Artificial intelligence is here, but businesses have barely scratched the surface of the impact it can have. Instead of supercharging their growth, some companies are finding themselves stuck with proof-of-concept experiments that end up going nowhere. Leaders need to create the right company culture to inspire, build and empower a workforce fit for the AI age. While the'how' remains a challenge, the emerging problems are actually the'why' and the'who'. Leaders see attracting the right talent and competing investment priorities as the two top barriers to AI adoption.

Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise, and both Gartner and Accenture believe the integration of conversational AI will emerge as a top priority for the c-suite by 2020. Conversational AI is a voice assistant that can engage in human-like dialogue, capture context and provide intelligent responses. Examples include Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa and Google Virtual Assistant. Developments in AI in the past few years, including machine learning, natural language processing and image and speech recognition have promoted its use, according to Kenneth Research. A recent Gartner report finds that by 2022, 70% of white-collar workers will interact with conversational platforms on a daily basis.

Artificial intelligence is here, but businesses have barely scratched the surface of the impact it can have. Instead of supercharging their growth, some companies are finding themselves stuck with proof-of-concept experiments that end up going nowhere. Leaders need to create the right company culture to inspire, build and empower a workforce fit for the AI age. While the'how' remains a challenge, the emerging problems are actually the'why' and the'who'. Leaders see attracting the right talent and competing investment priorities as the two top barriers to AI adoption.