Over a third of companies now use AI in some way

A new survey from Gartner has revealed that the number of organisations implementing artificial intelligence (AI) has grown by 270 per cent in the past four years and tripled in the past year.

The results from the firm's 2019 CIO Survey showed that organisations across all industries have begun to use AI in a variety of applications but still struggle with finding talented workers in the field.

Research Vice President at Gartner, Chris Howard provided further insight on the findings of the survey, saying:

“Four years ago, AI implementation was rare, only 10 per cent of survey respondents reported that their organisations had deployed AI or would do so shortly. For 2019, that number has leapt to 37 per cent — a 270 per cent increase in four years. If you are a CIO and your organisation doesn’t use AI, chances are high that your competitors do and this should be a concern.”

AI deployment

The deployment of AI has tripled during the past year rising from 25 per cent in 2018 to 37 per cent today. This massive increase is a result of the fact that AI capabilities have matured significantly and now businesses are more willing to implement the technology.

CIOs have come to the realisation that digital transformation and task automation go hand in hand. AI has now become an integral part of organisation's digital strategy and the technology is already used in a variety of applications.

Gartner's survey shows that 52 per cent of telcoms deploy chatbots and 38 per cent of healthcare providers rely on computer-assisted diagnostics. Fraud prevention and consumer fragmentation are other operational use cases for AI.

As more organisations work with AI, the more difficult it becomes to deploy the technology with 54 per cent of respondents to a Gartner Research Circle Survey citing the skills shortage as the biggest challenge facing their organisation.