Artificial intelligence (AI) has “virtually zero” impact on business, according to new research.
Despite all the media coverage about AI and its use in companies, despite investors pouring money into companies that talk about using AI (notably Allbirds), and even though some companies require employees to use AI to get in line for promotions, it has little impact on the actual effectiveness of companies.
The study, which compiled and analyzed surveys of nearly 6,000 business leaders in Australia, the US, the UK and Germany, found that 69 per cent of businesses are using AI and 75 per cent of executives expect their companies to use AI in some way over the next three years.
The most common use case for AI is “text generation using large-scale language models,” followed by “visual content creation” and “data processing using machine learning.”
While the report doesn’t specifically address how AI will impact marketing functions, it’s clear that these use cases align with a number of marketing outcomes.
Less commonly cited applications include image processing using machine learning (20%), robotics (9% of companies), and self-driving cars (3%), according to the report.
However, more than 90% report that AI has had no impact on employment in their organization over the past three years, and 89% report that it has had no impact on labor productivity.
However, the report also states that “most executives report a small impact on their companies’ employment and productivity so far,” and “a small number of executives report a positive productivity effect so far.”
Companies in the US and Germany were most likely to feel that productivity has not improved (91% of companies), followed by the UK (89%) and Australia (79%).
In fact, three-fifths of all companies expect no impact over the next three years, and a quarter of all companies expect productivity growth to be less than 5%.
Executives at large, highly paid companies, as well as executives in information, communications, and administrative support departments, expect significant productivity gains from AI. Business leaders in the United States expect to see greater productivity gains from AI (2.25% over the next three years) than those in other countries.
Currently, the United States (78%) has the highest adoption rate of AI tools, followed by the United Kingdom (71%), Germany (65%), and Australia (59%).
However, despite the noise about whether AI will displace jobs, the report found that, on average, more than 90% of companies estimate that AI has had no impact on employee numbers over the past three years.
This percentage is highest in Germany (95% of businesses), followed by the US (89% of businesses), the UK (89%) and Australia (81%). Of the remaining companies reporting some impact, results were slightly skewed towards the negative in the UK and US, and slightly towards the positive in Germany and Australia.
Looking to the future, the results are somewhat at odds with much of the talk about AI.
More than three-fifths of all companies expect AI to have no impact on new hires over the next three years.
Less than one-fifth of executives surveyed expected a small negative impact, with job losses of less than 5%. Only 8% of executives expect a significant negative impact on employment.
These results are similar in the US and UK. German companies recorded a smaller expected change than their US and UK counterparts, and the report attributed this to the specificities of Germany’s labor market and the strong presence of trade unions across most industries.
In contrast, Australian businesses are more evenly balanced in terms of the expected impact of AI on employment, with 16% expecting a negative impact and 16% expecting a positive impact overall.
The research results are self-explanatory. But it remains to be seen how this will affect the world of advertising, marketing and media, which is one of the most vocal proponents and adopters of AI.
