A global survey of C-suite executives by IBM's Institute for Business Value found most expect AI spending to shift over the next four years from efficiency to a new wave of innovation.
- 64% of the surveyed executives think that by 2030, their AI edge will come from innovation rather than resource optimization.
The big picture: "AI won't just support businesses, it will define them," Mohamad Ali, SVP of IBM Consulting, writes about the 63-page study, "The enterprise in 2030," to be released in conjunction with Monday's opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
- "By 2030, the companies that win will weave AI into every decision and operation. They will own powerful AI assets, move faster than competitors, bring innovations to market quickly, and deliver real, measurable business results using technology and automation."
Between the lines: Gary Cohn, IBM's vice chairman, told me in an interview as he left for Davos that people keep waiting for "the day that AI rules the world. It's just not going to happen that way. We're going to evolve over time, like most new technologies. ... AI is in that evolutionary stage, and I think that's what people keep missing."
- Cohn, former president and COO of Goldman Sachs, recalls: "We had people who printed memos on the floor and put them in your mailbox, to tell you what time to go to a meeting. Every floor had one of those people."
- But technology turned them "into someone who could cover accounts, because I could send them email messages instead of faxing them or having to go visit them. AI is sort of a little bit down that same path."
💡 What you can do: IBM's report includes several tips for the "dawn of the smarter enterprise." Among them:
- "Shape AI to fit, not dazzle. Start by identifying the three to five capabilities that truly set you apart — your customer relationships, specialized knowledge, operational advantages, or market position — and make sure that proprietary data can be accessed and used by AI."
- "Create rapid experimentation cycles to test, refine, and validate tailored models and assets — and break out of tech lock-in so embedded AI can fluidly adapt as business needs change."
- "Make AI fluency as essential as financial literacy for senior roles."
- Go deeper.
