AI adoption remains concentrated within a small number of business functions. Photo Credit: Adobe stock/Shuo
The latest annual McKinsey Global Survey on the current state of AI
confirms that less than a year after many of these tools were launched,
one-third of the survey respondents say their organisations are using
gen AI regularly in at least one business function.
Discussions about AI have evolved from the confines of tech groups to
a focus of company leaders - nearly one-quarter of surveyed C-suite
executives said they are personally using gen AI tools for work, and
more than one-quarter of respondents from companies using AI said
generative AI is already on their boards’ agendas. 40% of respondents
said their organisations will increase their investment in AI.
Alex Singla, senior partner and global leader of QuantumBlack, AI by
McKinsey: “It’s amazing how quickly the conversation around generative
AI has evolved. Just a few months ago, the conversation in the C-suite
was pretty rudimentary, focused on trying to understand what it was and
seeing what was hype versus what was reality.
“Now in just about six months, business leaders are having much more
sophisticated conversations. As we can see from the survey results,
almost a third of companies are using generative AI in at least one
business function. This underscores the degree to which companies
understand and accept that generative AI is viable in business.”
The percent of organisations adopting any AI tools has held steady
since 2022, and adoption remains concentrated within a small number of
business functions. 79% of all respondents say they have had at least
some exposure to gen AI, either for work or outside of work, and 22% say
they are regularly using it in their own work. While reported use is
quite similar across seniority levels, it is highest among respondents
working in the technology sector and those in North America.
Approaching AI constructively
Alexander Sukharevsky, senior partner and global leader of
QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, said: “Companies that are approaching
generative AI most constructively are experimenting with and using it
while having a structured process in place to identify and address these
broader risks. They are putting in place beta users and specific teams
that think about how generative AI applications can go off the rails to
better anticipate some of those consequences.
“They are also working with the best and most creative people in the
business to define the best outcomes for both the organisation and for
society more generally. Being deliberate, structured, and holistic about
understanding the nature of the new risks - and opportunities -
emerging is crucial to the responsible and productive growth of
generative AI.”
Augmenting work
Lareina Yee, senior partner, McKinsey and chair of McKinsey
Technology Council, said: “In most instances, companies see generative
AI as a tool to augment human activities, not necessarily replace them.
So far, we’re mainly seeing companies that are leaning forward with
generative AI, focusing on pragmatic areas where the routes to
improvements in top-line growth or productivity are clearest.
“Examples include using generative AI tools to help modernise legacy
code or speed up research and discovery time in the sciences. We’re
still just scratching the surface of these augmentation capabilities,
and we can anticipate that their use will accelerate.”