Gartner: Only 13% of CIOs See Strong Results From AI

Only 13% of CIOs and technology executives surveyed by Gartner said they had achieved significant results with AI, the research firm reported at its IT Symposium/Xpo in Orlando, Florida. Gartner surveyed 2,002 CIOs and technology executives between May and July this year.

Gartner estimates that about one in five AI use cases succeeds. Organizations that had criteria for deciding not to move AI pilots into production were 2.3 times more likely to be in the firm's leading group of performers, while those with criteria for shutting down underperforming AI projects already in operation were 2.6 times more likely to rank among the leaders.

Few respondents reported having such rules in place. Only 31% of CIOs said they had criteria for stopping AI pilots from going into production, and 17% had criteria for ending low-performing AI projects, according to digitaltoday.co.kr.

Cost pressure featured prominently in the findings: 58% of CIOs said pressure to cut costs using AI has increased, while 51% expected AI to raise the total technology cost of ownership.

On staffing, 40% of respondents plan to increase IT staff next year, particularly in cybersecurity and data and analytics, and 4% said they had plans to redesign jobs so that people and AI agents work together. Alicia Mullery, a Gartner vice president analyst, presented the findings at the Orlando event.

Background

AI use cases have grown quickly over the past two years while the success rate of use cases remains around one in five, according to Gartner.