Unique Research · Insight / Survey Digest · August 30, 2024 · Source: Chief Executive Research Center / related CFO surveys (compiled)
GenAI is cast as an industry disruptor — yet so far it raises more questions than answers. The Chief Executive Research Center mapped how U.S. firms are adopting AI and where results show up. Views diverge by sector (manufacturing ahead of professional services). Overall stance: cautious — many CEOs/CFOs say they are “actively exploring” and “closely watching.” Full commitment is rare.
Productivity first, products later
CEO interest in GenAI more than doubled in 2023 — from 23% early year to 53% in Q4. By April 2024 (~18 months after ChatGPT), the dominant realized value was productivity. Only 9% said they had successfully used GenAI to ship new products/services — near the bottom of value options.
Leaders are not quitting: optimism remains for better data/reporting, employee productivity, marketing/comms, and customer support — with content development a hot focus. “We’re using GPT for emails, marketing materials, and blog posts,” said a California recruiting-agency CEO. Dennis A. Roberson (Robertson & Associates; ex-Motorola CTO; ex-FCC TAC chair): useful for careful everyday communication; limited for substantive work yet.
Finance lag & risk brakes
With BlackLine / StrategicCFO360 Q2 CFO Confidence Index: 68% of CFOs had not found effective GenAI uses in finance. Most common today: performance reporting/analytics (45%) and forecasting (38%). Why slow? Risk — bad/inaccurate data, IP issues, upcoming regulation, unease with open-source training data. A large-government-agency CFO: huge potential, but governance/risk/control/security block broad use beyond narrow cases — still a hard-to-trust black box. A tech next-gen production CFO: bias from original programmers is a top evaluation concern.
Kathy Mast (NeuvoNow CEO): the tech is already here; staff are already using it — leaders should draft early policies and usage guides rather than wait.
Who owns AI inside the firm?
- 27% — every employee shares responsibility for finding AI value
- 20% — tech team owns AI strategy
- 18% — product development
- 16% — dedicated selected AI team
April 2024: large firms (revenue >$100M) explore GenAI more actively — 54% vs 19% smaller. Small firms more often spread responsibility to everyone (37% vs 15%); large firms prefer special teams (26%) or tech (22%). Across sizes, most say they are still early / exploring.
CN title framing: ~50% of CEOs say employees who can use AI are more valuable to the enterprise — charts in package; attach on ingest. Signup CTA omitted.
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