WHAT’S HOLDING BACK

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AI has left the machine room and entered the
boardroom, but few companies are exploiting
its full potential

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
In many industries, executives expect AI’s influence to grow
PERCENTAGE OF EXECUTIVES WHO EXPECT AI TO PLAY A MAJOR ROLE TODAY AND WITHIN FIVE YEARS

AVERAGE 14 63

TECHNOLOGY,
MEDIA & TELECOM 20 72

FINANCE 12 65

CONSUMER 16 64

PROFESSIONAL
SERVICES 11 64

HEALTH CARE 14 64
INDUSTRIAL
GOODS 12 58

ENERGY 11 47

PUBLIC SECTOR 11 41

EXECUTIVES’ VIEW OF AI

50 % 33 %
13 %
4 %
A RISK AND AN NEITHER A RISK NOR ONLY A
AN OPPORTUNITY OPPORTUNITY AN OPPORTUNITY RISK

THE GAP BETWEEN

EXPECTATION AND ACTION
84 % While many executives expect
great things from AI, few companies
75 %
are actively exploiting it
SHARE OF EXECUTIVES

38 %

23 %

5
%

EXPECT AI SAY AI WILL ALLOW SAY THEIR SAY THEIR

TO CREATE THEIR COMPANIES COMPANIES HAVE COMPANIES
COMPETITIVE TO MOVE INTO NEW AN AI STRATEGY ARE
ADVANTAGE BUSINESSES EXTENSIVELY
USING AI
SAY THEIR COMPANIES
ARE PILOTING AI

THE DATA AND TRAINING BARRIER

An understanding of data and training needs separates the
most sophisticated AI companies from the least sophisticated

MOST SOPHISTICATED LEAST SOPHISTICATED

SHARE OF COMPANIES THAT

UNDERSTAND THE DATA NEEDS OF AI 87 %
11 %

SHARE OF COMPANIES THAT

UNDERSTAND THE PROCESSES
NEEDED TO TRAIN AI ALGORITHMS 85 %
7 %

PREPARING FOR
AN AI FUTURE
Leading companies
capitalize on AI in UNDERSTAND THE BUILD TECHNICAL GAIN COMPETITIVE
three ways INTERPLAY OF DATA, SKILLS AND ADVANTAGE THROUGH
TRAINING, AND CROSS-FUNCTIONAL ACCESS TO NEW,
ALGORITHMS TEAMS UNIQUE, OR RICH DATA

This infographic is based on a survey of 3,000 executives conducted by The Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management
Review and discussed in “Reshaping Business with Artificial Intelligence” and “Putting Artificial Intelligence to Work”

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