Why AI leads the pack amongst disruptive technologies

One thing that really shone through our survey findings was how much trust business figures have in AI. Many new and emerging technologies attract as much trepidation from people in business as enthusiastic support. That’s perfectly natural. For most businesses, technological evolution ends up meaning disruption and expense.

The benefits can take some time to trickle through, if they ever come at all. The last thing any decision maker wants to do is back the wrong horse and end up investing in a dud. For that reason, many people in business take up a position of studied scepticism on most emerging technologies, demanding to be fully convinced of the benefits before they commit.

But while AI is still widely considered an emerging technology, and we have a long way to go before we get close to realising its full potential, it seems senior figures from commerce and retail have already been won over. For example, a staggering 91% told us that they expected AI to boost their business in the next one to two years - not in some far-off murky future, but within current strategic planning cycles.

Asked to pick out what they felt the specific benefits of AI would be, their answers covered a broad spread.

• 29% said AI would help to make their businesses more efficient, and the same number said it would deliver cost savings.
• 27% told us they believed AI would help them build differentiation.
• 26% said it would lead directly to new revenue streams.
• 25% said it would future-proof their business.

All of this seems to be coming from a strong position of understanding, too. While some respondents told us they didn’t yet feel up to speed with certain technologies and the opportunities they presented, including the likes of the metaverse and Web 3.0, we heard no such concerns about AI. Indeed, 67% of people we surveyed described their understanding of AI as ‘strong’, the top figure ahead of Blockchain (64%) and XR technologies (60%).

One pattern we did spot, however, was that understanding of AI is higher among larger firms. It peaked at 74% of firms with 500 or more employees, and was down at 50% for those with between 10 and 99 employees.

So, what’s behind such high levels of trust in AI among commerce movers and shakers?

One reason is its relative maturity. Out of all the technologies we quizzed commerce leaders about, AI was the most developed and proven. In fact, the first successful AI programme dates back to 1951. Familiarity is another reason and helps explain why AI came out markedly ahead in our survey in terms of current adoption. 51% of our survey participants said AI was already in use in their organisation, compared with 44% who said they had already deployed Blockchain technologies, and 43% who are actively using XR.

What is more, a further 33% said that roll out of AI technologies was already in progress in their organisation.

Backing up the adoption rate figures, 61% of respondents said they rated their present ability to work with Blockchain as ‘strong’, again pushing Blockchain into second place (56%). Similarly, 60% rated the ability of their current tech infrastructure to support AI applications as strong.

These figures tell us that leaders and decision makers in digital commerce are no longer looking at AI as a ‘future’ technology. It’s very much a part of their present thinking and strategy.

And compared to other so-called ‘emerging’ or disruptive technologies, a higher rate of adoption for AI naturally suggests a higher level of trust. In digital commerce, AI is already a technology that businesses are prepared to back.