Only 12% firms using AI at a level that gives competitive edge: Accenture

63% global firms are AI experimenters, barely scratching the surface of its potential with AI maturity score of 29; Many others with higher scores are still leaving the full value of AI untapped

While the majority of organisations that use artificial intelligence (AI) are still experimenting with the technology, only 12 per cent are using it at a maturity level that gives them a strong competitive advantage, according to new global research from Accenture.

The research report “The Art of AI Maturity: Advancing from Practice to Performance” uncovers strategies for AI success through a holistic framework, which includes a new index to express company AI maturity on a 0-100 scale.

The research shows that most companies (63%) are AI Experimenters, barely scratching the surface of AI’s potential with an AI maturity score of 29. AI Innovators (13%), scoring 50, and AI Builders (12%), at 44, are somewhat advanced in their level of AI maturity, but are still leaving the full value of AI untapped.

The research puts the median AI maturity of organisations at a moderate score of 36, revealing most companies have significant opportunities to generate greater value with AI. The research highlights a small group (12%) of organisations that already use AI to outpace their competitors. This group is dubbed AI Achievers, with a score of 64 on the maturity scale, almost doubling that of others and correlating with 50% higher revenue growth than their peers.

“Staying resilient through continued market disruption requires that organisations leverage the combined power of AI, data and cloud to address complex challenges related to supply chain, sustainability, consumer experience and skills shortage,” said Piyush N. Singh, India Business Lead at Accenture. “AI adoption rapidly matured during the pandemic, yet to create more value with AI and use it to reinvent the enterprise, companies require a clear leadership vision combined with effective change management and human capital reinvention.”

Regardless of industry, the impact of AI on businesses is growing and accelerating. The world’s largest companies that discussed AI on their earnings calls in 2021 were 40% more likely to see their share prices increase—up from 23% in 2018. Moreover, investments in AI are on the rise. In 2021, 19% of the surveyed companies used more than 30% of their tech budgets for AI projects. By 2024, the percentage of organisations investing more than 30% of their tech budgets in AI will increase to 49%.

Subsequently, the machine learning models utilised for the research suggest that the share of AI Achievers will increase rapidly from the current 12% to 27% by 2024. In the same timeframe, the overall AI maturity score will rise from 36 today to 50.

Prithvijit Roy, Managing Director – Applied Intelligence, Accenture in India said, “Our research shows that as the impact of AI on businesses across industries grows rapidly, organsiations must champion AI as a strategic priority for the entire organisation with a clear strategy and strong leadership sponsorship. To successfully scale the use of AI, they need to industrialise AI tools and teams and also nurture a culture of responsible AI design. But most importantly, they must invest in talent. Besides hiring for multidisciplinary AI-related skills, it is imperative to create data and AI fluency across the workforce through skilling and reskilling for a majority of employees – right from product development teams to C-suite executives - to ensure that AI permeates the whole organis

Current and projected future state of AI maturity by industry include the following:

Tech firms already have a high AI maturity score of 54, which will rise moderately to 60 in 2024, but still position them at the pinnacle of AI maturity across all industries.

In contrast, carmakers and suppliers will leap from a moderate 39 today to 57 in two years – betting on a significant surge in sales of AI-powered self-driving vehicles.

Similarly, retail companies will evolve in their AI Maturity from 38 today to 54 in 2024. Notably, many retail companies show a deeper commitment to AI transformation than other industries.