Spain seems to take the use of Artificial Intelligence in the business world very seriously. Our country is one of the main countries in Europe where AI has grown the most with the aim of promoting ESG strategies or sustainable investment in companies, according to the IBM Global Artificial Intelligence Adoption Index 2022 study. Specifically, 31% compared to the previous year compared to Germany, France or the United Kingdom.
The expectations are very positive, since in reality the usability of AI in organizational environments is still at a point with great projection for the immediate future. 56% of IT professionals admit to doing so in the last year and this number is expected to continue to grow. The presence of AI in companies continues to expand in our country to measure, of course, which is increasingly accessible to companies and easier to implement.
Something that, a priori, will not be complicated given the increasingly numerous tools on the market and the current digital transformation in corporations. Nevertheless, there are also some barriers that still need to be overcome such as lack of skills and training, at least for 70% of those surveyed, or that some AI tools still do not work in all data environments (63%). They also highlight the lack of regulations by the government or industry (62%). Aspects that would help consumers develop greater sympathy and trust for how companies use AI and their data.
But If there is a sector where the use of AI stands out, that is, without a doubt, business sustainability. According to this study, up to 65% of IT professionals say that their companies are currently applying it in order to accelerate their ESG initiatives. Within the use that Spanish companies make of AI in this field, 58% affirm that it is to be efficient in their costs and 52% to improve their ESG initiatives as well as identify new opportunities to make their operations more sustainable.
45% of companies say they are exploring the use of Artificial Intelligence
According to IBM, which is helping companies, people and organizations in all sectors to make use of AI that is more human-centric and designed to meet the needs of organizations, up to 45% of organizations are exploring usability and the benefits of AI. Standing out more in large companies than in small and with objectives such as reducing costs and automating key processes (43%) as well as highlighting the technological advances that make it more accessible (42%).
Also 48% of those surveyed in Spain say they plan to invest in AI in the next yearespecially in current IT applications and processes, and 45% will do so through their corporate R&D policies.
AI and its importance in data management
The adoption of AI by companies greatly improves the data management strategy in order to achieve the expected business results. According to this report, 41% of Spanish companies develop an AI strategy, 23% already have a comprehensive strategy and 27% have one but focused on limited or specific use cases. The figure rises to 90% for IT professionals who believe it is vital to carry out AI projects where the data resides. But also there are barriers to overcome, the most important being data security itself, font management and disparate formatsthe integration of data in any cloud and its governance and privacy, among others.
According to the study, the main obstacles to AI adoption continue to be lack of tools or platforms to implement AI (27%) and the skills gap (25%), even more than the costs derived from the implementation of AI.
