A majority of IT leaders expect artificial intelligence to increase productivity, but at the same time they are concerned that their organisations are not yet equipped to fully leverage AI.
According to a new research from Salesforce, 85 percent of IT leaders expect AI to increase developer productivity over the next three years, a welcome relief as they simultaneously report a 39 percent increase in IT requests in the last year alone.
However, 62 percent also say their organization isn’t yet equipped to harmonize data systems to fully leverage AI, which is impeding the transition and further heightening the strain on their teams.
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Adding to these concerns, 98 percent of IT organizations today report experiencing at least some degree of challenge with their digital transformation efforts, with 80 percent citing data silos as a concern and 72 percent grappling with systems that are overly dependent on one another.
Breaking down silos
Data silos are significant barriers to progress and business value, with 81 percent of respondents reporting that silos are hindering digital transformation efforts. As a result, there’s a greater need for better integration to unify all structured and unstructured business data to power and deploy trusted, relevant AI across all business functions, the research said.
The study also highlighted some other challenges:
- Organizations are challenged to connect data with AI applications: 72 percent of IT leaders find their current infrastructure overly interdependent.
- Data insights go untapped: 75 percent of organizations say they’re struggling with integrating data insights into user experiences.
- Digital customer experiences aren’t fully baked: Only 26 percent of organizations believe they provide a completely connected user experience across all channels.
Automation is key
Automation is essential as business users seek self-sufficiency, yet overburdened IT teams largely hold the keys, the research said.
IT teams are often responsible for automation adoption, but remain cautious to allow business stakeholders to self-serve. Only 22 percent of IT leaders report that their strategy to help non-technical business users integrate apps and data sources via APIs is up to date.
Simultaneously, a skills gap within IT teams poses a hurdle. Closing this gap through strategic collaboration and upskilling is essential for organizations to best use automation for both innovation and efficiency.
APIs streamline data access and utilization to fuel growth by seamlessly connecting different applications and systems. In fact, an estimated 33 percent of all revenue is from API and API-related offerings. APIs account for one-third of revenue, a number that has remained steady over the past three years, the research said.
