AI to double the rate of innovation in NZ

By 2021, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will allow the rate of innovation in New Zealand to double. Employee productivity gains are also expected to increase 1.5 times, according to a new AI study released by Microsoft, in partnership with IDC Asia/Pacific.

The research, “Future Ready Business: Assessing Asia Pacific’s Growth Potential Through AI”, found more than three-quarters of business leaders polled agreed AI is instrumental for their organisation’s competitiveness. However, only 51% of organisations in New Zealand have embarked on their AI journeys. Those companies that have adopted AI expect it to increase their competitiveness by 2 times in 2021.

Microsoft NZ national technology officer Russell Craig who spoke last week at the country’s premier Agri-Tech event, MobileTECH 2019, says, “Today, every company is a software company, and increasingly, every interaction is digital. To be successful in this new world, organisations need to be a fast adopter of best-in-class technology. They also need to build their own unique digital capabilities.

“AI is the defining technology of our time that significantly accelerates business transformation, enables innovation, boosts employee productivity, and ensures further growth. Economies and businesses that have yet to embark on their AI journey run a real risk of missing out on the competitive benefits that are enjoyed by leaders.”

For the organisations that have implemented AI initiatives, the top five business drivers to adopt the technology were (in priority order): Better customer engagement (46% of respondents named it as the number one driver); higher margins (17%); higher competitiveness (13%); accelerated innovation (12%) and business intelligence (8%).

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Source: itbrief.co.nz