Wussten Sie schon: Bereits zwei Drittel der etablierten deutschen Unternehmen nutzen KI
According to the Machine Learning 2021 study published mid-year by IDG, two-thirds of German companies are already working on implementing AI projects. For more than 60% of companies, the benefits of an AI project become apparent within 12 weeks at the latest. Besides IT, production environments are the primary field of application for AI. We have compiled the most important figures on AI usage and the biggest challenges in AI projects for you.
Number of AI Projects Rising
At 49% of companies, the number of implemented or planned AI projects has slightly increased since the beginning of the Corona pandemic, and at 18% it has even grown significantly. Positive developments can also be seen in dedicated AI budgets. Overall, 74% of companies have increased their AI budgets. According to the survey results, this trend will continue after the pandemic.
The most common goals of AI projects are improving internal processes (59%) and developing new products and services (35%). When evaluating project success, companies focus on increased productivity, cost reduction, and return on investment. The latter is particularly important as a success indicator for executives and management boards. Around 62% of companies were able to realize benefits within 3 months at the latest, and nearly all successful projects delivered results within the first year.
The 2 largest fields of AI application are IT (76%) and production environments (57%). In production, quality assurance and R&D (54% each), logistics (53%), and predictive maintenance (30%) are the primary areas of application. For about 3 out of 4 production specialists, process automation also has high importance. From the perspective of 36% of respondents, AI will continue to have great potential in production in the future—a significant increase compared to last year's 24% (Machine Learning 2020 study). This could mean that AI deployment in production may soon surpass IT (42.5%) as the most important future field for AI.
Missing Expertise is the Biggest Hurdle in AI Projects
The greatest obstacle to implementing AI projects is often the lack of qualified specialists (37%). Insufficient programming skills and lack of expertise are also seen as barriers. In this article you will find an overview of the competencies required to implement AI projects and can form your own opinion.
To close the AI expertise gap, around 3 out of 4 companies rely on external support. One in five company outsources development entirely. 58% pursue a combined strategy of in-house experts and external assistance. When selecting providers, companies value good value for money (34%) as well as the provider's technical expertise and trustworthiness (28% each). After all, one-fifth of companies attempt to implement AI projects entirely independently.
Positive AI Trend in Germany
The majority of German companies have already discovered the value of AI for themselves and will continue to expand corresponding investments. Companies successfully compensate for missing expertise by bringing in external specialists.
As an AI specialist, we at aiXbrain see our mission as supporting companies in implementing their AI projects and thus contributing to the positive AI trend in Germany.
