E-Business
Just 11 Percent of CIOs have Fully implemented AI as Data and Security Concerns Hinder Adoption
Eighty-four percent of enterprise CIOs believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be as significant to their businesses as the rise of the internet.
However, only 11% say they’ve fully implemented the technology, citing an array of technical and organisational challenges, led by security and data infrastructure, that must be overcome first.
The data, which comes from a new Salesforce survey of 150 verified CIOs of companies with 1,000 or more employees, offers a snapshot of the state of enterprise AI, along with the hurdles ahead that must be addressed as companies pursue their AI strategies and ramp up their adoption of agents.
Key findings include:
CIOs feel pressure to be AI experts. Sixty-one percent of CIOs feel they’re expected to know more about AI than they do, and their peers at other companies are their top sources of information.
CIOs agree that AI is a game changer but are cautious. Eighty-four percent of CIOs believe AI will be as significant to businesses as the internet, but 67% are taking a more cautious approach compared to other technologies.
IT is focusing on data initiatives before leaning into AI. CIOs report spending a median of 20% of their budgets on data infrastructure and management, versus 5% on AI. Security or privacy threats and a lack of trusted data rank as CIOs’ biggest AI fears.
Business partners must examine their AI timelines. Sixty-six percent of CIOs believe they’ll see return on investment (ROI) from AI investments, but 68% believe their line-of-business stakeholders have unreasonable expectations for when that ROI will occur.
CIOs see a mismatch between departments when it comes to AI. While functions like customer service are seen as having the most AI use cases, they may be perceived as being the least prepared for the technology.
“Generative AI is one of the most transformative technologies of this century,” said Juan Perez, CIO, Salesforce.
“This research gives a glimpse at the foundations that CIOs across industries and geographies are laying in preparation for the rollout of truly transformational AI.”
AI implementation lags behind stakeholder expectations, introducing risk
AI use is rapidly increasing in the workplace as business stakeholders see opportunities for increased efficiency. In fact, 77% of CIOs say they have good or excellent executive buy-in on AI’s value. Yet CIOs are concerned about their business partners’ urgency, with 68% believing there are unreasonable expectations of when they’ll see ROI from the technology, for example.
Large shares of business leaders across sales, marketing, service, and ecommerce view themselves as having “fully implemented” the technology into their workflows. There’s evidence that much of this adoption is unsanctioned, introducing significant security risks as workers send sensitive data through unsecured LLMs.
On the other hand, just 11% of CIOs — with their greater technical expertise and broader view of the organisation — say they’ve fully implemented AI — 18 to 38 percentage points less than their line of business counterparts.
“The adoption of mass market generative AI tools by workers is ushering in a new era of “shadow AI” that highlights the urgency of implementing trusted tools,” said Perez.
The slow pace of sanctioned, enterprise-wide AI strategies and tools can be attributed to a focus on preparatory work that CIOs must tackle first.
Given the transformative nature of AI, 67% of CIOs say they’re taking a more calculated approach to its implementation compared to other technologies. CIOs have no shortage of hurdles to consider when implementing AI, but those related to security and data are by far the most common.
Recognising that they must get their data in order before they can fully embrace AI, CIOs are currently allocating, on average, four times more budget toward data initiatives.
CIOs struggle to identify where to prioritise AI
Beyond the challenges of shoring up their data foundations, many CIOs are finding it difficult to define where and how AI should show up in their broader organisations. This is especially true given the novelty of AI and a lack of understanding, or even fear, of the technology across departments.
And while AI use cases may be more apparent in certain areas of the business, those departments may not be the most receptive or capable of harnessing the technology. For example, CIOs view customer service as having the most use cases but also as the least enthusiastic. On the other hand, marketing is viewed as eager to use AI but least prepared across factors like skill sets.
Some CIOs are finding that this mismatch between AI business value, enthusiasm, and readiness requires a more surgical approach to the technology’s implementation across the enterprise. “Leaders have a unique opportunity to showcase AI across their enterprises and to demonstrate to sceptical employees that AI can help — not hinder — their work. Effective enablement is critical to empower those employees with the necessary skills, tools, and guidelines to drive tangible value so their organisations can begin to trust AI and believe in the power it delivers,” noted Jeff Amann, EVP & GM of Salesforce Industries.
As such, some CIOs are finding it more effective to launch pilot projects that showcase AI’s power in order to make the case for broader implementation. In fact, 75% of respondents describe their organisations as being in the experimental stage of AI adoption.
CIOs are under what is arguably the most pressure of their careers to help define and execute strategies. AI is not only an unfamiliar technology, but one that is evolving at a remarkable pace. As a result, CIOs must come up to speed, and fast
Jumia Technologies, a leading e-commerce platform in Africa, has announced the planned closure of its operations in South Africa, operated under the brand name Zando, and Tunisia.
