Only 5% executives believe generative AI risks could outweigh benefits

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Customer experience and customer retention is the top focus of business leaders to make investments on generative artificial intelligence (AI), as majority of executives believed that the benefits of generative AI outweigh the risks, according to a Gartner report.

The survey found that around 68 per cent of executives believed that the benefits of generative AI outweigh the risks, while just five per cent of them felt the risks were more significant than the benefits.

Despite ongoing economic headwinds, only 17 per cent of executives indicated cost optimization as the primary purpose of generative AI investments. Customer experience was the most common primary focus of investments, cited by 38 per cent of respondents. This was followed by the use for revenue growth by 26 per cent and business continuity by seven per cent executives.

The poll was conducted among 2,544 respondents as part of a Gartner webinar series in March and April 2023 discussing the enterprise impact of ChatGPT and generative AI. Results of this poll do not represent global findings or the market as a whole. 

Frances Karamouzis, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner said “Organizations are scrambling to determine how much cash to pour into generative AI solutions, which products are worth the investment, when to get started and how to mitigate the risks that come with this emerging technology.”

As organizations begin experimenting with generative AI, many are starting with use cases such as media content improvement or code generation. While these efforts can be a strong initial value-add, generative AI has vast potential to support solutions that augment humans or machines and autonomously execute business and IT processes.

“Autonomous business, the next macrophase of technological change, can mitigate the impact of inflation, talent shortages and even economic downturns,” said “CEOs and CIOs that leverage generative AI to drive transformation through new products and business models will find massive opportunities for revenue growth,” the analyst said.

However, executives may begin to shift their perspective as investments deepen.

“Initial enthusiasm for a new technology can give way to more rigorous analysis of risks and implementation challenges. Organizations will likely encounter a host of trust, risk, security, privacy and ethical questions as they start to develop and deploy generative AI,” Karamouzis added.