Wavestone and French Tech Grand Paris, in collaboration with VivaTech and Hub France IA, just released a report on AI in preparation for the upcoming AI Action Summit to be held at the Grand Palais in Paris. The report outlines the state of AI in large international enterprises, including current initiatives and challenges. Let's take a look at 5 key takeaways.
How Will Businesses Adopt & Scale?
Many businesses are struggling to realize the full potential of generative AI within their companies. The report highlights the importance of change management and proper planning to get from the minimum viable product phase to large scale deployment.
On top of that, "companies face the ‘Make or Buy’ decision for AI models, balancing cost and customization." Specialized language models built on proprietary data can both safeguard content from exposure and be tailored to fit specific needs. This forces businesses to question whether it's worth the price tag and the time.
The Talent Competition
As businesses compete for the best use of AI, they are also competing to attract and maintain talent. People with engineering, mathematics, machine learning, and information technology are high in demand, and not just in tech.
The report explains that "traditional sectors and startups compete with tech giants for AI professionals" because industries like banking and retail need people with those skills to harness AI.
A combination of government support, AI literacy training, and collaboration between industry and academic institutions will be necessary to facilitate AI ecosystems and create more skilled workers.
Risks & Concerns
While the hype of AI has garnered a lot of momentum, there are concerns to go along with it. The report highlighted three major risks central to AI use:
- Cybersecurity risk
Although AI can be used as a tool to enhance cybersecurity, it also brings along "new threats and attack patterns," as well. Companies need to remain proactive and identify vulnerabilities specific to AI use. The report also notes that many companies look to external providers to validate the security of AI systems.
- Ethics and governance
Ensuring the ethical use of AI is still a challenge to work through. The report stresses the importance of the data that goes into AI models, highlighting that "data governance and AI governance are increasingly being viewed as inseparable."
- Environmental
Democratization and widespread use of AI poses threats in terms of both energy and water consumption. What incentives can we create for businesses to use more frugal, light-weight models and how can we develop technology that is less resource intensive?
Cybersecurity, ethical, and environmental concerns mentioned in the report are used to highlight how important regulation frameworks like the EU AI Act and the NIST AI RMF are, as well as what regulatory frameworks we might be currently lacking.
AI Governance for Business Success
AI, especially generative AI, is most powerful when integrated with preexisting data governance, cybersecurity, HR, and legal processes to achieve business and compliance success. With a landscape that is evolving so rapidly, AI compliance should be a discussion involving all stakeholders across a business.
The report also highlights how businesses are really zeroing in on strategic and specific use cases for AI in order to succeed. "The most successful strategies now concentrate on a selected number of AI/Data targets, including GenAI, that are aligned with core business goals."
The AI Race
The race for AI dominance is led predominately by the U.S and China. These countries rely on powerful tech companies within their borders to propel their progress forward, however Europe struggles to foster tech giants in the same way the U.S and China do.
As of 2023, private investments in AI reached €62.5 billion in the U.S and €7.3 billion in China, compared to just €9 billion in the U.K and all of Europe combined, according to a report by Stanford. In France, President Emmanuel Macron has begun initiatives to bring France to the front of the AI movement, promising more investment, resources, and programs to secure talent.
Businesses must "pursue strategic autonomy and develop resilience strategies, while serving the interests of their own nations." The report calls for Europe to align public and private interests in order to foster a long-term industrial AI plan.
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