A Qlik®, specialist in data integration, analytics, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), announced findings from its survey of 4,200 C-Level executives and AI decision-makers, revealing what is hindering technology progress globally and how to overcome these barriers.
Lack of AI skills, governance and regulatory issues, and insufficient resources are hindering success in AI implementation, causing many projects to stall in the planning stages. Out-of-the-box solutions are the preferred way for both Brazilian and global companies to start working with AI solutions and achieve return on technology investment.
AI projects are stuck in planning or being scrapped
The importance of AI for achieving organizational success is not underestimated, with Qlik’s research finding that 88% of global senior decision-makers feel AI is absolutely essential or very important for success – including reaching strategic goals and increasing profits. Among Brazilian executives, 94% share the same view.
Despite this recognition, few AI projects move from the planning phase to completion or implementation, with many being scrapped. In fact, 20% of global companies and 11% of Brazilian companies have between 50 and over 100 AI projects in the scoping or planning stage that are not yet projects in execution. Among global companies, 20% also had up to 50 projects that progressed to planning or beyond but had to be paused or completely canceled. Among Brazilian companies, the figure 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 technology investment and better serve their customers in the face of competition. Given the effort to bring AI projects to fruition, many AI decision-makers (74% globally and 85% in Brazil) are seeing value in ‘ready-to-use’ solutions as a good foundation for enhancing AI development.
Regulatory challenges, lack of skills, 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, cited by 24% of local executives surveyed in the research. Globally, this factor was mentioned by 20%.
Other highlights include challenges related to the lack of skills to develop AI (23% globally and 21% in Brazil) and to implement AI post-development (22% worldwide and in Brazil), data governance challenges (23% globally and 22% in Brazil), budget constraints (21% globally and 24% in Brazil), and a lack of reliable data for AI to function (21% globally and 22% in Brazil).
While there is a high level of understanding about the need for AI, with almost all respondents (95% globally and in Brazil) stating they know AI resources could be used in their businesses, a lack of trust from other parts of the business seems to be hindering the progress of some companies.
Among global AI decision-makers, 37% (25% in Brazil) say their senior managers do not trust AI. Additionally, 42% of them feel that lower-level employees also lack trust in the technology. In Brazil, this figure rises to 46%. While 21% of executives globally believe their customers also lack confidence in AI, in Brazil the number rises to 24%.
Alarmingly, 61% still say this lack of trust is significantly reducing investment in AI in their businesses. In Brazil, 49% of the surveyed executives share this opinion.
Better knowledge exchange between a company and its customers can help increase this confidence and subsequent investments, as 74% of global leaders seek to promote the benefits of technology more within their organizations and for their customers. This percentage rises to 88% in Brazil, highlighting the priority of promoting the benefits of technology.
Building trust is essential to advance AI implementation
Providing AI training to enhance workforce skillsets 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 their industries need to be better at nurturing and qualifying AI teams, and 75% think 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. Additionally, 94% advocate for more qualification in industries and 87% highlight the importance of greater government support in the country.
“We see that the Brazilian market has great potential to adopt Artificial Intelligence, but the challenges for its implementation are still significant. With increasing pressure for financial margins, local companies seek technological solutions that offer benefits without compromising security or business stability. Without proper implementation, with quality, secure, and governed data, companies run the risk of not capturing the financial gains that AI can provide,” says Olimpio Pereira, Country Manager of Qlik Brazil.
“Business leaders understand the value of AI but face a series of barriers that prevent them from moving from proof of concept to an implementation of technology that creates value. The first step in creating an AI strategy is to identify a clear use case, with defined goals and success metrics, and use that to distinguish the skills, resources, and data needed to provide scalable support. By doing this, you begin to build trust and gain management buy-in to help you succeed,” says James Fisher, Director of Strategy at Qlik.
Learn more about how Qlik is supporting customers in launching their AI solutions, including the use of Qlik Answers, the self-service solution with the power of GenAI, by accessing: https://www.qlik.com/us/products/qlik-answers.
