McKinsey’s latest research reveals significant growth in global artificial intelligence adoption, with generative AI usage expected to double by 2024. Asia and China lead the world in AI applications, and companies are increasingly concerned about the unemployment problems caused by AI.

In a survey of more than 1,363 respondents, the study found that more than 72% of enterprises and organizations around the world have adopted artificial intelligence in at least one business function, a significant increase from 50% a year ago. 65% of respondents said they frequently use generative AI, which is twice the proportion in 2023.

The impact of AI and generative AI transcends borders and industries, with organizations in almost all regions actively embracing AI. Last year, AI adoption rates were no higher than 66% anywhere in the world, but this year, the Asia-Pacific region and China saw the largest increases in AI adoption, with more than two-thirds of respondents saying their organizations were using AI.

The study was conducted via an online survey in early 2024, collecting responses from 1,363 participants and published its findings this week. McKinsey noted that the data collected represented different regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures.

To balance the differences in the number of respondents in different countries, McKinsey weighted the data based on the contribution of each respondent's country to global GDP to ensure the accuracy and representativeness of the research results.

Last year, McKinsey's 2023 report pointed out that generative AI could bring economic benefits of US$2.6 trillion to US$4.4 trillion to the world economy each year, accounting for 15% to 40% of the total economic impact.

Although, generative AI is a specific subset of AI that focuses on creating new content. It uses deep learning techniques to generate new data similar to the training dataset, including text, images, music, and 3D worlds.

By industry, the use of AI in the professional services sector (human resources, legal services, and management consulting) has increased the most, and organizations are using AI to complete repetitive tasks to improve work efficiency.

The study found that marketing and sales, along with product and service development, are the two functional areas using generative AI the most. In sales alone, the use of generative AI has more than doubled from last year.

Organizations are now more concerned about mitigating the risks of AI, especially illusions and intellectual property infringement. Respondents are most concerned about addressing inaccuracies, followed by labor and workforce loss.

In its latest report, McKinsey noted that the adoption of artificial intelligence technology has matured, and the focus of enterprises has turned to reducing related risks, especially issues of hallucination and intellectual property infringement. Regarding the accuracy of AI, respondents’ concerns have increased significantly, with concern rising from 56% to 63%. At the same time, concerns about labor market changes and brain drain caused by AI have decreased, with concern falling from 34% to 27%.

In the risk category survey, respondents had relatively low concerns about issues such as environmental impact, political stability, and personal safety, suggesting that they consider these risks to be a lower priority than business risks directly related to AI technology.

McKinsey research said that the adoption of AI is improving company profitability, especially in supply chain and inventory management, with revenue significantly increasing by more than 5%.

The research also found that many organizations are not only using off-the-shelf AI solutions, but are also customizing them or developing their own proprietary models to meet specific business needs and gain a competitive advantage.

The report notes that organizations in the energy and materials, technology, media, and telecommunications industries, for example, are also developing their own proprietary AI models to meet their specific business needs.

The use of generative AI in work and personal life has increased significantly compared to last year. With the popularity of tools like ChatGPT, MidJourney, and Stable Diffusion, people are using generative AI for entertainment, education, and simulating social interactions.

McKinsey believes that generative AI is a technology that changes business trends. If 2023 is the year the world discovers generative AI, then 2024 is the year organizations really start using this new technology and gaining business value from it.

Conclusion:

With the release of the McKinsey report, we have seen the rapid growth and widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) around the world. AI not only improves the work efficiency of enterprises, but also significantly improves profitability, especially in supply chain and inventory management. At the same time, the rise of generative AI has provided new impetus for content creation and personalized solutions, and its applications in areas such as marketing, sales, and product development are rapidly increasing.

Faced with the risks brought by AI, such as hallucinations and intellectual property infringement, companies are actively seeking solutions to ensure the healthy development of AI technology. In addition, the maturity of AI technology has also prompted companies to begin to pay attention to how to gain competitive advantages through customized AI models.

Looking ahead to 2024, generative AI is expected to become a key technology to drive business innovation and growth, and organizations will make more in-depth use of this technology to gain business value. With the continuous advancement of AI technology and the expansion of its applications, we look forward to the advent of a new era of more intelligent, efficient and personalized business. #人工智能 #生成式AI #麦肯锡 #AI采用率 #数字化转型