AsPac firms speed up AI adoption

MANILA, Philippines — The largest organizations in Asia and the Pacific will hasten their adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) starting 2024, and this will cause a shift, if not displacement, in the workplace.

In a survey, the International Data Corp. (IDC) said the top 2,000 organizations in the region will initiate studies next year on how generative AI can improve their decision-making processes.

With this, the IDC believes that AI platforms will take over 15 percent of enterprise talent shortages as early as 2025.

As a result, the IDC forecasts that Asia and the Pacific will suffer from a surplus of talents across all sectors by 2027. This stems from the assumption that half of the biggest organizations in the region will rely on self-computing apps by then.

IDC Asia-Pacific senior research manager Estelle Quek said Asia and the Pacific would undergo a multi-phased adoption of generative AI from 2024 to 2028. Some of the largest organizations are expected to fully automate their operations before the end of the decade.

“At the outset, from 2024 to 2025, Asia’s top 2,000 organizations will focus on changing internal perception and receptivity toward human-machine collaboration,” Quek said.

“By 2026, they will progress to integrate data and enterprise applications seamlessly, and evolve to run as autonomous organizations by 2028,” she added.

In its analysis, IDC warned that three out of five organizations in the region need to modernize their systems; otherwise, sticking with legacy assets could lead to financial losses.

The Philippines was flagged by the IDC as one of the slowest economies to adopt generative AI in Asia and the Pacific. The country ranked as the third worst performer in the region attributed to the low investments it makes on AI platforms.

The IDC recognized China as the most advanced in automation, followed by Japan, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, and India. In these countries, the IDC found that the majority of companies are already allocating a portion of their yearly budgets to AI spending.

Generative AI like ChatGPT refers to programs that can produce images, texts and videos using available data.

While seen as the future of businesses worldwide, the technology is approached with caution by a number of tech leaders, such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, due to the risks it poses, such as job displacement and misuse of work.