR) Integration

In fact, rooting an AI governance implementation strategy in value generation can help organizations holistically measure the tangible and nontangible ROI of AI governance. From cost and risk mitigation to long-term value creation, it’s increasingly clear that good governance is good business. AI adoption is only successful when employees are well-informed about its ethical use and their roles in supporting responsible practices.

For business leaders, this shift represents both an opportunity and an imperative to reimagine how their organizations engage with customers and operate internally. Status quo bias — our preference for the current way of things — can be a large blocker in many change initiatives. “People will say they’re quite happy with how things are going, so they don’t think they need to do something new,” says Svensson. Fear of uncertainty can also block change, as there’s still a fear of job displacement. It’s easy to see where that fear stems from, given that the report finds 66% of leaders won’t hire someone without AI skills, yet only 25% of companies plan to offer any AI training this year.

Similarly, the use of AI can have consequences that enterprise leaders either fail to consider or were unable to contemplate, Wong said. For example, Wong said, AI experts often don’t know how AI systems reached those faulty conclusions labeled as hallucinations. As experts explained, humans might make dozens of mistakes in a day, but a bot handling millions of transactions a day magnifies by millions any single error. Similarly, problematic algorithms — such as those that reflect the biases of the programmers — can lead AI systems to produce biased results. Consider, for example, what would happen if workers don’t trust an AI solution on a factory floor that determines a machine must be shut down for maintenance.

Adopting agile methodologies will enable your business to adapt to changing requirements and market conditions, reducing the risk of project failure and maximizing the effectiveness of AI solutions. By embracing an iterative approach
, your organization can foster innovation, enhance product-market fit, and accelerate time to market. In retail, AI enhances customer experiences through personalization and optimizes inventory management. AI is pivotal in predicting equipment failures and refining production schedules in manufacturing. In finance, it extends its utility beyond fraud detection to encompass risk management and personalized financial advice. AI plays a crucial role in developing treatment plans and advancing drug discovery in healthcare.

This guide to enterprise AI provides the building blocks for becoming successful AI implementers, users and innovators. It points AI novices to introductory explanations of how AI works and the various types of AI. Hyperlinks to TechTarget articles that provide more detail and insights on these topics are included throughout the guide. Digital twins are another increasing implementation for businesses when it comes to AI. Implementing pilot projects allows teams to try out small-scale AI applications before full deployment, creating a low-risk way to assess AI capabilities, gain insights and refine approaches. By embracing a culture of innovation, organizations not only enhance the success of individual AI projects but also build a resilient, adaptive workforce ready to leverage AI in future initiatives.

The adoption of shadow AI — the unauthorized use of AI tools at work — is another risk enterprises must address. The “2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report” from Microsoft and LinkedIn, released in May 2024, found that 78% of AI users are bringing their own AI tools to work, highlighting the need to develop AI governance polices. The value of AI to 21st-century businesses has been compared to the strategic value of electricity in the early 20th century when electrification transformed industries like manufacturing and created new ones such as mass communications.

This balances the business value promised by AI with the need for oversight and risk management. Legal experts, data scientists, ethicists and business leaders should work together to ensure the policy integrates technical expertise with ethical considerations. Google established its Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC) in 2019 to include input from ethicists, human rights specialists and industry experts when developing its AI systems. This cross-functional collaboration aimed to ensure that Google’s AI developments — such as its facial recognition technology — adhered to ethical standards and avoided biases that could harm minority communities. Although the council was disbanded due to internal conflicts, the initiative highlighted the importance of cross-functional collaboration in AI development.

• The decision to implement enterprise-grade AI requires careful consideration and management.
• As a solution, some of the best data cleanup practices include eliminating unreliable data and grouping data by projects, teams, task types and sizes, etc.
• They use the named entity recognition component of NLP for text mining, information retrieval and document classification.

“There is a potential ethical impact to how you use AI that your internal or external stakeholders might have a problem with,” she said. Workers, for instance, might find the use of an AI-based monitoring system both an invasion of privacy and corporate overreach, Kelly added. Such situations can stymie the adoption of AI, despite the benefits it can bring to many organizations. Although explainability is critical to validate results and build trust in AI overall, it’s not always possible — particularly when dealing with sophisticated AI systems that are continuously learning as they operate. However, executives are finding that AI in the enterprise also comes with unique risks that need to be acknowledged and addressed head-on. If you are interested in implementing AI in your business, feel free to reach out to me or one of our experts to get some more information.

By harnessing the power of AI solutions for manufacturing, companies are revolutionizing their supply chain processes and achieving significant improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness. Putting responsible AI into practice in the age of generative AI requires a series of best practices that leading companies are adopting. These practices can include cataloging AI models and data and implementing governance controls. Companies may benefit from conducting rigorous assessments, testing, and audits for risk, security, and regulatory compliance. At the same time, they should also empower employees with training at scale and ultimately make responsible AI a leadership priority to ensure their change efforts stick. Corporate leaders should be thoughtful when implementing AI, with end principles in mind.

