Research into AI adoption finds U.S. service companies held back by lack of skills, security concerns, and legacy systems
However, there is optimism that Industrial AI will improve quality control and bring new sustainability gains
Research from IFS, a technology provider of enterprise cloud and industrial AI software, shows despite high levels of AI optimism among service companies, hurdles still stand in the way of successful AI adoption and deployment.
Limited skills & expertise (38%), ethical/safety/security concerns (36%), and a legacy-based technology landscape (36%) were identified as the top service factors slowing adoption progress. What’s more, only 58% of respondents working in the service industry felt their industry was adopting AI faster than others—the lowest score out of all industries surveyed.
However, there is optimism about the benefits of AI. Cost reductions/margin gains (31%) and mitigating risk (31%) are the two areas where service companies expect AI to make large differences.
Sustainability planning also correlates directly with overall AI optimism. The less wide-ranging an industry’s sustainability strategy was regarding AI, the less likely they were to be optimistic about AI in general. Interestingly, most service respondents with an AI strategy for sustainability believe it can have the biggest impact through quality control and reducing product discarded (22%), alongside regular simulation and optimization of the business targeted to meeting sustainability goals (22%).
Christian Pedersen, Chief Product Officer, IFS, commented: “At the surface level, the lack of optimism across some respondents may suggest we are at the edge of a trough of disillusionment, particularly following the all-encompassing hype that AI enjoyed for much of the last 18 months.
“The lofty expectations for AI bely a fundamental misunderstanding of how it is supposed to drive value. The real power lies in Industrial AI, where data flows through every part of your business, combining structured, interlinked datasets to uncover insights, optimize every process, and marry the digital with the physical world. If a business doesn’t have a strategy to reach that point, then they need a partner who can guide them on that journey,” concluded Pedersen.
There are more insights and actions in the Industrial AI: the new frontier for productivity, innovation and competition Executive Report.
The IFS Global AI Optimism League Table by Country
Research Methodology
Censuswide surveyed 1,709 C-level/President/SVP/Directors who work in Services, Manufacturing, Telecommunications, A&D, Construction & Engineering, or Energy & resources in organizations with $50m+ annual revenue (Aged 18+) across the U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, UAE, Norway, Japan, Australia, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
