Businesses in the UK need to move beyond tinkering with artificial intelligence (AI) and get on with seriously harnessing the technology at scale to compete on the global stage, a report by Microsoft has said. The tech giant has found that organisations already using AI at scale are performing better than those which are not, by making them more productive, showing higher profitability and producing better business outcomes. But it warned that there is a clear and widening gap between companies using it fully and those still in the early testing phase or simply not implementing it at all. It fears firms being cautious because of the current political uncertainty could miss out, with the retail sector among the weakest adopter surveyed, while financial services have ramped up their approach to AI. Some 43% of the finance-related companies who participated in the study said they used AI for more automation this year, compared with 28% the year before.

The study, conducted by YouGov, included the input of some 1,000 business leaders and 4,000 employees. The study found that regarding the use of AI in UK healthcare industry, 46% of healthcare leaders reported their organisation used the technology in some capacity, which essentially reflected an 8% increase compared to 2018. The biggest growth areas reported were research-level AI, which grew 13% in the past 12 months, and robot process automation (RPA) and general automation both increased by 10%, while the use of voice recognition technology increased by 9%. Darren Atkins, chief technology officer at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: "AI in healthcare is an extremely exciting prospect. It's not about replacing staff, but allowing them to maximise their skills, be more efficient, spend more time with patients and, ultimately, get better outcomes." While the adoption of AI in healthcare was below that of the national cross-industry average of 56%, Microsoft explained how the findings demonstrated "recognition of AI's transformative potential for healthcare organisations is becoming increasingly widespread – not just when it comes to central or so-called'back office' processes but by genuinely enhancing the quality of patient care".

Over the last few weeks, Computer Weekly has looked at how a number of organisations are combining automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver measurable business benefits. During the Microsoft Future Decoded event in London, the use of Microsoft tools, and Thoughtonomy's intelligent automation platform at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, were used to demonstrate how AI and automation can combine to deliver benefits in the public sector. In logistics, Canandian transportation company Polaris Transportation is using AI and automation in a project to streamline the handling of scanned-in customs paperwork, enabling it to reduce many hours of manual work. The company used the WorkFusion intelligent automation platform to scan and "read" customs paperwork associated with cross-border shipping documents. According to Cindy Rose, CEO of Microsoft UK, more advanced organisations are accelerating their use of AI, which has enabled them to see its benefits on their bottom line.

AI is quickly becoming an important part of our lives, whether that's in your personal life or at work. Most of us are using AI every day, often without realising. It helps us sort our emails, automatically removing spam from our inbox. It gives us personalised recommendations when shopping, assists us when parking cars and can even translate languages in real time. AI can collect and analyse data faster than any human, but it's not designed to replace us.

Microsoft UK has reported an "encouraging increase" in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in healthcare. In a survey of the use of AI in UK industry, 46% of healthcare leaders reported their organisation used the technology in some capacity, reflecting an 8% increase compared to 2018. The biggest growth areas reported were research-level AI, which grew 13% in the past 12 months. Robot process automation (RPA) and general automation both increased by 10%, while the use of voice recognition technology increased by 9%. The study, conducted by YouGov, included the input of some 1,000 business leaders and 4,000 employees.

Revealing a disconnect in UK workplaces, 83% of leaders claim not to have been asked by staff about AI. The absence of transparency and open communication is fuelling fears about job security among workers while, at the same time, preventing them from understanding exactly how AI can help augment their roles. More than a third of staff (36%) would use the time they saved by using AI to learn new skills at work. Lord Clement-Jones, Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on AI, said: "There is absolutely no excuse for anybody in business, at whatever age, for not reinventing themselves in terms of really understanding how AI works." The rate of AI adoption also varies depending on sector, with financial services leading the way. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of the nation's finance leaders say their organisation is using AI – a 7% increase from 2018 and considerably higher than the national average of 56%. Half of leaders in the field want their organisation to be a leader in AI. More than half (51%) of manufacturing leaders who were interviewed for Microsoft's report said they were using AI, falling to 46% for healthcare and 43% for retail. Microsoft has launched a number of initiatives to boost the level of digital skills in the UK, including a free online AI Business School enabling executives to learn about strategies and use of AI at their own pace in their own time.

Organizations currently using AI outperform those that don't by 11.5%. Despite this, only 24% have ... [ ] an AI strategy in place. A new report, unveiled October 1 by Microsoft UK, claims that British organizations risk being overtaken by their global counterparts unless the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology is accelerated. The report, conducted by YouGov and in partnership with Goldsmiths, University of London, focused on more than 1,000 business leaders and 4,000 employees, and includes interviews with leading industry experts from organizations such as M&S, NatWest, Renault F1 Team, Lloyds Banking Group and the NHS. Its findings demonstrate that organizations currently using AI outperform those that don't by 11.5% but despite this, only 24% have an AI strategy in place.

The opportunities to transform customer experiences by using AI as a marketing team are endless. We've now started to move beyond the hype. AI is not the domain of FTSE 250's with teams of data scientists anymore. We have seen AI democratised – through platform offerings, intelligent API's, and all the smarts embedded in SaaS/PaaS offerings making it easier for all organisations, no matter their size to access. MarTech in particular has been prominent in landing AI into organisations, sometimes in isolated pockets, but these are fertile grounds to experiment on. When human ingenuity and technology combine, for me that is the sweet spot and where the magic happens.