Eden McCallum – Economic and Business Outlook: The impact and potential of AI
Business leaders are responding to the growth of AI right across their organisations, and with increasing pace. Our latest Eden McCallum business outlook survey confirms that the impact of generative AI is being felt everywhere – even if the anticipated commercial benefits are not always being realised, yet.
Over 300 businesses in the UK, the US and the Netherlands were surveyed in November for their views and experience of working with GenAI. Their responses point to increased activity and experimentation, and also solid confidence that the new technology will generate greatly increased value in the years to come.
What’s happening now?
Around a third of respondents say that generative AI is already having a significant or very significant impact on their business, and almost 60% say that this impact has been positive. Positivity is highest outside the US – including 68% of business leaders in the Netherlands – while in the US only 50% say the impact was mostly positive.
The practicalities of making AI work are a clear priority. Optimising data has leapt in importance over the last two years to become the key internal issue for businesses – 39% cite this – surpassing talent, cost reduction and business model transformation.
Activity is clearly rising: two thirds of businesses are currently exploring and experimenting with generative AI use cases, while around half are watching what others are doing and training staff. The use of generative AI has increased across almost every aspect of business activity compared with two and a half years ago. The greatest increases in activity have come in the areas of exploring / experimenting with use cases and training staff. And activity is broadening, with companies now taking 4 actions on average, compared to 2.4 in 2023.
Benefits realised
What business benefits can leaders already point to after investing in GenAI? Half say they have generated value through cost reduction, and around a third say they have seen better decision making and improved customer (and to a lesser extent employee) experience. Only c. 1 in 10 report revenue impact.
Quite widespread use is being made of generative AI across business functions, but it is most commonly being used or piloted in marketing and customer service, cited by around 40% of respondents.
The future’s bright
Looking ahead, leaders expect the impact of generative AI to increase sharply. While 32% have already seen significant impact, 79% believe it will have significant impact in the coming 1-3 years. This represents a stronger vote of confidence in AI’s future than was registered in a similar survey two years ago.
The most widespread expectation for value generation from AI in the next few years is in cost reduction, enhanced decision making and improved customer experience. A significant minority (38%) also expect to see increased revenue.
Potential, amplified
Businesses of all sizes have similar views on the significance of GenAI’s impact although currently, smaller businesses are the most positive about generative AI, perhaps seeing it as an equaliser in their competition with larger rivals. As one leader of a smaller enterprise put it: “This is the biggest disruption since the beginning of the internet. It allows small players such as ourselves to be as ‘performant’ as the bigger players.”
Dena McCallum, co-founder of Eden McCallum, noted, “While it has moved to the top of the agenda, and a great deal of activity is taking place, actual impact so far is somewhat limited.” But the sense of potential is clear: “There is no doubt this will be a game-changer on both efficiency and effectiveness across business functions and activities. It will be interesting to see where and how generative AI may level the playing field between small and large firms.”
Click here for the full survey results.
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