The State of AI in the Enterprise
By CompTIA AI Advisory Council member, Manoj Suvarna 
The AI Advisory council at CompTIA is on a mission to build strategies and resources necessary for organizations to leverage AI and be more successful. To help us gauge the community’s awareness and adoption of AI, we conducted a survey. Here are the key findings:
  • A majority of the community is aware of AI and has at least some understanding of its growth and impact across organizations
  • Of the respondents, a few have indicated that they are using AI-based solutions in the real world
  • Many agree that automation of mundane tasks and the ability to gain insights and innovate are the key benefits of AI
Read on for an executive summary of the survey results and to find out how the AI Advisory council plans on helping the community.
AI Awareness is moderately high
Awareness of AI among organizations is moderately high with nearly 4 in 10 respondents indicating moderate to a very high level of understanding. An additional 41% of the respondents claim to have an average level of understanding of AI within their organization. These results indicate that at least 80% of all CompTIA member organizations have a preliminary baseline about AI’s rapidly growing impact across organizations today. It also appears that when it comes to sourcing this information, CompTIA members use multiple sources (82% report using at least one source) ranging from technology publications and websites to events & conferences to their existing IT partners/providers and business peers. Over a quarter of the members leverage the content published by CompTIA on its community portals.  
Adoption of AI is relatively low
Less than one-third of the respondents claim to be in production or in the active implementation stage of AI projects within their organizations while nearly 50% of the respondents are either in the early stages of deployment or considering AI for the near future. Lack of technical know-how and a clear business case or ROI are the two leading reasons that are inhibiting the adoption of AI among the CompTIA community as cited by at least 43% of the respondents. Low demand from their customers and a lack of best practices or standards were in the next order of inhibitors as mentioned by 38% and 32% of the respondents respectively. Interestingly, cost played a factor in only 25% of the respondents. These results point to the fact that while awareness of AI is moderately high, several organizations are struggling to take the next step due to limited technical expertise and knowledge of best practices, two areas where CompTIA can certainly assist.
The ability to innovate, automate basic tasks, and competitive differentiation are key benefits of AI
Among respondents who are either experimenting or actively implementing AI, customer demand and competitive differentiation have been the two leading drivers instrumental in their early adoption. The pace of digital transformation, exacerbated by the pandemic also played a significant role with nearly half the organizations indicating the fear of obsolescence. CompTIA organizations are seeing the value of their AI investments with nearly 6 in 10 adopters indicating that AI projects have dovetailed their portfolio and an equal number of organizations seeing the value of automation of basic manual tasks as well as innovation in their portfolio offerings. At least 85% of all early adopters are seeing at least one benefit as a result of adopting AI within their organization.
CompTIA AI Advisory Council is here to help!
Since its inception, CompTIA’s AI Advisory Council members, representing leading technology vendors and service providers, have met every quarter to elevate the awareness and understanding of this rapidly growing and ever-changing technology. We understand how AI is weaving into the fabric of every organization that is on a path to digital transformation. Using the survey results as a baseline, we will be launching a Best Practices and Tools Guide for Decision Makers and Practitioners that are considering infusing AI into their organization as well as their daily operations.
We welcome insights and success stories from the CompTIA community at large as we continue our quest to equip our members with the information and the know-how they need to leverage AI and be more successful.
You can read more about the CompTIA AI Advisory Council here and see its members and recent projects.
 
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