Generative AI in companies: 46 percent see little benefit

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More and more German companies are addressing the topic of artificial intelligence, according to a survey conducted by the digital association Bitkom. A fifth of companies are now using AI in their operations (15% in the previous year) and 37% are planning or discussing its use (28% in the previous year). At 78%, more than three quarters would discover opportunities for their company in the technology. 37% had already invested in the relevant technology in the current year and 74% planned to do so in the coming year. However, twelve percent would also currently see AI as a risk and eight percent believed that AI would have no impact on their company.

Bitkom has identified a strong pro-AI sentiment among the population. For example, 74% of Germans see artificial intelligence as an opportunity and only 24% as a risk. In addition, the majority of respondents would support the use of AI in areas such as cyber security (80 percent), administration, transport and mobility (78 percent each) and healthcare (75 percent). According to Bitkom, the surveys are representative and 602 companies and 1007 people aged 16 and over in Germany were surveyed.

Generative AI: much discussed, little used

However, according to Bitkom, the German economy is very divided when it comes to the field that occupies the most space in public perception, namely generative AI. Almost one in two companies (48%) believe that companies that do not use generative AI have no future. On the other hand, 46% of companies believe that generative AI may look spectacular, but that it offers little benefit in practice.

Overall, the sentiment surveyed by Bitkom also shows considerable reluctance to use generative AI in day-to-day operations. Just nine percent of the companies surveyed used generative AI, while 18 percent planned to do so. And 19 percent could at least imagine using it. At 23 percent, almost a quarter had decided against productive use and 28 percent had not even considered the topic.

Primarily for customer contact and marketing

The majority of companies that already used generative AI used it as part of their products or services (80%) and only 43% for internal business operations. The most common application scenario by far is currently customer contact (89%). This was followed by marketing and communication (40 percent), research and development (20 percent) and production processes (17 percent). In IT departments, the technology is only used by two percent.

There is also no uniform sentiment among employees when it comes to generative AI. 13% have already had their work done by AI tools, 24% would definitely like AI help with their work and 33% would be more open to it. On the other hand, 20 percent tended to reject this, and 20 percent did not want AI support under any circumstances. 35% even believed that generative AI would not be useful for any of their tasks.

"Today, it's no longer a question of whether"

Even if these figures do not necessarily speak for the imminent productivity revolution through GenAI, the lobby association Bitkom is nevertheless convinced of its triumphant advance in business applications. "The times when companies had to ask themselves whether generative AI could bring them advantages are over. Today, it's no longer a question of whether, it's just a question of how, when and where," said Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst.

In the overall population, four out of ten Germans have tried out generative AI such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude from Anthropic or Microsoft Copilot at least once. 15 percent used them frequently, 13 percent rarely and 12 percent had left it at a one-off test. The majority used them to generate text (70 percent), followed by images (53 percent) and then, by a wide margin, videos (9 percent), software code (5 percent) and music (3 percent).

(axk)