55% Organisations That Deployed AI Adopt AI-First Strategy In New Use Cases: Gartner

A survey by consulting firm Gartner Inc. has revealed that 55% of organisations that have previously deployed artificial intelligence always consider AI for every new use case they are evaluating. More than half of the organisations (52%) surveyed report that risk factors are a critical consideration when evaluating new AI use cases.

Around 622 respondents from enterprises in the U.S., France, the U.K. and Germany, which have implemented AI, participated in the Gartner survey, conducted from October through December 2022. According to Gartner, an “AI-mature” organisation is one that has deployed more than five AI use cases across several business units and processes, in production for more than three years.

“An AI-first strategy is a hallmark of AI maturity and a driver of increased return on investment,” said Erick Brethenoux, distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner. “However, AI-first does not mean AI-only. While AI-mature organisations are more likely to consider AI for every possible use case, they are also more likely to weigh risk as a critical factor when determining whether to move forward,” he said.

Across all organisations surveyed, respondents had deployed an average of 41 AI use cases, with use cases remaining in production for 3.5 years. Organisations reported an average of 51 use cases in production for 4.3 years, with both the number of use cases and the amount of time in production increasing with the size of the enterprise.

AI-Mature Organisations Seek Legal Counsel At Ideation

The involvement of legal counsel at the ideation stage of AI use cases was the most important differentiator found among organisations with high AI maturity. AI-mature organisations were 3.8 times more likely to involve legal experts at the ideation phase of an AI project's life cycle, the survey found.

“There is uncertainty around the ethics and legality of various AI tactics, as well as a fear of violating privacy regulations. Organisations that are more experienced with AI do not want to be told they've crossed a line once they are further along in the process of developing an AI use case,” said Brethenoux.

AI-Mature Organisations Evaluate Technical And Business ROI Metrics

The survey found that 52% of AI-mature organisations focus on a combination of technical and business metrics to evaluate return on investment, when investing in AI use cases. Technical metrics are most often employed by less mature organisations to assess the value of AI use cases.

A higher percentage of AI-mature organisations—41% compared with 24% of all others—use customer success-related business metrics to estimate ROI. Also, 47% of AI-mature organisations cite customer service as one of the top three business functions benefiting from AI, compared with 34% of others.

“Organisations that are using AI technology to attract and retain customers are able to more clearly articulate the impact on the business, driving a virtuous cycle of executive buy-in for new AI projects,” said Brethenoux.

Organisations with high AI maturity are also more likely to define metrics earlier in the AI lifecycle. According to the survey, 67% of AI-mature organisations define metrics at the ideation phase of every use case, compared with 44% of less mature organisations.