A Qlik®, a specialist in data integration, analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI), has announced the results of its survey of 4,200 C-level executives and AI decision-makers, revealing what is hindering the progress of the technology around the world and how to overcome these barriers.
Lack of AI skills, governance and regulatory issues, and insufficient resources are hindering the success of AI implementation, causing many projects to be stuck in the planning stages. Ready-to-use solutions are the preferred way for Brazilian and global companies to start working with AI solutions and achieve a return on investment in the technology.
AI projects are stuck in planning or being scrapped
The importance of AI in achieving organizational success is not underestimated, with Qlik research finding that 88% of global senior decision-makers feel that AI is absolutely essential or very important for achieving success – including reaching strategic goals and increasing profits. Among Brazilian executives, 94% share the same vision.
Despite this recognition, few AI projects move from the planning phase to completion or implementation, with many being discarded. In fact, 20% of global companies and 11% of Brazilian companies have between 50 and more than 100 AI projects in the scope or planning stage, which are not yet underway projects. Among global companies, 20% also had up to 50 projects that advanced to planning or beyond but had to be paused or completely canceled. Among companies in Brazil, the value drops to 17%, but it is still significant.
Advancing more AI projects from planning to successful implementation will be vital for businesses to see a return on their investment in technology and better serve their customers in the face of competition. Given the effort to implement AI projects, many AI decision-makers (74% globally and 85% in Brazil) see value in "ready-to-use" solutions as a good foundation to improve AI development.
Regulatory challenges, skills shortages, data governance, budget and trust are to blame
There are multiple factors slowing down or completely blocking these AI projects. In Brazil, the main one involves regulatory challenges, mentioned by 24% of the local executives surveyed in the study. Worldwide, this factor was mentioned by 20%.
Among other highlights are the challenges related to the lack of skills to develop AI (23% globally and 21% in Brazil) and to implement AI after development (22% worldwide and in Brazil), data governance challenges (23% globally and 22% in Brazil), budget constraints (21% worldwide and 24% in Brazil), and lack of reliable data for AI to function (21% globally and 22% in Brazil).
While there is a huge level of understanding about the need for AI, with almost all respondents (95% globally and in Brazil) saying they know that AI capabilities could be used in their business, a lack of trust from other parts of the business appears to be holding some companies back.
Among global AI decision-makers, 37% (25% in Brazil) say their senior managers do not trust AI. Furthermore, 42% of them feel that lower-level employees also do not trust the technology. In Brazil, this percentage rises to 46%. While 21% of executives worldwide believe that their clients also lack trust in AI, in Brazil the number rises to 24%.
Alarmingly, 61% still say that this lack of confidence is significantly reducing investment in AI in their businesses. In Brazil, 49% of the executives surveyed share this opinion.
A better exchange of knowledge between a company and its clients can help increase that trust and subsequent investments, as 74% of global leaders seek to promote the benefits of technology more within their organizations and to their clients. This index rises to 88% in Brazil, highlighting the priority of promoting the benefits of technology.
Building trust is paramount to advancing AI implementation
Providing AI training to upskill the workforce is another way to build trust and ensure that AI projects move beyond planning and are successfully implemented.
Globally, 65% of AI decision-makers believe that their country has the potential to lead the world in AI skills in the next five years. To achieve this, 76% believe that their segments need to be better at nurturing and qualifying teams for AI, and 75% think that their governments need to provide more funding and training in AI. In Brazil, the outlook is more optimistic, with 71% of executives indicating that the country has the potential to lead the world in AI skills in the next five years. Furthermore, 94% advocate for the need for more qualification in the sectors and 87% highlight the importance of greater government support in the country.
“We have seen that the Brazilian market has great potential to adopt Artificial Intelligence, but the challenges for its implementation are still significant. With the growing pressure to increase financial margins, local companies are looking for technological solutions that offer benefits without compromising the security or stability of the business. Without proper implementation, with quality, secure and governed data, companies run a great risk of not capturing the financial gains that AI can provide,” says Olimpio Pereira, Country Manager of Qlik Brazil.
“Business leaders know the value of AI, but face a number of barriers that prevent them from moving from proof of concept to a value-creating implementation of the technology. The first step to creating an AI strategy is to identify a clear use case, with defined goals and success metrics, and use this to identify the skills, resources and data needed to support it at scale. By doing this, you begin to build trust and gain buy-in from management to help you succeed,” said James Fisher, Chief Strategy Officer at Qlik.
Learn more about how Qlik is supporting customers to launch their AI solutions, including using Qlik Answers, the self-service solution powered by GenAI, by visiting:https://www.qlik.com/us/products/qlik-answers.
