BUSINESS leaders are predicting huge gains to be made from Artificial Intelligence but are delaying its implementation because of legal and regulatory hurdles.
According to a survey of 450 business leaders carried out by Milton Keynes law firm Dentons, which included senior executives and General Counsel across the UK, Ireland and the Middle East, corporate-level AI decisions are being hampered by two competing viewpoints.
Confidence is high that implementing AI will reap rewards yet uncertainty over the regulations governing its implementation is creating an “ambiguity gap” and a resultant threat of inactivity.
The Dentons research found that 70% of those surveyed cite AI adoption and implementation as the key growth driver for their business. Just over half expect that between one-tenth and one-fifth of their revenue will be directly attributed to AI – and almost all agreed that AI will deliver more revenue than humans within 20 years.
However, concern over likely increases in regulations is persuading many to hold fire before committing to a business future with AI at its forefront.
Just over two-thirds of those surveyed said they are delaying AI investment decisions because of fears of changing rules and regulations. due to an expected increase in regulation. 63% do not have a formalised AI roadmap yet a similar number said that organisations that do not embrace AI-driven change are becoming increasingly unviable.
Sarah Beeby, Dentons’ people, reward and mobility partner and co-clients and markets partner, was closely involved with the research. Speaking at Dentons’ office in Central Milton Keynes, she said: “Organisations need to ensure that they are not waiting to see what others do and suddenly introduce AI without understanding the implications.
“Introducing AI incorrectly will leave organisations with a workforce that cannot utilise it and will not engage with it.
“Or with a workforce that feels threatened by it.”
The Laws of AI Traction report looked at how to close the gap between ambition and action.
It considers AI Traction through three key dimensions:
- Corporate agility Building strategic and operational capacity to quickly adapt and respond to the opportunities offered by AI;
- Workforce transformation Preparing the workforce for the changes wrought by AI; and
- Digital resilience and data management Implementing sufficiently scalable digital infrastructure and sound data governance for rapid and safe transformation, and a robust data strategy.
Download a copy of Laws of AI Traction here.
Paul Jarvis, Dentons’ UK, Ireland & Middle East chief executive, said: “AI is near the top of every boardroom agenda but there is a significant gap between ambition and action.
“We asked organisations what they thought their spending on and revenue from AI would be in three years’ time, with most predicting a marked increase in both areas. This suggests that they are pausing investment decisions by a matter of years rather than months, indicating the extent of uncertainty in the market.
“With the stakes so high, action to deploy AI needs to rapidly catch up with ambition and optimism. Even though fragmented and rapidly changing regulations across the world are having a chilling effect on AI investment levels, our view is this lack of consistency need not cause delay.”
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