Good morning. Fortune reporter Will Daniel here today, filling in for Sheryl Estrada.
If you didn’t know already, Wall Street loves AI. There’s broad consensus among banks, private equity firms, hedge funds, and investment research houses that the technology is set to revolutionize the global economy—all while boosting productivity and reducing costs for businesses. And that last part is critical for CFOs.
There is, of course, still a debate over what’s real and what’s hype.
“We’re in a hype curve—a bubble,” Robert Marks, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Baylor University, told Fortune earlier this year. “And I think that people have to slow down and be a bit more sober in terms of their thinking.”
But for CFOs, there are plenty of reasons to be bullish about AI. I recently analyzed the findings of dozens of AI reports from Wall Street, and they included many striking statistics and forecasts from some of the world’s most renowned institutions. If you weren’t an AI believer before this, here are a few data points that might change your mind—particularly if your job involves managing costs or increasing productivity:
—Between 60% and 70% of employee workloads could eventually be automated by generative AI applications, according to a McKinsey study.
—Some 40% of all working hours could be impacted by the rise of generative AI, according to data from Accenture.
—By 2025, 30% of outbound marketing messages from large organizations will be synthetically generated, up from roughly 2% last year, according to estimates from the industry research firm Gartner.
—The potential effects of AI-based automation on employment are much more drastic in high-income countries. Some 5.5% of total employment in high-income countries is exposed to automation effects, compared to just 0.4% in low-income countries, an August International Labour Organization (ILO) study shows.
—Productivity growth could rise by just under 1.5% annually over the next decade if AI undergoes widespread adoption, boosting global GDP by 7%, according to a Goldman Sachs study.
Will Daniel
Will.Daniel@fortune.com
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*An upcoming event: Fortune’s CFO Collaborative is an invitation-only group of CFOs from leading companies, which meets virtually and in person for deep-dive discussions on what is top of mind for finance leaders. Next month, our conversation will focus on “What will the CFO role look like in 2024?” In this intimate dinner discussion scheduled for November 9 in Boston, Mass., hosted in partnership with Workday and Deloitte, we will explore the evolving role and scope of the CFO. We will be joined by Alan Murray, CEO of Fortune, and Andrew McAfee, codirector of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
It’s an invite-only event, but CFOs can apply to attend here. If you’d like more information, please send an email to: CFOCollaborative@Fortune.com
