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.

The gap between leaders versus laggards in AI has widened significantly in the last 6 months, even as leaders are investing big time on pilot projects to transform business teams with AI and Deep Learning. In a powerful survey finding, market research firm ESI ThoughtLab has found out APAC region leads (14.1 Billion USD) in average revenue earned through the adoption of AI applications in 2020. North America ($13.9 billion) and EU ($12.7 Billion) have also reported significant revenue growth from AI adoption. Laggards in AI can drive home success with AI investments by developing a culture of learning and sharing knowledge. ESI ThoughtLab reports AI leaders are constantly amplifying their data science talent pool by acquiring AI businesses.

A new global study finds that while the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is low today, it is expected to create increased revenue, productivity, profitability and shareholder value for businesses within two years. Overall, only 16 percent of business leaders surveyed perceive they are currently garnering significant value from advanced AI. However, AI programs are being fast-tracked and that number is expected to more than triple to 52 percent within the next two years. This is according to a new report, "Competing in the Cognitive Age: How companies will transform their businesses and drive value through advanced AI," by global consulting firm Protiviti in collaboration with ESI ThoughtLab. To understand how companies will transform their businesses through applications of advanced AI technologies and the benefits they expect to gain, Protiviti and ESI ThoughtLab conducted a global survey of 300 senior executives across functions, industries and company sizes in the third quarter of 2018.