The closure of these markets will allow Jumia to focus resources on its most promising markets that have a stronger growth potential.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, and the six months ended June 30, 2024, South Africa and Tunisia combined accounted for only 3.5% and 2.7% of total orders, and 4.5% and 3.0% of GMV, respectively.
The strategic decision to close operations in these markets is expected to improve overall operational efficiency across Jumia’s business.
Francis Dufay, Jumia CEO, said, “Since assuming the role of CEO, I have focused on initiatives aimed at strengthening our business and placing us on a path to profitability. After a thorough analysis, we made the difficult decision to close down our operations in South Africa and Tunisia. Both businesses account for a negligible portion of our overall operations.
Furthermore, competitive and macroeconomic conditions in both markets have limited each country’s growth potential and their contribution to our overall business has not aligned with expectations. Decisions like these are never easy and we are extremely grateful to team members in both countries, who worked tirelessly to serve our customers every day. We are also grateful to our suppliers, vendors and logistics partners in these markets. We deeply thank them for their hard work and service to Jumia.”
Jumia believes that exiting these markets and refocusing resources on its other nine markets will leave the company better positioned to accelerate overall growth and further improve efficiency.
The Company expects to cease operations in both South Africa and Tunisia by year end 2024.
Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC) have agreed to provide a framework that will safeguard personal and corporate transactions within the exporting community.
L-r: Dr. Vincent Olatuniji, national Commissioner/CEO, NDPC and Nonye Ayeni, executive director/CEO, NEPC
Nonye Ayeni, executive director/CEO of NEPC, disclosed this while receiving Dr. Vincent Olatuniji, national Commissioner/CEO of NDPC in her office in Abuja
Ayeni noted that with the huge number of registered exporters in the country striving to fulfil several international contract obligations for the export of Made-in-Nigeria products, there was a need to protect these sensitive data to ensure that Nigerian businesses remain competitive in global trade.
She observed that safeguarding personal and corporate data will further attract positive endorsements from the international community and help increase Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into the country.
Olatuniji revealed that the NDPC was established primarily to collaborate with critical stakeholders to safeguard the rights of natural persons to data privacy, foster safe conduct of transactions involving the exchange of personal data, prevent manipulation of personal data and ensure that Nigerian businesses remain competitive in international trade through the safeguards afforded by a just and equitable legal framework on data protection.
He implored the NEPC to establish a data protection and control unit, as the unit he adviced will determine the purpose and manner for processing data to ensure that the methods by which data is collected are strictly in line with the principles of data collection.
Towards this end, Olatunji said the NDPC was willing to provide capacity building on data protection and control for officers of the Council to make the NEPC compliant with global best practices.
The Federal Government’s commitment to ensure food security in Nigeria through the infusion of emerging technologies in the agricultural sector has necessitated the collaboration between the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the National Agriculture Development Fund (NADF) to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, (MoU) that aims to boost productivity in Agriculture.
The NITDA’s Director General, Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE, revealed this on Thursday while receiving the NADF Executive Secretary, Muhammed Abu, and his team at the Agency Corporate Headquarter in Abuja for the signing of the MoU.
Inuwa said “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR is big and loud on boosting agriculture to ensure food security and today you cannot talk about boosting agriculture without talking about digital technology. And that is the reason we are here to sign an MoU to see how we can infuse emerging technologies into Agriculture so we can boost productivity in Agriculture.”
He said “Our Minister is quite interested in this as he personally has his own farm where he is doing all these and he started the conversation with you, our teams worked to draft the MoU, both legal teams reviewed the document and today we are here to sign the MoU for immediate implementation.”
“We have started our initiatives around agriculture like the National Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA), we have a demo farm here in Abuja, and we have been partnering with Universities across the country doing research and Startups to develop technologies and do proof of concepts with the technologies on farmlands,” said Inuwa.
“This year, we gave grants to Startups who have ideas on how to use emerging technologies to boost agriculture. And we are working with some of them in existing farms across the country to demonstrate how technology can boost productivity in that space,” he added.
Speaking at the signing the Executive Secretary of NADF Mohammed Abu Ibrahim remarked that the nexus between Agriculture and Technology cannot be over emphasized, as the agricultural sector is facing some temporary challenges like the issues of funding, climate change, insecurity and many more.
“We have seen interesting technological patterns which have given a lot of impact and optimisation in our sector like AI, WAV, IoT and many more and we feel like without optimising agriculture and looking at it from this evidence-based perspective as a Fund we may not achieve much.
“There is no denying the fact that empirical evidence, especially data backed evidence, would help us to allocate our limited resources better. So, in our stride to see that we are doing a lot more with less we have decided to come in and especially be part of monitoring and evaluation which will eventually direct us towards achieving that mantra of ‘doing more with less’ and that is why we are here.”
He said the Fund is hopeful that this will be the first of many more of such collaborations.
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