What The Top 9% Understand About AI And Other Transformative ...

Tech transforms

Read enough analyst reports and trade publications, and attend enough conferences, and one can be forgiven for assuming every business on the planet is now fully immersed in and running on operational and generative artificial intelligence. However, it appears only 9% of companies are fully leveraging technology at the core of their next phases of advancement, a new survey out of Accenture finds.

This tech-savvy 9%, however, is moving ahead of the pack in business growth. These executives indicate they “are putting technology at the center of a strategic reinvention of their business rooted in data, AI and new ways of working.”

They are learning techniques and lessons that the remaining 91% need to consider in developing their technology-focused business strategies. And these are lessons that need to be learned quickly — there will be a major uptick in business leaders using generative AI as the catalyst for strategic reinvention in the next 12 to 24 months, the Accenture survey of 1,500 executives predicts.

Almost half (46%) of the top 9% have significantly accelerated the execution of their reinvention strategy, compared to only 7% of their less-advanced counterparts. And a majority, 65%, expect to see results within the next year.

Revenue growth among the top 9% is projected to outpace that of all others. They already increased revenues by 15 percentage points more than the rest of the survey respondents between 2019 and 2022. The gap in revenue growth between these tech-savvy achievers and the rest will likely increase by 2.4 times to 37 percentage points by 2026, the Accenture team predicts. In addition, the top 9% are twice as likely to see productivity gains of 20% or more in the next three years. “The growing performance gap creates an imperative for other organizations to find new ways to further accelerate their reinvention,” they state.

Here’s what the top 9% understand about the transformative impact of AI and other technologies:

Generative AI is strategic. “Reinventors are going further, using generative AI to reinvent more strategic areas of the business. New capabilities are being introduced at an unprecedented pace. Across the tech ecosystem, new foundation models are introduced almost every week, leading to heightened client interest and adoption.”

Generative AI is unique. The technology demonstrates an “ability to impact the entire value chain and drive both productivity and growth in a way that can reset the performance frontier.”

It needs to be viewed holistically. “The only way to use generative AI to achieve reinvention is to connect it with other technology. To change what they do — their processes and the way they approach talent. All of it.”

It’s all about reinvention. “Generative AI has become an extraordinary force in enabling reinvention and accelerating organizations’ progress toward a new performance frontier. Technology is the top lever for reinvention for 98% of organizations, with generative AI now seen as one of the main levers for 82% of those organizations.”

It’s all about people. Perhaps most importantly of all, people need to be at the core of all tech-driven transformation strategies, as they are what makes it all happen. “Build strong change competencies that do not change by function or partner and that put people at the center so that you understand the impact of generative AI on all aspects of people and their experiences,” the Accenture team urges. “Prepare workers for generative AI, implementing continuous learning initiatives to ensure they have market-relevant skills, and actively involve them in change.”