Execs expect increased ROI on GenAI soon

Over three-quarters of executives anticipate that returns on investment for artificial intelligence will increase in the near future. 

According to a new survey published Thursday by KPMG, which collected responses from 225 senior business leaders at companies with at least $1 billion in revenue, 78% are confident of increased ROI of planned investments in generative AI over the next one to three years; of this group, 11% indicate high confidence. 

In tandem, 83% of respondents expect the volume of investments in the developing technology to increase over the next three years. In terms of next steps, 61% plan to expand the application of current generative AI initiatives, 55% plan to introduce the technology to new business functions and 55% plan to invest in upskilling employees. 

The workforce still has a ways to go in terms of preparedness to work with this tech. The survey found that only 16% are highly equipped and capable across all areas necessary for the utilization of generative AI, while 78% are moderately equipped. But 69% of respondents are training their current workforce, and 61% are hiring new talent to support their generative AI initiatives. 

The majority of respondents say they are already seeing the impacts of generative AI on their businesses. Seventy-one percent are leveraging data in decision making, 52% say it is shaping competitive positioning and 47% say it is opening new revenue opportunities. But senior leaders differ on what the main goal for these investments is: C-suite respondents say that revenue growth is top of mind, while the rest of respondents say it’s productivity. 

When it comes to actually integrating the technology, the survey found that IT and tech have the highest integration, with one-third of organizations having fully integrated or in the process of integrating a holistic generative AI program. The next highest integration was across operations (53%) and marketing and sales (48%). 

Companies are split on the build-versus-buy approach. Half of organizations are buying or leasing the tech from vendors, while 29% are utilizing a mix of building, buying and partnering. Only 12% of organizations are building their generative AI solutions in-house. Of the cohort building their own solutions, the motivations for doing so include cost savings and ROI (63%), customization to meet specific needs (52%), intellectual property rights (41%) and rapid prototyping and iteration (41%). 

But with the increased integration and utilization of generative AI comes increased risk and regulation. More than half of business leaders cite risk as a highly significant focus, with cybersecurity (79%) and data quality (66%) listed as key areas of focus for risk management efforts. More than half of business leaders also expect AI regulation will increase costs for their organization, and 60% are actively reviewing and updating their data handling practices.