It is understandable why some businesses are hesitant to jump at AI opportunities, particularly if they are in heavily regulated industries such as finance, or because it feels daunting – but this must be addressed. The topic of generative AI has been constantly discussed in the DataIQ community in 2023 and DataIQ has created a generative AI assessment questionnaire to help data leaders on their journey to an AI-assisted future.
Those that are looking into how AI can improve their business are poised to reap the benefits and early rewards of the latest disruptive technology; whereas those more hesitant to use – or sometimes banned outright from using – the latest AI tools are going to find themselves having to play catch-up to the field in the not-too-distant future.
Thoughts on AI from the industry
In September the team at Multiverse released a report built from the results of responses from 1,000 business leaders across the UK and USA and the findings indicated that AI tools need to be embraced immediately.
“The results from business leaders show a big divergence between those running towards AI and those running away,” said Ujjwal Singh, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Multiverse. “The advocates of AI are getting their workforces ready, putting policies in place and training up their teams. They are looking at how to cut staff time on manual jobs and creating prompt libraries for staff to access to create efficiencies across their business.”
This sentiment is backed up by the fact that more than two-thirds of respondents are planning targeted investment in AI, data and software engineering skills programmes. Furthermore, the findings of the report highlight that skills transformation is a prime focus of business leaders to lay the foundations for future business success: Two-thirds (69%) of business leaders believe that their organisation will need different workforce skills to stay competitive by 2030.
The report also shows that:
- AI, tech, and data skills are of highest concern: Leaders named AI as their most significant skill gap currently, while data analytics and software engineering were among the top skill gaps most likely to persist into 2030.
- Leaders consider AI skills training a high priority: 83% reported that their organisation is moving quickly to implement workforce skills development on AI.
- They strongly believe AI will create business value: Over two-thirds of leaders say AI will improve productivity and customer experience (69%) and create more informed business strategies (68%).
- The cost of doing nothing is high: Half of leaders believe a lack of AI skills will negatively impact revenue growth (50%), productivity (50%) and profitability (49%).
- Skills development is at the top of leaders’ lists: When asked about their future workforce strategy, 76% of leaders said they were likely to invest in upskilling existing employees, while 73% are likely to reskill employees into new roles.
- Budgets are increasing: Over three-quarters of leaders (77%) say they plan to increase training and development budgets by 2030.
For those less certain on their data journey, which includes many sceptics, there are drawbacks to waiting. It has been shown time and again throughout business history that those most confident in embracing disruptive technologies emerge with better businesses – and AI is one of those times.
“There are businesses who are prioritising risk mitigation, and risk being caught behind,” said Singh. “They want to ‘wait and see’ or in some cases are banning tools such as ChatGPT, rather than embracing them. The prospect feels daunting: but the real risk of AI is missing the opportunity.”
The question then becomes: How can data leaders instil confidence in new AI capabilities for sceptical business decision-makers? It is undeniable that there has been exponential growth for AI tools – and this is showing no sign of stopping in 2024 – therefore, education is the key. People need to know how and why these new tools will benefit their daily lives and how it is relevant to their work.
Singh continued: “We made an early decision to introduce an AI module into every apprenticeship. AI literacy is now a vital foundational skill – team members will struggle to do their job well unless they have capability in AI. That module is grounded in practical, applied use of AI and covers the skills to use the tools we have today, but also the skills to adapt to the tools we will have in the future. Education also enables us to make AI more inclusive and offer the training – and the career boost it unlocks – to everyone in society.”
There are multiple considerations when it comes to setting out on a generative AI journey – budget, training, infrastructure, literacy, culture and more – but any delay in starting this journey looks set to only make these considerations more complex and unyielding. By breaking down what is needed to achieve success with AI tools and presenting them in a simple, understandable, step-by-step way for non-data professionals, there is every opportunity for any business to embrace the next era of business.
