Dive Brief:
- About 2 in 5 of executives expect the use of AI to improve experiences and have a significant, measurable impact on their business within two years, according to a survey of 1,500 executives released Wednesday by Qualtrics XM Institute. The same amount expect to see an impact in three to five years.
- AI-powered experience improvements could create $860 billion in annual revenue and cost savings, according to estimates based on McKinsey & Company research relating AI experience to value. That number could rise to as high as $1.3 trillion, the research found.
- Leaders anticipate AI’s greatest impact to come from improved product quality and delivery, followed by enhanced customer support, experience personalization and more empathy in interactions.
Dive Insight:
While AI has the power to generate immense value for businesses, few companies are positioned to take full advantage of the technology.
“I think if you're going to actually unlock the value of AI, you have to make some very fundamental changes to how your organization operates,” Isabelle Zdatny, XM principal catalyst at Qualtrics XM Institute, said during a Tuesday session at the Qualtrics X4 conference in Salt Lake City.
While the vast majority of organizations, about 9 in 10, have some kind of AI initiative underway, just over 1 in 10 executives say that they have an organization-wide AI strategy in place — which is foundational to a successful rollout, according to the survey.
“By and large, executives do recognize AI’s potential to help them achieve their strategic goals,” Zdatny said. “But, very few of them are actually making the types of moves that they need to position themselves to capitalize on this opportunity.”
One important step to preparing for AI adoption is embracing cross-functional governance in the executive team, according to Victoria Bough, partner in McKinsey’s sales and marketing practice.
This approach, in which the entire enterprise aligns around a common understanding of the company’s goals, can be terrifying, according to Bough. Teams may need to focus on new metrics or otherwise revamp how they approach operations to ensure every team is taking the same angle.
“Cross-functional, agile teams that are actually operating from a custom learned, iterative way, is a totally different operating model than most organizations,” Bough said.
However, leaders who are willing to make the change will benefit, according to Zdatny. While companies shouldn’t rush into AI, those that are able to embrace the technology earlier will create an expanding lead over laggards.
“AI is going to create compounding advantages for those organizations that do get it right,” Zdatny said. “Every customer interaction makes the system smarter, every insight builds more value, every experience improvement deepens customer relationships.”
