IBM Research Shows Steady AI Adoption

New market research commissioned by IBM revealed that global AI adoption grew steadily over the last year, to 35 percent of those surveyed in 2022. The result is further underscoring that AI growth is poised to accelerate as it continues to mature, becoming more accessible and easier to implement.

Other data points from the "Global AI Adoption Index 2022," conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, reveal this growth was due to companies recognizing the value of AI as they emerged from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and invested in their digital transformation while dealing with talent and skills shortages. The study shows that AI adoption was up 4 percentage points compared with 2021.

For the first time, the report also polled companies about their plans to use AI in their sustainability initiatives and found that AI is poised to play a significant role. 66% of IT professionals surveyed said that their company is either currently applying AI, or plans to apply AI, to accelerate ESG initiatives.

The research shows that global AI adoption is growing steadily, and most companies already use or plan to use AI. Also, setting clear data and AI strategies are key for horizontal deployment. Automation is helping address skills gaps, and labor shortages, with the need to build more sustainable operations. Popular use cases like automation and security are driving the adoption, the research shows.

"More than one-third of organizations polled in the IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2022 say they are using AI today to respond to a myriad of different factors and pressures," said Tom Rosamilia, Senior Vice President, IBM Software. "They're looking to AI to help them address skills and labor shortages, respond to competitive pressures and, increasingly to respond to environmental pressures as well. Most respondents said they either are already using or plan to use AI as part of their sustainability initiatives. These trends all point to the growing role that AI is playing both within organizations but also in society.

While AI investment continues to grow, barriers to adoption remain, particularly for smaller organizations that are significantly less likely to take advantage of AI. The survey determined top three barriers to AI adoption for businesses are: limited AI expertise or knowledge (34%), high prices (29%), and lack of tools and platforms for developing AI models (25%).