Growing budgets for artificial intelligence

With which targets? Increased operational efficiency and time reduction is by far the most frequent choice, with almost a quarter of the answers, but other relevant targets are accelerating innovation in a broader sense and reducing operating costs, in third place with almost 14% of the consensus.

It is interesting to see how ad hoc or in any case targeted budgets are beginning to be dedicated to the theme, which is the case for more than two thirds of the sample, investments that are beginning to be robust: in 17% of cases between 250 thousand euro and one million, for more than 21% over one million euro. Figures that in 74% of cases will be increased over the next three years, while only 2.4% of the sample will remain stationary.

The challenges remain considerable, starting with the management of the mass of data available, a problem placed on a par with the adequate training of personnel, an indication that once again highlights the key importance of know-how and specific skills to enable companies to move in this direction. 78% of the sample, in this sense, consider training to be fundamental, with the need therefore to support their employees with specific investments.

Another issue (13.6 per cent of responses) is integration with existing systems, a relevant topic to ensure that Artificial Intelligence becomes part of the company's modus operandi and does not remain relegated to a foreign body, a sort of laboratory object.

Another relevant piece of evidence that emerged from the survey concerns the future intentions of companies, which once they have started the process do not intend to stop at all. Almost nine out of ten companies, in fact, state that they intend to extend AI to other internal functions while less than 3% explicitly state that they have no such intention.

IT security, customer service automation and research and development are the three activities that receive the most support.

Finance and banking, technology-electronics, pharmaceuticals-healthcare and transport-logistics are the industry sectors where the most profound and pervasive impacts are expected, although in general the dispersion of responses is wide, signalling the operators' feeling that they are dealing with a new asset with a transversal and widespread impact.

Transversal diffusion also in terms of size, looking at the answers related to market analysis, with an increase in the adoption of Artificial Intelligence seen with almost identical percentages both among large competitors and similar companies.

While awareness of the importance of these applications among employees is still mixed (limited for 27 per cent, initiated for 37 per cent, broad for a third of the sample), the consensus on the impact is broad, with almost three quarters of the sample recognising AI as a factor in increasing global competitiveness while only 6 per cent express uncertainty on the point.

While 39% of the sample sees both positive and negative aspects (employment) for the economy, six out of ten companies have already observed tangible success stories in the market, while the majority (60%) think that government support to encourage these areas is insufficient. ,