C-Suites on Generative AI: Transforming the Way We Work and Compete

C-Suite Leaders Agree: AI's Impact Is Here

For more than a year, generative AI technology has dominated news cycles, supercharged the value of AI companies, and driven company strategy sessions. Despite this spotlight, significant questions remain about how this technology works and how business leaders can harness its full potential.

“This survey demonstrates the huge impact generative AI stands to have on how enterprises compete and win,”

As a pioneer in the application of generative AI to enterprise business processes, Icertis commissioned a survey to better understand how c-level executives across 500 large enterprises in the US and UK are thinking about generative AI in 2024 and beyond.

The results reveal that AI’s impact is here: Leaders expect bottom lines to be affected, competition to become fiercer, and workforces to be transformed, all in the coming months, not years. Yet they also demonstrate that leaders are highly attuned to the ethical and data security challenges artificial intelligence presents.

“This survey demonstrates the huge impact generative AI stands to have on how enterprises compete and win,” said Monish Darda, CTO and Co-founder, Icertis. “this year will be a critical year as executives determine how they will differentiate themselves in this new market, and we hope this data proves useful to them as they build their strategies.” 

Doing business in the AI era

Leaders increasingly view AI as a solution to ongoing labor shortages but also anticipate stiffer competition

Much of the conversation around generative AI has been, understandably, focused on how it will impact employment levels if tasks currently filled by humans can be automated through AI. One of the most striking findings of the Icertis AI Impact Report is the reverse dynamic at play: C-Suite leaders say employment levels will be the top macro-economic factor driving AI adoption. This makes sense: in an extremely tight labor market, leaders may be more eager to turn to AI to complete work that could otherwise be handled by humans.

42% percent say employment levels are their top concern

That said, executives are cognizant of how AI will impact employment levels: 42 percent said it was their top concern, making it the most common concern held by the c-suite alongside data privacy and security (both these themes are discussed in more detail later in the report).

42% of leaders willing to embrace AI regulation in favor of responsibility and ethics

Perhaps in light of these concerns, leaders have demonstrated a willingness to embrace AI regulation. When asked how they’d like to see governments balance responsibility and ethics with innovation, 42 percent said they favor the government prioritizing responsibility and ethics. This is compared to 30 percent who leaned toward government regulation that favors innovation.

56% think AI will incite greater competition as companies adopt similar strategies

Finally, leaders see generative AI as an equalizer in the market: More than half think AI will incite greater competition by minimizing gaps between competitors, compared to 21 percent who think it will exaggerate current gaps between winners and losers in the market. Not surprisingly, then, 41 percent said AI raised concerns for them about their financial performance.

Workforce Transformations

Leaders are looking for a workforce that understands how to leverage AI

And they recognize that even the C-suite is not safe from automation. Business leaders’ desire to see generative AI deployed in their enterprise will translate directly into workforce decisions.

55% of leaders plan on reskilling workers to use AI

More than half of the respondents say their companies plan to create new positions to focus on leveraging generative AI. Half are also planning to invest in reskilling workers to effectively use AI. Both of these statistics demonstrate how critical human resources will continue to be for companies to drive performance in the world of generative AI.

Even number of executives expect AI to increase their employee base versus decrease

But while a workforce pivot appears likely, less certain is how, ultimately, employment levels will be impacted: A nearly even number of executives said they expected AI to increase and decrease the size of their employee base. As already noted, AI’s impact on the workforce is tied as the top concern held by these leaders.

90% of C-suites worry AI will ultimately automate parts of their jobs

Perhaps most surprisingly, the impact on the workforce won’t be confined to junior-level employees, as indicated by these leaders: An overwhelming 90 percent of executives worry that AI will ultimately automate strategic initiatives that are managed by the c-suite, with 46 percent saying this is an immediate concern. Furthermore, 52 percent are also planning to create new mid-to-senior level positions in 2024 directly tied to AI.

