TI has been hit with a flurry of reports detailing AI take-up across various sectors this year, looking what impact, if any, the tech has had on their business.
It’s fair to say that most are currently in the experimental phase and, at best, are using AI to make efficiency savings in their organisations.
The Future Factories powered by AI report by published this week by Make UK and Autodesk claims that firms are not moving fast enough in their AI adoption and that businesses risk of falling behind.
The survey of 151 companies was conducted in Summer 2024 by Make UK, a representative voice of UK manufacturing representing 20,000 companies across engineering, manufacturing, and technology.
The report said that nine out of ten businesses in the UK were currently using AI to optimise energy use rather than to transform manufacturing processes, which, the report argued, was failing to capitalise on the full potential to overhaul UK productivity – which is currently one of the lowest in Europe.
The report cited a lack of knowledge as one barrier to adoption: while two thirds of British manufacturers claim to use AI, only 16% feel they know how to get the best out of it, the report claimed.
This lack of understanding and confidence in AI’s applications meant that only a third (36%) of companies are using it in their manufacturing operations. Most AI adoption (71%) is taking place in large companies with only 28% of SME integrating AI into the workplace.
Industrial bots under used
While adoption of AI across overall business functions is increasing, the same Make report revealed that the use of other digital tools, such as robotics, remains low. Less than a fifth of companies (16%) operate robots with almost a third (29%) not considering using them.
Despite being a major economy, the UK is only currently positioned 24th in the global rankings for robotics use, at 111 robots per 10,000 employees. The UK uses just 0.5% of the world’s robots in manufacturing compared to 1.2% in France and 1.6% in Italy, both of whom have comparable size industrial bases
Future factories: UK industy behind the curve with robot deployment
Given the barriers such as lack of knowledge of how to apply AI and limited access to technical and digital skills for SMEs, there needs to be more sharing, peer to peer learning and best practice, Make UK concluded.
How useful is AI in call centres? Jury still out….
Companies that put AI at the centre of their customer experience (CX) are already seeing clear benefits, according to one report in this sector, although another believes that this has been overstated and adds that it is not being used in the right areas.
According to Zendesk’s 2025 Customer Experience Trends Report reveals that early CX AI adopters – which it calls ‘Trendsetters’ are experiencing 33% high customer acquisition, 22% higher customer retention and 49% higher cross-sell revenues.
The report from the cloud-based customer service platform provider added that 90% of CX Trendsetter respondents reported positive returns on AI tools, with the trends being particularly pronounced in the UK, where 75% of CX leaders believe that organisations that adopt AI at scale will be better able to survive the competitive pressures of the next 5 years.
With 64% of consumers showing a preference for AI agents embodying traits like friendliness and empathy, companies are prioritising engaging, relatable, and authentic AI tools, Zendesk added.
Voice AI
The Zendesk report added that in some territories Voice AI was gaining traction as the preferred channel for complex issues, resonating with many consumers, says the report. In the UK, for instance, 88% of CX Trendsetters agreed that voice showed promise, heralding a new era of voice-driven customer service interactions.
Zendesk added that not all AI in CX necessarily helpful however, with the use of shadow AI – the unsanctioned use of AI tools in companies – surging by up to 250% year-on-year, posing risks to customer privacy, security, and service quality, according to business leaders.
AI Overhyped? Depends on your job title…
Zendesk’s findings however weren’t echoed by all corners contact centre industry. CX research specialist Calabrio, for instance, found that the hype surrounding AI in contact centres hasn’t yet translated into reality when it comes to managing customer inquiries.
Tech leader and end user opinions on AI agents vary
Ed Creasey, VP of Solution Engineering at Calabrio, said: “My favourite stat from the survey was when we asked agents how useful they found AI in their everyday lives on a scale from 1-100, where 100 is very useful.”
“We found 73% scored AI under 50, and 47% scored under 20. That’s a bit of a concern,” said Creasey.
I think it’s interesting because this shows AI is not being applied where we really need it. It points to a great opportunity to say let’s engage with agents and find out what would be useful. We have got to get the use case right and monitor AI systems to see what voice and chat bots are doing for your customer experience,” he added.
You could argue that AI’s success in CX depends on who and how many people are surveyed – and leaders and tech buyers may have a different view on AI’s progress this year to the people at the coal face: contact centre agents and their customers.
The Calabrio study surveyed 520 contact centre agents, whereas the Zendesk report drew on over 10,000 global consumers and business leaders, surveying nearly 5,100 consumers and 5,400 customer service and experience leaders, agents and technology buyers across 22 countries and organisations, ranging from small business to enterprise between June and July 2024.
Read more here: AI in sector predictions for 2024
