Pandemic Accelerates Corporate AI Investments and Strategy Development
The 2020 pandemic shows that organizations with strong technology investments survive and thrive, prompting many to speed up their AI adoption. A new survey reveals that a majority of companies now use artificial intelligence, though formal strategies remain surprisingly rare.
The global pandemic teaches organizations a vital lesson about the importance of technology investments, as businesses with existing IT infrastructure successfully shift to remote work and online commerce. This same principle applies directly to artificial intelligence, where companies discover that solid AI strategies either keep them on track or push them to dramatically increase their pace of investment.
A recent MIT Technology Review Insights survey shows that 70% of business and technology leaders maintain or accelerate their AI investment plans during the crisis. Organizations with pre-existing AI strategies report the highest levels of continued or increased spending, while sectors like healthcare rapidly adopt AI tools such as telehealth applications to meet new operational demands.
Currently, 62% of survey respondents actively use AI technologies, with deployment rates reaching nearly 80% at large organizations. Despite this widespread adoption, only about a third of companies actually guide their AI capabilities through a formal strategy, indicating a significant gap between implementation and strategic planning.