UPDATED 21:48 EDT / FEBRUARY 13 2018

EMERGING TECH

Gartner: Almost half of all CIOs are planning to pilot AI projects soon

Artificial intelligence may still be seen by some companies as something of an emerging technology, but that won’t be the case for long: Almost half of the chief information officers quizzed in a new survey by Gartner Inc. say they plan to deploy AI systems in the future.

Gartner’s latest CIO Agenda Survey, released today, asked CIOs if they had plans to adopt AI in the corporate realm, to which 46 responded that they had plans in place. But only 4 percent said they had already implemented AI within their organizations. A further 20 percent also have AI pilot programs in place, ready to be implemented in the near future.

But Gartner’s survey found that AI adoption on the whole has been slow. Pretty much every notable technology company, including the likes of Google LLC, Microsoft Corp. and SAP SE, is exploring the potential of AI in the enterprise, Gartner said. However, the deployment of AI in the enterprise has barely begun.

The analyst firm noted that it almost always takes time for enterprises to embrace new technologies because they need to assess the risk of replacing legacy systems and test the value of next-generation technologies.

Even so, Gartner said, AI’s potential is almost limitless, so long as it’s correctly implemented. The report noted that AI and other cognitive computing technologies can improve data analytics and help better process data from sources such as “internet of things” devices and social media. Other uses include improving industrial processes, enhancing computer security and boosting marketing efforts with more personalized and actionable data on consumers.

Numerous challenges need to be overcome by early AI adopters, Gartner said. These include the wish to replace staff with the technology instead of augmenting them, as well as the expectation of direct financial gain rather than indirect business value.

“Leave behind notions of vast teams of infinitely duplicable ‘smart agents’ able to execute tasks just like humans,” said Whit Andrews, research vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “It will be far more productive to engage with workers on the front line and get them excited and engaged with the idea that AI-powered decision support can enhance and elevate the work they do every day.”

Another major obstacle in the way of mass adoption is technology itself. Some 53 percent of CIOs admitted that their organizations have a “limited” ability to mine and exploit the data needed to power AI systems. As such, the implementation of AI systems is not an immediate priority.

That’s likely to change, however, as 20 percent of organizations said they expect to have dedicated workers in place to monitor and control neural networks by 2020.

Neural networks are a critical aspect of AI. They’re basically computer systems that are loosely based on biological neural networks, giving AI systems the ability to identify patterns and define relationships in ambiguous data that comes from myriad sources.

Still, CIOs can expect a lot of frustration along the way as they attempt to implement AI within their organizations. Gartner said that about 85 percent of projects will fail because of data bias, unsuitable algorithms and poor management.

“Whether an AI system produces the right answer is not the only concern,” Andrews said. “Executives need to understand why it is effective, and offer insights into its reasoning when it’s not.”

Image: Kahll/pixabay

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