Why so many companies are hesitant to adopt AI?

Feb, 2021 - By WMR

Since its inception, artificial intelligence has become a talking point in the technology industry. Slowly, over the years, AI has made its way into a plethora of end-use industries including BFSI, oil & gas, healthcare, cyber-security, human resource management, and many more. Tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, and IBM have been some of the key leaders in the adoption of AI to facilitate routine activities and provide better services. Despite all of that, there is still a major skepticism among a number of organizations regarding artificial intelligence. Those companies are still not ready to incorporate AI in their business activities. So what’s stopping them from doing so?

When it comes to AI, there is one major constituent that plays a massive role in the overall development and deployment, the data. The AI requires a vast amount of data both in quantity and quality, in order to deliver the desired results and make predictions. It is difficult for programmers to write appropriate algorithms and develop the AI without having sufficient data. Although the majority of organizations do create a vast amount of data, it still needs to be of high quality and on regular basis. The tech giants mentioned above create high-quality data regularly, which makes it possible for them to incorporate AI. Thus, insufficient or bad quality data would lead to undesirable results and failure of AI.

Another major hurdle is an investment. Every business has a budget and a return of internet to take care of. After all, the implementation of AI is going to consume a large chunk of the company’s resources. Another thing that needs to mention here is that AI does not change the course of the business overnight. It gradually becomes intelligent after learning and processing vast amounts of data. This also means the businesses need to have adequate infrastructure, in order to facilitate large volumes of data coherently. As a matter of fact, a business that does not have modern networking infrastructure will face lots of difficulties while supporting AI technology. Therefore, investment plays a crucial role in the implementation of AI, which cannot be ignored. Another factor that determines the deployment of AI is the presence of cloud-based technologies since without them AI cannot function smoothly.

Let us say, a company has both high-quality data and sufficient funds to implement AI. Is that enough? To implement AI, a company also requires skilled individuals with the right mindset who can deliver the results. AI technology is extraordinarily complex and thus requires people with the right capabilities to facilitate changes in the organization. Data scientists can be the bridge the gap between all departments and AI. They can tell what problems can be solved with the help of AI. That being said, there is still hope for companies that are willing to implement to incorporate AI but being restrained by all these hurdles. Since the popularity of AI is growing rapidly, it is becoming increasingly affordable and scalable for smaller organizations. Who knows, maybe in near future, AI might just become an essential part of every other business.