In the battle between AI & Metaverse, CEOs choose AI

• According to a new Gartner study, AI is the top priority for business leaders for the third year in a row.
• The AI market is now on its path to reaching $126 billion by 2025, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
• Adopting new technology isn't always simple. Hence it's critical for CEOs to grasp the reins and steer their companies into the digital age.

Metaverse may be all the rage these days, fuelling popular imagination, taking over movies, games and other pop culture, but when it comes down to the brass tacks, the top bosses at organisations worldwide continue to swear by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to drive global growth.

AI has become an inseparable part of an organisation. Businesses are considering AI for reasons ranging from data innovation to developing organisational strategy. The AI market is on its path to reaching $126 billion by 2025, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The Garter 2022 CEO Survey supports the greater relevance of AI for business leaders versus Metaverse.

According to this latest study issued by Gartner, AI is the top priority for business leaders for the third year in a row. The "2022 CEO Survey — The Year Perspectives Changed" polled CEOs and top executives on a variety of topics, including workforce, the environment and digitization.

The studies also found that the Metaverse, which has garnered a lot of attention in the previous year, especially since Facebook's rebranding to Meta, isn't as significant to business leaders as AI. About 63 percent of people do not consider Metaverse to be the right technology for prioritisation in the current business landscape.

While CEOs frequently welcome breakthrough technologies, Metaverse has only garnered a lot of confusion and managed to create a lack of confidence about the need for investment.

The Business Case for AI

AI has swept the business world, with 52% of companies accelerating their AI adoption plans due to COVID. Many businesses have already turned to AI as a core force driving their advancement, having adopted this tech stack technology as central to their progress. The four key ways AI is being used in business right now are:

• Personalization: Every interaction a user has with a company's website is recorded and turned into usable data that can be accessed. This data is later used to develop tailored techniques for a personalised response.

• Automated systems: Business Process Automation is increasing in popularity day by day, multiplying employee productivity.

• Advanced customer service: Customer service is now firmly anchored in AI, as the technology can scan speech and decide what the client needs. This saves time and frees employees from robotic tasks of handling repetitive, simple questions, thus enhancing client satisfaction.

• Data Management: AI powers data analysis to save employees' productive time, allowing them to focus on other activities.

Strategies to Scale AI Adoption

With increasing adoption in enterprises, AI has helped in scaling up operations across the board. This is not lost on CXOs and many decision makers are now opting for more pervasive adoption of the technology in their organisations. There are three main strategies for CEOs to scale AI in their companies:

• Invest in new AI roles: There is an urgent need to invest in additional positions to scale AI positions such as machine learning experts. However, to make any significant change in the organisational structure, it is crucial to invest in employee training and qualified staff. So, training and identification of expert resources for additional hire can be a starting point.

• Create a shared tech vision: In most cases, CEOs drive the company culture. With this responsibility, CEOs need to remove old beliefs that surround legacy technologies. While the company may have done things a certain way for a long time, it doesn't rule out the possibility or the need for change. CEOs can get people on board in support of this scaling up process if they provide a roadmap of goals and expectations for this technology.

• Take advantage of data opportunities: All CEOs are in a unique position to define goals, focus their vision and identify data opportunities that AI would provide. Once done effectively, this will push the company's growth remarkably.

Thus CEOs need to act now and switch to a more advanced technology option, rather than wait. The measure of a successful company will soon be based on the ability of the decision makers to make significant changes to internal operations through AI and the subsequent improvement in the quality of the company’s client interactions.

Admittedly, adopting a new technology isn't always simple. That's why it's critical for CEOs to read the future, grasp the reins and steer their companies into the digital age. Because Metaverse may grab eyeballs but artificial intelligence will decide the future of organisations.
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