Gartner: AI ambition & readiness must be prioritised by CIOs

During Gartner’s IT Symposium/Xpo 2023 conference, analysts highlighted that AI and the emergence of generative AI are shifting how humans and machines interact.

The company has predicted that, by 2025, generative AI will be a workforce partner for 90% of companies worldwide, with CIOs and IT executives having a major role in how they shape AI and how AI shapes us.

As AI becomes an enterprise initiative, not just an IT initiative, Gartner states that CIOs must actively shape the nature of this change as AI continues transforming the relationship between humans and machines in the workplace.

2024 will see AI as the ‘most important’ business technology

Very few organisations have established principles or even a clear vision for AI, according to Gartner. A survey conducted by the company in June 2023 of CIOs and technology leaders found that only 9% of organisations have an AI vision statement in place, in addition to more than one-third of respondents having no plans at the time to create an AI vision statement.

Gartner has since released a report that states that more than half of organisations have increased generative AI investment in the last 10 months. Whilst these results suggest an increase over the course of 2023, it is clear that business professionals must continue to work more towards AI-ready strategies. 

Over the past year, technology sectors have seen a very rapid growth in demand for AI and machine learning tools, which has seen businesses struggling to keep up. With this in mind, it is paramount that enterprises and private developers must continue to exercise caution and continue making AI responsibly with ethical considerations moving forward.

Gartner also states that businesses must establish AI-ready principles and implement AI-ready security measures and prepare for potential data breaches.

In response to these findings, the IEEE recently conducted a study that found 65% of CTOs and CIOs believe AI will be the most important technology in 2024 and will be used in diverse ways across the global economy. Leaders also reported in the survey that they will be focusing on AI applications and algorithms that can optimise data, perform complex tasks and make decisions with human-like accuracy. 

Survey participants were also asked what percentage of jobs across the global economy in 2024 will be augmented by AI-driven software. 26-50% of jobs were cited by 41% of those surveyed, with 28% citing 1-25% of jobs. In addition, another 26% cited 51-75% of jobs, as well as 5% cited 76-100% of jobs.

Ayesha Iqbal, IEEE Senior Member and Engineering Trainer at the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre, says: “AI has significantly evolved in recent years, with applications in almost every business sector. However, there are some barriers preventing organisations and individuals from adopting AI, such as a lack of skilled individuals, complexity of AI systems, lack of governance, and fear of job replacement. 

“With AI growing more rapidly than ever before, and already being tested and employed in education, healthcare, transportation, finance, data security, and more, it’s high time that the Government, tech leaders, and academia work together to establish standards and regulation for safe and responsible development of AI-based systems. This way, AI can be used to its full potential for the collective benefit of humanity.”  

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