Artificial intelligence is a key technology in today's day and age. Source: Shutterstock

Artificial intelligence is a key technology in today’s day and age. Source: Shutterstock

Organizations embark on AI journey despite talent shortages

ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) is a technology that can easily provide companies with a strong competitive edge.

It’s a unique weapon in the arsenal of the biggest and brightest companies, who are using it to disrupt the industry and defeat their competitors.

As a result, even those without the most sophisticated technology infrastructure or talent pool, are looking at implementing AI solutions.

The 2019 Gartner CIO Survey revealed that the deployment of AI has tripled in the past year — rising from 25 percent in 2018 to 37 percent today.

The growth is attributed to the fact that AI capabilities have matured significantly in the recent past, as a result, enterprises are more willing to give the technology a shot.

CIOs have realized that sustainable digital transformation and task automation go hand in hand, says Gartner’s analysts. AI has become an integral part of every digital strategy and is already used in a variety of applications.

Survey results show that 52 percent of telecommunication companies deploy chatbots and 38 percent of healthcare providers rely on computer-assisted diagnostics. Other operational use cases for AI are fraud protection and consumer fragmentation.

The survey highlighted the fact that there’s an acute talent shortage in the industry, but found that many companies are trying to avoid being handicapped by the challenge and looking for alternative ways to deploy their AI solution.

Of course, there are several options available to companies that still don’t have AI-development capabilities in-house, be it working with vendors or building something by collaborating with ad-hoc specialists — but it’s a critical time for organizations and some level of AI implementation is key to staying competitive.

The number of enterprises implementing AI grew 270 percent in the past four years and tripled in the past year, indicating that companies are keen on leveraging the technology, across all industries and in a variety of applications.

“Four years ago, AI implementation was rare, only 10 percent of survey respondents reported that their enterprises had deployed AI or would do so shortly. For 2019, that number has leapt to 37 percent — a 270 percent increase in four years,” Gartner Distinguished Research VP Chris Howard said.

“If you are a CIO and your organization doesn’t use AI, chances are high that your competitors do and this should be a concern.”

“In order to stay ahead, CIOs need to be creative. If there is no AI talent available, another possibility is to invest in training programs for employees with backgrounds in statistics and data management. Some organizations also create job shares with ecosystem and business partners.”