Unlocking the ROI of AI

Companies are putting their CEOs and IT leaders in charge of generative AI budgets

Despite the growing presence of generative AI tools across the software landscape, one might expect that generative AI budgets would be equally dispersed. However, our survey shows an interesting trend: only 4 percent of leaders believe the AI budget is a shared responsibility among the c-suite. Instead, 34 percent believe it is the responsibility of the CEO and 33 percent the CTO or CIO. On reflection, this makes an enormous amount of sense. The CEO and CIO are best positioned to execute a unified vision for applying generative AI, as well as establish firm guardrails to minimize risk. Centralizing the generative AI budget – and the corresponding enterprise strategy – will ensure that vision, and those guardrails, are carried out from the top down.

Nearly half believe AI will impact their bottom line in the same year

The impact of these investments is expected to be rapid. Nearly half of respondents believe AI will impact their bottom line in 2024, and an additional 36 percent believe it will impact their bottom line in the next 2 to 5 years.

Every executive must ask: What will deliver more savings, more revenue, and less risk than my competitor?

56% of executives are prioritizing AI use cases on revenue-boosting or cost-cutting measures

Indeed, revenue and cost cutting are the predominant goal of generative AI programs: 56 percent of leaders are prioritizing AI use cases that have an immediate impact on revenue or cost, versus 37 percent who are prioritizing risk management use cases.

Leaders expect savings in the IT, Finance, and Marketing departments

When asked where they expect to realize savings across business functions, executives see the IT, Finance, and Marketing departments as the top three areas for immediate savings. Interestingly, these areas beat out procurement, despite its central involvement in spending; and legal, which was identified by many commentators early in the generative AI hype as a prime target for gen AI-powered efficiencies. The focus on IT, finance, and marketing could represent an opportunity for creative executives to differentiate from their competitors by exploring generative AI use cases for procurement and legal.

Safety and Ethics

Execs are focused on safety and ethics with generative AI implementations

Data security looms large for executives when selecting AI vendors to work with. Most notably, U.S. leaders are significantly more comfortable with employees using publicly available AI models, such as ChatGPT, than their U.K. counterparts.

When it comes to deploying generative AI, companies will have the opportunity to work with existing vendors who introduce generative AI solutions; new vendors who focus on generative AI; or in-house IT development.

51% of leaders plan to engage new IT vendors while most plan to leverage existing relationships

Our findings suggest that many executives plan to take a diverse approach: 51 percent plan to engage with new vendors; 58 percent plan to leverage existing relationships; and 51 percent aim to utilize in-house IT resources.

Vendor's data security strategy, privacy and ethics policies matter more

For those leaders who engage external vendors, the top two factors in selecting who to work with are the vendor’s data security strategy and policies related to privacy and ethics. In third place was their cost.

This is striking. The fact that price comes in third after data security and privacy/ethics underscores how attuned leaders are to the risks that come with generative AI and the caution they intend to approach it with. They are willing to pay for safety.

More U.S. executives are comfortable with their employees using ChatGPT than U.K. counterparts

With that said, a notable geographic divide emerged when executives were asked about allowing their employees to use publicly available generative AI models like ChatGPT. Among U.S. executives, 41 percent said they planned to allow employees to use models like ChatGPT in 2024; in the U.K., only 30 percent said the same. We expect both those figures to drop in the coming months and years as organizations’ generative AI strategies and the security rigor that comes with them become more mature.

Conclusion

We hope this data proves helpful as you chart your own generative AI course for the coming year and beyond.

As the results show, executives have the difficult mandate to drive innovation as generative AI transforms business processes, while also moving cautiously to ensure safety and ethics remain centered. The broad availability of generative AI tools also means strategic advantage won’t come from the technology itself, but from how it is applied. Every executive must ask: What will deliver more savings, more revenue, and less risk than my competitor?

As we saw, respondents to the survey believe generative AI will automate some of their own strategic responsibilities. But for now, these are decisions where executive ingenuity will still have a substantial and tangible impact on the enterprise.

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