Furthermore, the business optimizes logistics with AI-powered routing algorithms, enabling faster and more economical delivery. In the fiercely competitive retail sector, Walmart’s utilization of AI into supply chain operations exemplifies how cutting-edge technologies enhance decision-making, responsiveness, and overall supply chain resilience. The European Union is working on the EU AI Act, a regulatory framework, which aims to guarantee a safe, transparent and non-discriminatory use of AI systems.

“It’s just such an interesting time in technology,” says Colette Stallbaumer, general manager of Microsoft 365 and the Future of Work. “With this report, we partnered more deeply with LinkedIn so that we could really understand what the state of AI is at work, and what’s happening with AI broadly in the labor force.” We’ll unpack issues such as hallucination, bias and risk, and share steps to adopt AI in an ethical, responsible and fair manner. Foster collaboration with external organizations, research institutions, and open-source groups working on responsible AI. Stay informed about the latest developments in responsible AI practices and initiatives and contribute to industry-wide efforts. Incorporate fairness metrics into the development process to assess how different subgroups are affected by the model’s predictions.

For instance, Gong AI
records and evaluates calls, offering data-driven recommendations for coaching and optimizing sales techniques. For example, GitHub Copilot helps developers streamline their workflows by providing real-time code suggestions and debugging assistance. Whether you plan to use one category or both, it’s essential to be crystal clear on your company’s needs and capabilities before getting started. Industry-specific and extensively researched technical data (partially from exclusive partnerships). “The discussion will shift from what we try to regulate from a technical standpoint to how we innovate and what we deem fundamentally human,” the report concludes.

GE has integrated AI algorithms into its manufacturing processes to analyze massive volumes of data from sensors and historical records. Using AI, GE can spot trends, predict probable equipment issues, and streamline processes. By taking this proactive approach, GE can also reduce equipment downtime, boost overall equipment effectiveness, and improve manufacturing operations efficiency. While GenAI captures much of the spotlight, the real potential lies in developing comprehensive AI ecosystems that integrate multiple technologies with existing infrastructures, driving productivity and innovation. Rather than succumbing to FOMO and rushing into AI adoption, businesses should adopt a focused, use case-driven strategy, guided by the ARC framework, to maximise ROI. This ensures that AI becomes an integral, long-term component of the business, delivering tangible benefits, justifying investments to stakeholders, and fostering ongoing support for future AI initiatives.

From pilot to production: Driving ROI with genAI

The technology selected for implementation must be compatible with the tasks that the AI will perform—whether it’s predictive modeling, natural language processing (NLP) or computer vision. Organizations must first determine the type of AI model architecture and methodology that best suits their AI strategy. For example, machine learning techniques such as supervised learning are effective for tasks where data has undergone labeling, whereas unsupervised learning can be better suited for clustering or anomaly detection.

Goldman Sachs: Just 6.1% of American Companies Using AI – PYMNTS.com

Goldman Sachs: Just 6.1% of American Companies Using AI.

Posted: Sun, 15 Dec 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Put differently, AI has enormous potential to enhance companies’ processes, products and services for the better, but its impact is contingent on effective implementation. A. The market for artificial intelligence in manufacturing was pegged at $2.3 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to reach $16.3 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 47.9% over this period. This data depicts the promising future of AI in manufacturing and how it is the right time for businesses to invest in the technology to gain significant business results.

Before diving into AI implementation, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of your business objectives and where AI can make the most significant impact. Take the time to assess your current processes and identify areas that could benefit from automation, optimization, or enhanced decision-making capabilities. Overstocking can lead to increased costs, while understocking can result in missed sales opportunities. This tech can analyze historical sales data, market trends and external factors like holidays or economic conditions.

Fortunately, there are many ready-to-use AI solutions available that offer cost-effective options for integration. One application of AI and ML I’m seeing is to deliver more personalized shopping experiences. Many consumers today expect more than a generic online shopping interface; they want recommendations and offers that cater to their specific preferences and behaviors. AI can be used to analyze data, including past purchases, browsing habits and even social media activity, to predict what a customer might want to buy next. The enterprise AI vendor and tool ecosystem addresses multiple AI-related capabilities. The following summary is based on extensive industry research into the main enterprise AI tool categories and factors in rankings from consultancies Gartner and Forrester.

• Different industries, such as health care organizations, higher education, and financial institutions are also subject to specific regulations that apply to the use of AI.
• Use process mapping not only to understand your company’s existing workflows, but also to improve your processes before you automate them.
• Generative AI in manufacturing is gaining traction for its ability to innovate in design and production.
• Despite the challenges involved with scaling AI to meet business initiatives, companies do have some success stories to build on.

From enhancing operational efficiency to revolutionizing customer experiences, AI offers immense potential. Creating a robust AI policy is imperative for companies to address the ethical, legal and operational challenges that come with AI implementation. Implementing AI frees up employees’ time from mundane and repetitive tasks, allowing them to concentrate on more critical and strategic activities. By reducing manual labour and streamlining processes, AI increases overall productivity, allowing businesses to achieve more with fewer resources.

As mentioned above, generative AI can help enhance this process by providing users with interactive insights on computer vision data, either in the form of text, images, or audio output. However, nine out of 10 of the senior technology decision-makers questioned admitted they didn’t fully understand the tech and its potential to affect business processes. According to a global report by data and AI solutions company SAS, published in July, only businesses in China lead the UK in the adoption of generative AI.