Firms are betting big on the impact of AI on their business

A new report published by consulting firm Searce claims that organisations across the UK and US are making significant investments in artificial intelligence this year with nearly one in 10 decision-makers in both the UK (8 percent) and US (7 percent) planning to spend over $25 million. The 2024 State of AI report [registration] is based on a poll of 300 C-Suite and senior technology executives – including Chief AI Officers, Chief Data & Analytics Officers, Chief Transformation Officers, and Chief Digital Officers – at organisations with at least $500 million in revenue. The research examines some of the biggest trends, successes, and challenges facing businesses in their artificial intelligence decision-making, strategy, and execution.

While the research suggests that there is significant ongoing investment into AI, there are still concerns around some challenges to adoption of the various forms of the technology which differ across the UK and the US. For US decision-makers, data privacy and security were ranked as the number one hurdle (20 percent), whereas UK decision-makers ranked lack of qualified talent as their number one challenge (19 percent).

Additional findings from the report:

• One-third of businesses in the UK (31 percent) and the US (35 percent) are investing in AI to drive new business growth.
• The majority (96 percent) of UK participants view AI adoption as a key business priority with most (92 percent) rating the success rate of their AI initiatives as ‘successful’ and 31 percent planning to increase AI spend by 26-50 percent.
• When it comes to the build vs buy debate, over half (51 percent) of UK respondents said they had purchased solutions and partnered with external service providers when it came to fulfilling their AI needs rather than building the solution or servicing it in-house. This was similar in the US, with 57 percent saying the same.