Harnessing GenAI: Investment, Impact, and Strategic Integration Across Industries

1. Significant Investment in GenAI:
   • 48% of senior AI professionals plan to invest over $1 million in GenAI in the next 12 months, with 90% of respondents already investing in some form of GenAI.
   • This reflects a major shift from exploration to active implementation, as organizations are now dedicating budgets specifically for GenAI projects, with 33% creating new budget lines for this purpose.
2. Positive ROI from GenAI:
   • 65% of respondents with GenAI models in production report positive ROI, indicating that these investments are paying off.
   • However, the overall ROI for data, analytics, and AI initiatives has remained stable, suggesting that organizations may need better methods to measure GenAI-specific returns.
3. Diverse GenAI Models in Use:
   • 85% of respondents are using or exploring hosted LLM services (e.g., OpenAI), while 65% are experimenting with other GenAI models (e.g., multimodal, video, image, audio).
   • Self-hosted open-source LLMs (e.g., Meta Llama, Mistral) are also gaining traction due to their flexibility and ability to address privacy concerns.
4. Expanding Use Cases Across Business Functions:
   • GenAI is being applied across various departments, including HR (for talent acquisition), legal (for compliance automation), and customer service.
   • Traditional analytics-driven departments like R&D have seen a slight decline in AI use cases (76% in 2023 to 72% in 2024), while others like IT and operations have seen increased adoption.
5. Barriers to GenAI Adoption:
   • The top barriers include lack of quality data (44%), complex infrastructure (38%), and inability to operationalize AI projects quickly (36%).
   • New GenAI-specific challenges include lack of employee knowledge (28%) and IT/policy constraints (22%).
6. Growing Optimism Around GenAI:
   • 43% of respondents believe GenAI will have many valuable applications, while 28% see it as a revolution that will change how we work.
   • Confidence in organizational leaders’ understanding of AI risks and benefits has increased from 48% in 2023 to 56% in 2024, driving more strategic adoption.
7. AI Pioneers Lead the Way:
   • AI Pioneers (organizations with advanced AI adoption) are investing heavily, with 84% spending over $1 million on AI, compared to 35% of non-pioneers.
   • 73% of AI Pioneers see positive ROI from GenAI, compared to 52% of non-pioneers, highlighting the benefits of strategic investment.
8. Stable AI Practices:
   • Core AI practices remain steady, with 68% of organizations having interdisciplinary analytics teams and 60% featuring a data leader in their C-suite.
   • However, only 44% of organizations report that trusted data is easily accessible to frontline employees, indicating room for improvement.
9. GenAI-Specific Challenges:
   • 44% of organizations lack the resources to run advanced GenAI models, and 28% report that employees don’t know how to use GenAI effectively.
   • Regulatory concerns are also emerging, with 12% of respondents citing regulation as a barrier to GenAI adoption.
10. Strategic Recommendations:
    • To fully harness GenAI, organizations must integrate AI into their core strategy, invest in training, and streamline IT management.
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Source: Dataiku