- 85% of IT decision makers surveyed reported progress in
their companies' 2024 AI strategy, with 47% saying they have
already achieved positive ROI
- Nearly half of surveyed companies are looking to open-source
AI to optimize their investments in 2025
ARMONK,
N.Y., Dec. 19, 2024 /CNW/ -- New research
commissioned by IBM (NYSE: IBM) found that companies surveyed are
investing in AI for the long term, with a growing interest in using
open-source tools to drive ROI and innovation going
forward.
The study of more than 2,400 IT decision makers (ITDMs),
conducted by Morning Consult and developed in collaboration with
Lopez Research, revealed that 85% of respondents report making
progress in executing their 2024 AI strategy, with nearly half
(47%) already seeing positive ROI from their AI investments. The
data also confirms that using open-source tools for AI solutions
may correlate to greater financial viability: 51% of surveyed
companies currently utilizing open-source AI tools report seeing
positive ROI, as compared to just 41% of those not using open
source.
Nearly two-thirds (62%) of all respondents indicate they will
increase their AI investments in 2025, while 48% are planning to
leverage open-source ecosystems to optimize their AI
implementations. For those surveyed companies not currently
utilizing open-source, 2 in 5 say they plan to use open source for
AI implementation in 2025.
"As organizations begin to implement AI at scale, many are
placing greater stock in success metrics such as productivity
gains, in part because traditional hard dollar ROI benefits have
yet to show up on the balance sheets," said Maribel Lopez of Lopez Research. "Yet, companies
continue to rapidly advance their AI strategies, with no sign of
slowing down. Companies now recognize the value of defining
specific use cases and optimizing AI projects. They are leveraging
hybrid cloud strategies and open source to drive AI innovation and
deliver financial returns."
Further study findings include:
Enterprises are ramping up AI investment, but with a greater
strategic focus
- 89% of surveyed organizations are planning to either increase
or maintain their investment in AI in 2025.
- Of the 62% that plan to increase their investment, nearly
two-fifths (39%) of respondents plan to up their spending by
25-50%.
- Only 5% of respondents plan to decrease their AI spending, and
none by more than
50%.
- Surveyed companies are focusing on specific areas for
allocating their AI investments, particularly IT operations (the
top focus area for 63% percent of respondents), as well as data
quality management (46%) and product/services innovation
(41%).
- When asked what strategic changes will be made in 2025,
surveyed ITDMs identify using managed cloud services (51%), hiring
specialized talent (48%) and utilizing open source (48%) among the
most common ways they plan to optimize their AI investments.
Open source is becoming crucial to companies' AI
strategies
- 6-in-10 ITDMs surveyed report using open-source ecosystems as
an AI tool source, and more AI solutions are expected to be based
on open source in the coming year (41% in 2025 vs. 37% in
2024).
- More than 80% of respondents report that at least a quarter of
their company's AI solutions or platforms are based on open source.
- As company size increases, so does the likelihood that the
majority (over 50%) of AI solutions are based on open source.
- Surveyed companies utilizing open-source ecosystems are more
likely to be achieving positive ROI than those that are not (51%
vs. 41%).
- In addition, respondents harnessing open-source ecosystems plan
to launch more AI pilots in the coming year than those that are
not: 38% say they plan to launch 21+ AI pilots in 2025, compared to
26% at companies not using open source for AI tooling.
Organizations report successfully advancing their AI
projects, but often through less traditional ROI metrics
- 85% of surveyed ITDMs report making progress in executing their
AI strategy, while only 9% report no progress.
- 58% of respondents say their company typically moves from AI
pilot to full production in less than a year.
- 31% of surveyed companies say their AI investments are driven
more by innovation, compared to 28% that are more ROI driven; 41%
indicate that their organization is equally innovation and
ROI-driven.
- Faster software development (25%), more rapid innovation (23%),
and productivity time savings (22%) ranked as the three most
important metrics surveyed ITDMs use to calculate ROI from AI
investments. Hard dollar/quantifiable savings was a distant fourth
at 15%.
- Nearly half (47%) of surveyed companies say they are achieving
positive ROI from their AI projects; 33% say they are breaking even
and just 14% say they are recording negative ROI.
- Among companies not yet achieving positive ROI, less than half
(44%) expect to begin seeing dollar savings within the next 1 to 2
years; 92% believe they will turn a positive ROI within 3
years.
To view the full study, visit:
https://newsroom.ibm.com/image/IBM_ROI_of_AI_Report-December_2024.pdf
Study Methodology:
Morning Consult conducted a survey
from October 30 to November 13, 2024
among a total sample of 2,413 IT Decision Makers (ITDMS) in the US,
Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, France, Germany, Spain, India,
Singapore, Indonesia, and South
Korea. The interviews were conducted online, and the data is
unweighted. Respondents are employed at companies with 101
employees or more, serving in director-level or higher roles within
a technology role, with decision-making authority over at least one
of the following: management of business consultants/consulting
services, purchasing for IT products, or purchasing for business
consulting services.
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid
cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more
than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data,
streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the
competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government
and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as
financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's
hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital
transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's
breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing,
industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and
flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's
long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility,
inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more
information.
Media Contact:
Marisa
Conway
IBM Corporate Communications
conwaym@us.ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM
