Enterprises enthusiastic about generative AI, Foundry survey shows

Generative AI is already making deep inroads into the enterprise, but not always under IT department control, according to a recent survey of business and IT leaders by Foundry, publisher of CIO.com. The survey found tension between business leaders seeking competitive advantage, and IT leaders wanting to limit risks.

Some 62% of respondents said their organizations were actively using generative AI, with 23% saying they were in the early stages of exploring its use, and 14% saying they were considering implementing it. That leaves just 1% that has either checked out generative AI and dismissed it, or have no plans to use it at all.

Interestingly, non-IT leaders were more likely to report actively using generative AI (73%) than IT leaders (59%), suggesting there’s plenty of experimentation going on beyond the purview of the IT department. Enterprises with 5,000 or more employees were more likely (69%) to be trying the technology than smaller ones (57%).

Enthusiasm for generative AI technology, a branch of AI that can be used to autonomously create new content such as images, videos, or text, varied from one industry to another. Those in retail or financial services were most likely (62%) to report active use of it, closely followed by manufacturing, production, and distribution (59%), and technology (56%).

Tension at the top

There were some interesting splits when Foundry asked respondents whether the greater risk to their organization was moving too fast (adopting generative AI despite security risks or ethical issues) or too slow (being seen as a laggard, or not creating competitive advantage).

IT leaders were more likely (56%) to see moving too fast as the greater threat, while moving too slow was seen as more dangerous by non-IT leaders (52%).