A new report from Capgemini Research Institute finds that 70% of executives believe that generative AI will enable organizations to widen the scope of the roles of knowledge workers. Nearly all executives (96%) recognize that generative AI is a key topic in the boardroom, with the majority confirming that their leadership are strong advocates.
The report, “Harnessing the value of generative AI: Top use cases across industries,” examines the transformative force of generative AI for innovation across enterprises. It finds that generative AI has the potential to automate many of the tasks that currently consume knowledge workers’ time, freeing them up to focus on more strategic and creative work.
For example, generative AI can be used to generate reports, write code, create marketing materials, and even design products. This can free up knowledge workers to focus on tasks that require human judgment and creativity, such as problem-solving, strategic planning, and customer service.
The report also finds that generative AI can help organizations to improve their decision-making processes. By providing access to large amounts of data and insights, generative AI can help organizations to make better decisions more quickly.
Overall, the report finds that generative AI is a powerful tool that can help organizations to improve their performance and productivity. It is clear that generative AI is a key topic for executives, and that they are increasingly recognizing its potential to transform the way they work.
The high-tech industry is leading the way in generative AI integration
Executives in the high-tech industry are the ones most convinced (84%) that the overall impact of generative AI will be positive. Nearly 70% of executives in that industry said their organisations have generative AI pilots underway, and 18% state that they have already implemented generative AI across some locations or business functions. The top two use cases are 3D modelling for detailed shapes and predictive maintenance.
The majority (67%) of executives across sectors see the most potential for generative AI in the IT function – this is particularly true within the high-tech sector which holds the largest percentage of executives (86%) saying their organisation is using or plans to use generative AI in IT. Other areas where executives see generative AI driving value are sales (54%), and marketing and communications (48%).
The rise of generative AI will create new roles and will require investment in upskilling
According to 69% of businesses, generative AI will begin to provide concepts and initial designs for projects and, as such, employees’ roles will shift away from ideation and creation, to review and refinement. This sentiment was also echoed by consumers, with 70% saying that they believe generative AI will make them more efficient at work, free them from routine tasks and enable them to explore more strategic aspects of their job.[2]
The research reveals that 69% of executives believe generative AI will lead to the emergence of new roles such as AI auditors and AI ethicists. With the introduction of new generative AI-based roles, 68% of executives believe that integration of the technology into the workforce will require significant investment in upskilling and cross-skilling of talent.
Most organisations understand the need for sustainable generative AI
Nearly 80% of organisations understand the criticality of implementing and scaling generative AI sustainably. Alongside this, 78% of enterprises understand that generative AI can have a larger carbon footprint than traditional IT programs. However, out of the organisations that plan to train their own models (8%), roughly half have taken steps to mitigate their environmental impact, highlighting the need for more concrete efforts towards sustainability.
