Is the buzz around artificial intelligence justified?

Two-thirds of senior executives believe that AI is important for the future of their business, but the average return on all AI investments by company is still struggling to pass 1%. A new survey of more than 1,000 firms has warned that patience may be key to AI success, revealing that the majority of AI change programmes take more than two years to see a return on investment. As the global economy faces headwinds from increasing import costs, trade wars and digital disruption – as well as the Covid-19 pandemic – many have been investing in artificial intelligence (AI) to help them to adapt to the difficult environment. Billed as a major opportunity in which employees can be redeployed from repetitive work to value adding activities, AI has also been said for years to be able to massively improve administrative accuracy, while reducing its costs. According to analysis by Fortune Business Insights, the global AI market size is booming thanks to this hype, and was valued at $27.23 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $266.92 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 33.2% over that period.