Gartner: More than Half of Organizations That Have Deployed AI Take an AI-First Strategy

A new Gartner, Inc. survey revealed that 55% of organizations that have previously deployed AI always consider AI for every new use case that they are evaluating. In addition, the research shows that 52% take risk factors into consideration when evaluating new AI use cases.

“An AI-first strategy is a hallmark of AI maturity and a driver of increased return on investment,” said Erick Brethenoux, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “However, AI-first does not mean AI-only. While AI-mature organizations are more likely to consider AI for every possible use case, they are also more likely to weigh risk as a critical factor when determining whether to move forward.”

Across all organizations, respondents had deployed an average of 41 AI use cases, with use cases remaining in production for 3.5 years. Both the number of use cases and the time in production rose with the size of the enterprise, with global enterprises reporting an average of 51 use cases in production for 4.3 years.

The most significant differentiator identified among AI-mature organizations was the involvement of legal counsel at the ideation stage of AI use cases. AI-mature organizations were 3.8 times more likely to involve legal experts at the ideation phase of an AI project’s life cycle.

“There is uncertainty around the ethics and legality of various AI tactics, as well as a fear of violating privacy regulations,” said Brethenoux. “Organizations that are more experienced with AI do not want to be told they’ve crossed a line once they are further along in the process of developing an AI use case.”

When evaluating the return on AI investment, 52% of AI-mature organizations focus on a combination of technical and business metrics to assess ROI. In less mature organizations, technical metrics are most often used to measure the value of AI use cases.

More AI-mature organizations – 41% compared with 24% of all others – use customer success-related business metrics to estimate ROI. Furthermore, 47% of AI-mature organizations cite customer service as one of the top three business functions benefiting from AI, compared with 34% of others.

“Many business and IT leaders focus on AI’s impact on optimization and productivity, but organizations do not prosper through cost cutting,” said Brethenoux. “Organizations that are using AI technology to attract and retain customers are able to more clearly articulate the impact on the business, driving a virtuous cycle of executive buy-in for new AI projects.”

AI-mature organizations are also more likely to define metrics earlier in the AI lifecycle. Sixty-seven percent of AI-mature organizations define metrics at the ideation phase of every use case, compared with 44% of less mature organizations.

The survey was conducted in October through December 2022 among 622 respondents from organizations in the U.S., France, the U.K., and Germany that have deployed AI. Gartner defines an “AI-mature” organization as those who have deployed more than five AI use cases across several business units and processes, in production for more than three years.

Channel Impact^®
The data provide an interesting guide for channel partners and other organizations mapping out AI strategies.