According to a new survey by global management consulting firm McKinsey, more than seven in 10 businesses and organizations worldwide are using artificial intelligence, a significant increase from the roughly 50% adoption rate observed a year ago.
In a survey of more than 1,363 respondents, 72% said their organization has deployed some form of AI in at least one business function, and 65% said their organization regularly uses generative AI – double the 33% percentage reported in 2023.
AI and generative AI's impact is spreading across borders and industries. Last year, AI adoption rates did not exceed 66% in any region of the world, but this year more than two-thirds of respondents in nearly every region report using AI in their organizations, with the largest increases in Asia Pacific and China.
The study collected 1,363 responses via an online survey in early 2024, with the results released last week. McKinsey said the dataset was able to reflect a full range of regions, industries, company sizes, functional specializations and tenures. To adjust for differences in response rates, McKinsey weighted the data according to each respondent's country's contribution to global gross domestic product (GDP).
Last year, McKinsey released a report stating that generative AI could add between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion worth of value to the global economy annually, which would amount to 15-40% of the total economic impact of artificial intelligence.
While AI (artificial intelligence) is a broad term that encompasses a variety of technologies designed to mimic human intelligence, generative AI is a specific subset of AI that focuses on creating new content. Traditional AI systems often rely on existing information to analyze and interpret data to make decisions and solve problems. However, generative AI uses deep learning techniques to generate new data that resembles training datasets. This can include text, images, music, and even creating confined 3D worlds.
At a sector level, the largest increase in AI use has been in professional services, such as human resources, legal services and management consulting, as organisations harness the power of AI in areas where repetitive tasks require human intervention.
“The average organization using generative AI does so in two functions: marketing and sales, and product and service development,” the survey states. In sales alone, use of generative AI has more than doubled since last year.
According to the McKinsey report, the use of AI is maturing and organizations are actively working to mitigate AI risks, especially around illusions and intellectual property infringement. Dealing with inaccuracies was the top concern of respondents, rising from 56% to 63%. Labor and labor loss fell as a concern from 34% to 27%.
Of the risk categories surveyed, respondents were least concerned about environmental impacts, political stability and physical safety.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, McKinsey said the adoption of AI is boosting companies' bottom lines.
“Many respondents reported significant revenue increases of 5% or more in supply chain and inventory management,” the survey said.
The survey also found that rather than simply using off-the-shelf AI solutions, many organizations are customizing or developing their own models. This trend of customizing AI technologies to meet specific business needs and gain a competitive advantage is especially prevalent in industries with high public interest, McKinsey noted.
“Respondents in the energy and materials, technology, and media and communications industries were more likely to report significantly customizing or adjusting publicly available models or developing their own models to address their specific business needs,” the report said.
The survey also found that compared to last year, the use of generative AI has increased significantly in both the workplace and our personal lives. With tools like ChatGPT, MidJourney, and Stable Diffusion exploding in popularity, people are not only using generative AI in business, but also in entertainment, education, and even simulating social interactions.
For McKinsey, AI is more than just hype or a business trend: generative AI is proving to be a business-changing technology.
“If 2023 was the year the world discovered generative AI, 2024 will be the year organizations begin to fully embrace this new technology and extract business value from it,” the report concludes.
Editor: Ryan Ozawa.
