November 7, 2024 AI Opportunity Report

TeamViewer’s AI Opportunity Report uncovers the attitudes of 1,400 IT, business, and OT decision makers towards AI.

by Alex Post, Vice President of Product Management, TeamViewer

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can give, and Artificial Intelligence can take. It has the power to boost business efficiency and employee productivity but also the potential to undermine it through security risks if the correct procedures aren’t put into place. Even when these risks are correctly managed, AI can be introduced in a blinkered fashion, hamstringing its ability to deliver widespread benefits and advancements.

Given this, it’s unsurprising that fear and misunderstanding often permeate conversations around AI. To prevent organizations from falling behind through a lack of AI adoption, they need to reimagine how they’re able to take advantage of the opportunity it brings.

AI as the key to business efficiency and equality

We often think of AI as a tool for IT teams and white-collar workers, benefiting businesses overall rather than individual employees at all seniority levels.

Across sectors and job roles, it can improve work opportunities for time-strapped employees while improving efficiency and productivity for better financial outcomes for the business – something especially crucial in manufacturing.

But to what extent is this happening?

Welcome to the age of AI use, maturity, competence, and confidence

Over the past few years, AI has become an increasingly common feature of our working lives, but how often are people actually using it? Do they see their use as mature and themselves as competent? What tasks are they trusting AI with?

Weekly and daily use of AI is exploding

AI adoption has accelerated rapidly over the past 12 months. In fact, the vast majority of decision makers (79%) now use AI in their jobs at least once a week, with over a third (35%) using it every day. These figures show a drastic increase year-on-year; in 2023, weekly use only amounted to 52% and daily use 12%.

However, while AI use has increased across the board, usage levels are by no means consistent across decision-maker types, levels of seniority, or industries, indicating a significant opportunity for growth.

Take decision maker types as an example. It will come as no surprise that IT decision makers (ITDMs) were early AI adopters, using AI significantly more than their counterparts in other divisions last year. Or that their usage is still higher than that of business decision makers (BDMs) and operational technology decision makers (OTDMs). However, it is notable how significantly ITDMs’ everyday use has increased over the past 12 months, with 42% saying they now use AI daily, compared to just 13% saying the same a year ago.

Given that ITDMs led the way in weekly AI use in 2023, and BDMs and OTDMs are now beginning to close the gap, it’s very possible we’ll see BDMs and OTDMs continue to follow their lead next year and also significantly increase the frequency with which they use AI. A prospect supported by OTDMs’ weekly use doubling in the last year (from 38% to 72%) and daily use more than tripling (8% to 25%).

Top AI uses

We know AI use is rising. But what’s it being used for? The answer: in a lot of different ways. From predictive analytics to supply chain optimization.

However, the top three uses are customer support automation (26%), data analysis (26%), and process automation (21%). These top uses are consistent among BDMs, but both ITDMs and OTDMs rate data analysis more highly – at 30% and 25%, respectively – reflecting their more data-based roles.

High perceptions of AI maturity

As AI use rises, so too do perceptions of AI maturity, and people have high faith in their level of advancement. 72% of respondents consider their organizations’ AI adoption mature, with 31% saying it’s very mature.

Confidence in maturity jumps up to 79% among ITDMs and down to 68% for BDMs and 62% for OTDMs, mirroring the frequency of their AI use. This is reflected both among industries and seniority levels.

Meanwhile, in sectors such as manufacturing, where AI is used weekly by 78% of decision makers, 72% rate their organizations’ use of AI as mature.

Time savings and new job opportunities

One criticism of AI in the workplace is that it benefits organizations more than individuals. However, our data shows that both groups are put at an advantage through AI. Firstly, when it comes to time savings; respondents say AI is saving employees 12 hours per month – almost two working days.

While all groups were found to save time through AI – a testament to its effectiveness in this area – those that use AI the most are experiencing the biggest benefits, illustrating what’s possible when the technology is fully embraced. For example, employees in the IT industry save 16 hours through AI, compared to manufacturing workers, who save just over 10 hours per week, and in the public sector, it’s down to six hours.

It could be suggested that IT personnel will save more time than any other group through AI because of their unique technical capabilities. However, respondents in the construction & agriculture sectors also estimate that 15 hours can be saved through AI. Illustrating that anyone with a non-IT background can unlock time savings with the right approach.

Alex Post, Vice President of Product Management at TeamViewer, offers insight into why AI use varies across decision-maker types: “Industry 4.0 has been a talking point for over a decade. But, in some sectors, the digitation process is only just beginning in earnest. Conservative groups, such as OTDMs, are sensitive to changing their running systems, and for good reason, as they’re conscious of potential data leaks around their production process and remaining competitive. Given residual fears over transformation and OT’s consequently lower levels of digital maturity, it’s unsurprising that OTDMs have been slower to adopt AI than their IT counterparts. However, resistance to using AI is only part of the story.”

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The quantitative research for this report was conducted by Sapio Research, an independent research consultancy based in the United Kingdom.

The survey was conducted among 1,400 IT DMs, BDMs, and OTDMs in companies with 200+ employees across the UK, France, Germany, Australia, and Singapore and 500+ employees in the US.

The interviews were conducted online by Sapio Research in August and September 2024 using an email invitation and an online survey.

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