CEOs Pushing Gen AI Adoption More Quickly Than Employees' Comfort: IBM Study

CEOs are facing workforce, culture and governance challenges as they act quickly to implement and scale generative artificial intelligence across their organisations, a study by the IBM Institute for Business Value shows.

The study of 3,000 CEOs from over 30 countries and 26 industries found that 64% said succeeding with generative AI will depend more on people's adoption than the technology itself. However, 61% of respondents said they are pushing their organisation to adopt generative AI more quickly than some people are comfortable with.

Of the surveyed CEOs, 63% said their teams have the skills and knowledge to incorporate generative AI, but few understand how generative AI adoption impacts their organisation's workforce and culture. More than half (56%) have not yet assessed the impact of generative AI on their employees. Yet, 51% of CEOs said they are hiring for generative AI roles that did not exist last year, while 47% expect to reduce or redeploy their workforce in the next 12 months because of the technology.

Workforces Under Pressure Of Generative AI Adoption

Of the CEOs surveyed, 40% plan to hire additional staff because of generative AI. Yet, more than half (53%) are already struggling to fill key technology roles. CEOs said 35% of their workforce will require retraining and reskilling over the next three years, up from just 6% in 2021.

CEOs Face Organisational Collaboration And Adoption Challenges

Around 65% CEOs agreed their organisation's success is directly tied to the quality of collaboration between finance and technology, yet 48% said competition among C-suite executives sometimes impedes collaboration.

Of those surveyed, 57% acknowledged that cultural change is more important to becoming a data-driven organisation than overcoming technical challenges. CEOs cited generative AI adoption as being critical to success, but 64% said their organisation must take advantage of technologies that are changing faster than people can adapt.

Benefits Of Rapid Technology Adoption Outweigh Potential Risks

More than two-thirds (68%) of CEOs agreed that governance for generative AI must be established as solutions are designed, rather than after they are deployed. Although 75% said trusted AI is impossible without effective AI governance, only 39% have good generative AI governance in place.

Around half (51%) agreed that the risk of falling behind is driving them to invest in some technologies before they have a clear understanding of the value. Of the surveyed CEOs, 67% are willing to take risks because of productivity gains from automation.

Even though today 71% of CEOs are no further than generative AI piloting and experimentation, 49% expect to be driving growth and expansion by 2026.

Focus On Short-Term Targets Might Hinder Long-Term Progress

CEOs ranked product and service innovation as highest priority for the next three years, and 41% said they are willing to sacrifice operational efficiency for greater innovation. However, a majority of CEOs point to a focus on short-term performance as their top barrier to innovation.

Today, only 36% of CEOs are primarily funding their generative AI investments with net new IT spend, with the remaining 64% reducing other technology spend.