Businesses’ use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increased dramatically, from 55 per cent in 2023 to 72 per cent in 2024, according to a global survey conducted by consulting firm McKinsey.
For many firms worldwide, 2023 may be considered the year of AI discovery, but 2024 has been the year of adoption, according to the report, while noting that many adopters of the technology are also wary of its inherent risks.
Findings of the report showed that more than two-thirds of its survey respondents in nearly every region said their organisations are using AI.
When considering usage by industry, the professional services sector saw the largest increase. Furthermore, the responses indicated that businesses are now utilising AI in more areas of their operations.
“Half of respondents say their organisations have adopted AI in two or more business functions, up from less than a third of respondents in 2023,” McKinsey reported.
Meanwhile, a comparable study by the Reuters Institute and Oxford University, released last week, found that few people are aware of well-known AI technologies like Microsoft Copilot, Google’s Gemini, and ChatGPT.
The following conclusions were drawn from the online survey that was carried out in six nations: Argentina, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK, and the USA.
According to the Reuters report, “Although generative AI is generally well-known, a sizeable portion of the public—between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of those who accessed the websites in the six countries—had never heard of any of the most well-known AI tools.”
It highlighted the fact that ChatGPT is two or three times more common, followed by Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot.
