Report: CIOs Say AI Is Critical for Business in 2024

The AI market will be worth SGD400 billion (USD297 billion) by 2027 while a staggering 94% of CIOs in the region say AI is critical for business this year, according to a new study.

Commissioned by Lenovo, the “CIO Playbook 2024” report by IDC surveyed over 900 IT and business decision makers in the Asia Pacific (APAC) to offer a comprehensive overview of AI adoption here. Some 370 respondents were from ASEAN countries, including Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Interesting highlights

The study revealed that organizations in APAC are planning to increase AI spending by 45% in 2024 compared to 2023. Indeed, a massive shift in CIO priorities from last year saw AI topping the list this year.

Business leaders and IT leaders don’t see completely eye to eye, however. Business leaders want to prioritize generative AI to enhance customer experience and drive outcomes, while CIOs expressed cautious optimism, ranking generative AI as the 3rd tech priority.

This could be attributed to the higher enthusiasm of business leaders. IT leaders, on the other hand, must grapple with implementation challenges and pilot AI use cases.

Moreover, CIOs report that the top technology challenge for AI is the reliance of generative AI on extensive datasets, a resource most organizations lack. When it comes to business challenges, job security and lack of requisite AI skills are top concerns for IT employees in mature markets.

Over 90% of CIOs believe generative AI will eventually become a source of competitive advantage. A mere 9% consider AI a "distraction".

AI as a competitive advantage

Speaking at a media briefing yesterday to launch the report, Scott Tease, the vice president and general manager of AI and HPC at Lenovo, noted that AI will create far more jobs than it replaces.

Some jobs are more susceptible to AI augmentation than others, but Tease noted that it will be professionals who are well-versed in the use of AI tools that will replace their colleagues who cannot use AI – and not AI technology itself.

“The AI Playbook echoes what we have been hearing from the customers. CIOs across ASEAN+ are most confident about AI, with 94% expressing certainty that it will create a competitive advantage, and 51% of them consider it to be a game changer for their organizations,” said Kumar Mitra, the managing director of Lenovo ISG.

“Higher investments in [generative AI] and machine learning followed by deep learning systems underscore their desire to elevate operational efficiency, security, decision-making processes, and customer experiences,” said Mitra.

Image credit: iStockphoto/sompoch sivakosit