All eyes are on AI this year, with the space heating up as generative AI arrived on the scene with the popularity of ChatGPT technologies, along with new tools for automation and ease of use allowing companies to gain deeper insights into their analytics and better serve their customers.
A new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide shows that global spending on artificial intelligence (AI)—including software, hardware, and services for AI-centric systems—will reach $154 billion in 2023, an increase of 26.9% over the amount spent in 2022.
The ongoing incorporation of AI into a wide range of products will result in a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.0% over the 2022-2026 forecast, with spending on AI-centric systems expected to surpass $300 billion in 2026.
However, a recent Salesforce survey of IT professionals found that even though many agree that generative AI is the future, privacy and ethics concerns abound.
The survey of more than 500 senior IT leaders reveals that a majority (67%) are prioritizing generative AI for their business within the next 18 months, with one-third (33%) naming it as a top priority.
Despite the interest, businesses aren’t quite prepared for successful implementation: 65% of senior IT leaders can’t justify the implementation of generative AI right now.
Surveyed leaders report major barriers in using generative AI successfully within their organizations, and security barriers are particularly top of mind among those currently using the technology.
Ethical use must underpin the application of generative AI. But despite raising ethical and security concerns, leaders aren’t sure how to put ethics into practice—about one-third (30%) of businesses believe they must have ethical use guidelines to successfully implement generative AI within their business.
Leaders see collaboration as a key tool to ensure the technology is functional and used in an ethical way. The majority (81%) of senior IT leaders believe generative AI should combine public and private data sources.
Most (82%) senior IT leaders think businesses should work together to improve the functionality of generative AI technology. Over 8 in 10 (83%) senior IT leaders think businesses must work together to ensure generative AI is used ethically.
"Companies that are slow to adopt AI will be left behind—large and small. AI is best used in these companies to augment human abilities, automate repetitive tasks, provide personalized recommendations, and make data-driven decisions with speed and accuracy," said Mike Glennon, senior market research analyst with IDC's customer insights and analysis team.
To help readers gain a greater understanding about this complex area of information technology, the solutions available, and their role in handling real-world challenges, DBTA and Big Data Quarterly present the list of Awesome Companies in AI.
Accenture
www.accenture.com
Accenture is a global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments, and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth, and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale.
Aisera
https://aisera.com
Aisera offers enterprise GPT generative AI solutions for IT, HR, customer service, contact center, sales and marketing, and finance departments that reduce operational expenses, boost revenue growth, and enable human-like experiences.
AWS Machine Learning
https://aws.amazon.com/machine-learning
Make accurate predictions, get deeper insights from data, reduce operational overhead, and improve customer experience with AWS machine learning (ML), helping users at every stage of their ML adoption journey with the most comprehensive set of artificial intelligence and ML services, infrastructure, and implementation resources.
Beyond Limits
www.beyond.ai
Beyond traditional artificial intelligence, Beyond Limits’ software products are powered by Cognitive AI technology, utilizing a hybrid AI approach that combines data-centric techniques with embedded human knowledge to affirm trust in software-driven decisions, manage operational risk, and drive profitability.
C3 AI
https://c3.ai
C3 AI is the Enterprise AI application software company delivering a family of fully integrated products, including the C3 AI Platform, an end-to-end platform for developing, deploying, and operating enterprise AI applications, along with C3 AI applications and C3 Generative AI.