International. IFS released the results of a global research study on attitudes and strategies towards artificial intelligence (AI) among business leaders.
The study surveyed 600 business leaders worldwide and a broad spectrum of industries involved with their companies' enterprise technology, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM), and field service management (FSM).
Key results:
About 90 percent of respondents reported at least some plans to implement AI in various parts of their business. Industrial automation was the most commonly reported investment area with 44.6 percent AI project planning, while customer relationship management (CRM) and inventory and logistics planning tied for second place at 38.9 percent.
When asked how they plan to use AI, 60.6 percent said they hoped it would help them increase the productivity of existing workers. Just under half, 47.9 percent, said they would use AI to add value to the products and services they sell to customers. About 18.1 percent said they would proactively use it to replace existing workers.
While the majority of respondents anticipated AI productivity increases, 29.3 percent anticipated that AI would lead to a reduction in staff in their industry. To manage this, 56 percent of respondents stated that society could better prepare by changing educational programs to prepare workers to make direct use of AI tools to increase their own productivity. Another 23.4 percent said they expect the market to create new jobs for people displaced by AI, while 15.4 percent suggested a shortened 30-hour workweek.
"AI is no longer an emerging technology. It is being implemented to support business automation in the here and now, as this study clearly demonstrates," said IFS Vice President of AI and RPA Bob De Caux. We are seeing many real-world examples where technology is augmenting existing decision-making processes by providing users with more timely, accurate and relevant information. In today's disruptive economy, the convergence of technologies such as AI, RPA, and IoT is driving a new form of business automation that will provide companies that are brave enough with the tools and services they need to be more competitive and outperform larger competitors."
One of the early adopters of industrial automation solutions that use robotics to transform its business strategy is North American packaging manufacturer Cheer Pack. It deployed a fleet of AI-powered autonomous vehicles to robotize material movements at its U.S. factory and has already seen strong returns on investment.
Cheer Pack's IT Director Alex Ivkovic noted, "We expect the cost savings to exceed US$1.5 million per year. In addition, each and every employee will be reassigned to a more qualified position that will help us with our labor shortage."
Bob De Caux concluded: "The results of the study and the real-world scenarios being conducted with our clients point to the conclusion that the time is right for companies to derive commercial and financial benefits from technology automation. Falling into the hype of AI is easy, but success requires disruption to existing business models. Technologies themselves are not a panacea, nor are they a universal solution to any problem. However, with the right data model and viable use cases, AI can support improved productivity and deliver significant benefits for both operations and the business as a whole. Artificial intelligence will be used by the vast majority of organizations in some form in the near future, extracting real value from intelligent, long-term processes."
