Over the past 3-4 years, Ideba has conducted dozens of qualitative and quantitative studies capturing and analyzing customer expectations of AI, across multiple industries around the world. Here are the top ten findings, along with my personal prediction for AI, 2-3 years from now:
- The hype still outweighs the promise. Fewer interviewees are sharing real-world use cases than expectations of efficiency gains.
- Expectations from Wall Street carry through to the C-Suite, which in turn flow down to IT and lines of business — who cannot deliver expected efficiency gains and savings just by purchasing AI-enabled technologies.
- Companies purchasing AI-enabled technologies often see a productivity DROP while new technologies and processes are adopted — and the organization adjusts.
- Not all AI is created equal — just because your organization invests in AI, that alone does not guarantee an ROI, unless effectively implemented and employees are properly trained.
- Gen AI is as good as the data — the old adage of garbage in, garbage out still holds true — and companies need to invest in data hygiene to maximize the full benefits of AI, especially if it is trained on existing internal data.
- Companies are struggling to put “boundaries” around their proprietary data, and are grappling with the impacts of employees using Chat GPT and other public data sources.
- Marketing teams are increasingly challenged with evolving their SEO strategy and are seeing a drop in website traffic as Google now delivers an “AI Overview” for searches, removing the need to conduct initial web research. However, many find that Google AI is yielding inaccurate, poor results.
- There is a HUGE range of use cases — top-down examples of “saving $10M a year in IT-spend” to bottom-up examples of “reducing support calls by 25%”.
- Customers are sharing concerns around “AI recoil” for the first time — given mixed results and as you cannot remove the “human aspect” from every process or service offering.
- Few companies are considering the cultural impact of AI on worker sentiment, and the direct impact that has on customers.
My personal prediction – half of AI will be effective and deliver results. Half of the organizations anticipating benefits will fail miserably and look to companies whom they know and trust to deliver on business fundamentals. AI will serve an incredibly valuable purpose in certain niche areas, but not in every aspect of business, especially where service and the “human aspect” count most.
I would love to hear your thoughts and perspectives… agree/disagree. All opinions welcome as we look to expand our knowledge of AI.
Please drop me a line at davids@idebamarketing.com
David Sly, President
