2023 was a huge year for AI and it doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the Generative AI market size is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 35.5% between 2023 and 2028. Already we’ve seen generative AI become a mainstream tool, no longer used only by computer scientists and machine learning experts but something anyone could access for nearly anything. ChaptGPT alone has 100 million weekly users and that number is expected to keep growing. This sudden explosion of AI access and enablement has led many companies to pivot their direction to be far more focused on generative AI adoption. Apple themselves scrapped their 10-year-long self-driving car project, something they had already sunk billions of revenue into, in favour of shifting focus to developing their own generative AI platform and capabilities.
What many companies struggle to understand however is the resources and investments required to see success with AI. With how easy ChatGPT is to use and how quickly you can see the benefits, many executives are eager to see their company deploy a version of their own to increase profits, drive growth, and cut down costs. Unlike ChatGPT, though, this doesn’t happen at the press of a button.
A recent study by MIT Technology Review and Australian telecom provider Telstra found that, while there is great ambition and plans for businesses to implement generative AI tools and platforms for 2024 amongst surveyed execs, only 9% said their companies have adopted generative AI widely. On the specifics surrounding specialized IT-related capabilities required to successfully implement generative AI, more than half rated their businesses poorly on hardware needed for AI adoption. More than half also said the volume of data available for an LLM currently falls short.
These numbers help paint the larger picture. AI is a hot buzzword right now and something many organizations want to deploy in their business, with execs pushing for some form of AI to be implemented by the end of this year. However, there is a severe underestimate of what is required for the successful implementation of generative AI capabilities.
To overcome these challenges businesses need well-thought-out strategic planning and a defined roadmap that considers all the factors involved in running their own generative AI platform. Assets like hardware, data, and cybersecurity from a technology standpoint but also considerations for assets outside the IT infrastructure like regulatory compliance, culture within the organization, and training of their employees.
What do you think? Is your business ready for generative AI? How does it fit into your 2024 strategic roadmap?