80% Indian firms risks going out of business without AI: Study

Nearly 80 per cent of top-notch executives in India believe if they don’t aggressively deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) across their organisations, they risk going out of business by 2025, an Accenture study has revealed.

The research found that while 79 per cent of C-level executives in India believe they won’t achieve their business strategy without scaling AI, only a few have made the shift from mere experimentation to creating an organization powered by robust AI capabilities.

As a result, this small group of top performers is achieving nearly three times the return from AI investments as their lower-performing counterparts, Accenture said in a statement.

„Those who push through the barriers to embed AI more deeply in their organization, are seeing a return on their AI investment of 70 per cent or more,“ said Anindya Basu, geographic unit and country senior managing director, Accenture in India.

Indian businesses need to step on the pedal and learn from the leaders.

„They need to make strategic investments to scale AI as that’s the only way to realize its true business value,“ Basu added.

Accenture surveyed 1,500 C-Suite executives from companies with a minimum revenue of $1 billion in 12 countries, including India, across 16 industries.

The findings showed that the secret to success for top performers centres around three key elements: a strong data foundation, multiple dedicated AI teams, and a C-suite-led commitment to strategic, organization-wide AI deployment.

These companies demonstrate their deep commitment by scaling AI at a much higher rate — conducting nearly twice as many pilots than other companies.

However, this commitment to AI does not necessarily translate to higher spend, with top performers reporting lower investment levels on their AI implementations — pilots and full-scale deployments — than lower performers, said the report.

Nearly all global respondents (95 per cent) agree on the importance of data as the foundation to scaling AI, but the top performers are more intentional and focused on ensuring that the right, relevant data assets are in place to underpin their AI efforts.

They are more adept at structuring and managing data, with 61 per cent wielding a large, accurate data set and more than two-thirds (67 per cent) effectively integrating both internal and external data sets.

„While the top leadership team can serve as the champions responsible for scaling AI initiatives, embedding teams with AI across the entire organization is not only a powerful signal about the strategic intent of the effort, but will also enable faster culture and behavioural changes,“ said Saurabh Kumar Sahu, managing director and lead for Applied Intelligence, Accenture in India.

Instead of relying on a single AI champion, 92 per cent top executives have strategically embedded multi-disciplinary teams throughout their organisations.

„This cross-functional approach also helps ensure diversity of thinking which, in addition to having tangible benefits for considerations like Responsible AI, can also maximize the value an organization sees from their AI deployments,“ said the report.