Future in the balance? How countries are pursuing an AI advantage

Future in the balance? How countries are pursuing an AI advantage was published by Deloitte Insights and translated by Deloitte China Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Industry. To obtain a global view of how organizations are adopting and benefiting from AI technologies, in Q3 2018 Deloitte surveyed 1,900 IT and line-of-business executives from companies that are early adopters of AI. Seven countries were represented: Australia, Canada, China, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. By examining early AI adopters through a global lens with measuring the global pulse of AI, this survey will help all enterprises take a more informed, balanced approach to pursuing their unique AI advantage. We uncovered four key insights from early adopters in seven countries:

• There is a growing realization of AI’s importance, including its ability to provide competitive advantage and change work for the better. A majority of global early adopters say that AI technologies are especially important to their business success today—a belief that is increasing. A majority also say they are using AI technologies to move ahead of their competition, and that AI empowers their workforce.
• AI success depends on getting the execution right. Organizations often must excel at a wide range of practices to ensure AI success, including developing a strategy, pursuing the right use cases, building a data foundation, and cultivating a strong ability to experiment. These capabilities are critical now because, as AI becomes even easier to consume, the window for competitive differentiation will likely shrink.

• Early adopters from different countries display varying levels of AI maturity. Enthusiasm and experience vary among early adopters from different countries. Some are pursuing AI vigorously, while others are taking a more cautious approach. In some cases, adopters are employing AI to improve specific processes and products; others are harnessing AI to transform their entire organization.

• Regardless of countries’ AI maturity level, we can learn from their approaches. By examining countries’ challenges and how companies there are addressing them, we can glean some essential leading practices. For example, leaders in some countries are more concerned about addressing skill gaps. Others are focusing on how AI can improve decision-making or cybersecurity capabilities.