Most firms barely scratching the surface of AI’s potential, study finds

Only a small handful of companies are making use of AI’s full potential, according to a new study by Accenture, but those that do are outperforming their rivals on revenue, customer experience and sustainability.

In its latest study on executives from the world’s 2,000 largest companies the IT consultancy found that companies that discussed AI on their earnings calls were 40% more likely to see their firms’ share prices increase – up from 23% in 2018.

Despite the benefits, the study revealed that only 12% of companies used the tech at an AI maturity level that achieves a “strong” competitive advantage.

The study defines AI maturity as the degree to which organisations outperform their peers in a combination of AI-related foundational and differentiating capabilities.

These capabilities include technologies such as data, AI and cloud – as well as organisational strategy, responsible AI, C-suite sponsorship, talent and culture.

“When it comes to making the most of AI’s full potential and their own investments, most organisations are barely scratching the surface,” the report noted.

It added: “AI adoption rapidly matured during the pandemic, yet to create more value with AI and use it to reinvent enterprise, companies require a clear leadership vision combined with effective change management and human capital reinvention,” said Piyush N Singh, India business lead at Accenture.

It names the 12% of organisations that already use AI to outpace their competitors as ‘AI Achievers’, with a score of 64 on the maturity scale – almost doubling that of others – and correlating with 50% higher revenue growth than their peers, while also outperforming in customer experience and sustainability.

The analysis also shows that most companies (63%) are ‘AI Experimenters’, barely scratching the surface of AI’s potential with an AI maturity score of 29. AI Innovators (13%), scoring 50, and AI Builders (12%), at 44, are ‘somewhat advanced’ in their level of AI maturity, but are still leaving the full value of AI unexplored.

Yet Accenture predicts that the share of ‘AI Achievers’ will increase “rapidly and significantly,” more than doubling from the current 12% to 27% by 2024 – with the automotive sector in particular betting on a big surge in sales of AI-powered self-driving vehicles.

Additionally, Accenture predicted that life sciences will expand its use of AI to explore efficient drug development but that there was also enormous room for growth in AI adoption across all industries and big opportunities for those companies that choose to seize it.

For industry “laggards” like financial services and healthcare, Accenture said “a range” of factors may be contributing to their low AI maturity – including legal and regulatory challenges, inadequate AI infrastructure and a shortage of AI-trained workers.