Enterprises make significant investments in AI

Almost one in 10 decision-makers in both the UK (eight percent) and US (seven percent) are planning to spend over $25 million on AI this year.

A survey from Searce, of 300 C-Suite and senior technology executives at organizations with more than $500 million, finds that for US decision-makers, data privacy and security are ranked as the number one hurdle to adopting AI (20 percent), whereas UK decision-makers rank lack of qualified talent as their number one challenge (19 percent).

"As global investments in AI continue to rise, as our research has found, it is crucial for businesses to focus not just on spending, but on the tangible returns these investments can deliver. Strategic AI adoption can transform operations and drive significant growth," says Julian Mulhare, managing director, EMEA, at Searce.

Among other findings a third of businesses in the UK (31 percent) and the US (35 percent) are investing in AI to drive new business growth.

The majority (96 percent) of UK participants view AI adoption as a key business priority with most (92 percent) rating the success rate of their AI initiatives as 'successful' and 31 percent planning to increase AI spend by 26-50 percent.

When it comes to the build vs buy debate, 51 percent of UK respondents say they had purchased solutions and partnered with external service providers when it came to fulfilling their AI needs rather than building the solution or servicing it in-house. This was similar in the US, with 57 percent saying the same.

Mulhare adds, "From speaking with our European clients, we also know how much pressure businesses face to keep up with the latest technological demands. A lot of the findings in our research reflect some of those conversations including the challenges to AI adoption. Lack of qualified talent has been something we’ve been talking about since our inception in 2004 and is why many businesses come to us to help plug that internal skills gap -- key for empowering teams by making work better, and people happier."

The full report is available from the Searce site.

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