AI ADOPTION IN 2021 DRIVEN BY MANY EXTERNAL FACTORS

In a quiet year of technology design, development, and deployment, we would expect to see the main drivers of enterprise investments (in talent, tools, and technologies) to be internal. That is, companies would quietly stoke the fires of innovation, generate new products and services, and grow their workforce capabilities, without a lot of external forces, other than the perennial aim to achieve competitive advantage in their industry. In the Pandemic era, those internal forces have taken a back seat to other external factors, or at least the passenger seat. Various issues have been loud and clear in the popular media and among the general populace that have influenced the AI adoption equation in 2021. These "hot" issues include AI ethics and bias, the "Great Resignation", global competition, climate impacts, and the role of government in regulating AI technologies.