Market hype and rising interest in artificial intelligence (AI) are compelling established software vendors to introduce AI into their product strategy, creating significant confusion in the process, according to Gartner.
Analysts predict that by 2020, AI technologies will be virtually pervasive in almost every new software product and service. Gartner believes that by 2020, AI will be a top five investment priority for more than 30% of CIOs.
“As AI accelerates up the Hype Cycle, many software providers are looking to stake their claim in the biggest gold rush in recent years,” said Jim Hare, research VP at Gartner.
“AI offers exciting possibilities, but unfortunately, most vendors are focused on the goal of simply building and marketing an AI-based product rather than first identifying needs, potential uses and the business value to customers,” said Hare.
To successfully exploit the AI opportunity, technology providers need to understand how to respond to three key issues.
First is the lack of differentiation is creating confusion and delaying purchase decisions. More than 1,000 vendors with applications and platforms describe themselves as AI vendors, or say they employ AI in their products.
This widespread use of “AI washing” — using the term indiscriminately — is already having real consequences for investment in the technology.
A second key issue is that proven, less complex machine learning capabilities can address many end-user needs.
Advancements in AI, such as deep learning, are getting a lot of buzz but are obfuscating the value of more straightforward, proven approaches. Gartner recommends that vendors use the simplest approach that can do the job over cutting-edge AI techniques.
Third is that organizations lack the skills to evaluate, build and deploy AI solutions. More than half the respondents to Gartner’s 2017 AI development strategies survey indicated that the lack of necessary staff skills was the top challenge to adopting AI in their organization.
The survey found organizations are currently seeking AI solutions that can improve decision making and process automation. If they had a choice, most organizations would prefer to buy embedded or packaged AI solutions rather than trying to build a custom solution.