There are many analysts who are beginning to talk about a ‘bubble’ in everything related to artificial intelligence. The symptoms are worryingly similar to the dotcom events of the late 1990s. A new report from IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl points to the paradoxes of AI, contradictory data at all levels summarized in that – although everyone thinks that AI will transform their business – only 13% of companies are achieving it.
The increasing use of AI in the workplace has revealed one paradox after another. Technology use among individual workers is greater than ever, but most companies do not report improvements at the organizational level. Another example is that the use of AI in the customer service sector is growing, but customers show that they prefer to speak with humans and not with a chatbot. On the other hand, while companies rush to integrate AI into their daily operations, a good portion of them distrust the technology. Not to mention the return, until now non-existent, of the multimillion-dollar investments of the AI majors.
The paradoxes of AI
Kyndryl surveyed 3,700 senior company executives in 21 countries for its latest report. Consistent with recent predictions from some prominent business leaders, 87% of these executives said that «AI will completely transform roles and responsibilities» within their organizations in the next twelve months. However, comparatively few (29%) said their employees have the necessary skills and training to take advantage of this technology.
The Kyndryl report also revealed a surprising disconnection between the level of confidence of organizations in their ability to adapt to new technological trends and their history of actual adaptation. Something that we have already seen in other studies such as Gartner’s for agential AI: for the moment pure hype.
According to the report, 90% of respondents were confident that “their organization’s tools and processes allowed them to quickly test and scale new ideas”but more than half (57%) said that “their innovation efforts are often delayed by fundamental problems in the technology stack”.
Bottom line: While there is an urgent clamor among senior business executives (not just in technology, but also in industries like banking, energy, and healthcare) to automate internal processes using AI tools, not many of them have a clear understanding of how they should do it, given the current structures of their organizations.
At the moment, Kyndryl identifies only a small group (13% of respondents) of “pioneers” who have been able to “combine a strong vision with the investment and adaptability to act accordingly”. This is the small group of business leaders that Kyndryl says has managed to stay afloat. They are setting ambitious goals for AI adoption in their organizations, while taking concrete steps to prepare their teams and technology infrastructure to achieve those goals.
The summary of a report that clearly shows what they call the paradoxes of AI is explained by Martin Schroeter, president and CEO of Kyndryl: “There is a readiness gap as companies grapple with the promise of AI’s transformative value… Closing that gap is the challenge and opportunity that lies ahead of us.”.
