Survey: China's companies lead in AI use, but USA in AI implementation
Generative AI is used in the vast majority of Chinese companies. But US companies are leading the integration of AI, according to a survey of decision-makers.
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China is the world leader in the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI), according to a new survey of decision-makers. 83% of the Chinese managers surveyed stated that they would use generative AI. In contrast, only 65% of participants in the USA confirmed the use of AI. However, this puts both major powers above the average, as the use of generative AI is only 54% worldwide according to the survey.
However, the USA is leading the way in the implementation of generative AI in companies. 24 percent of the US managers surveyed answered the question in the affirmative, whereas only 19 percent of Chinese companies have integrated generative AI into their processes. According to the survey, only 11% of companies in the UK have done so.
Survey of 1600 decision-makers worldwide
The survey was conducted by Coleman Parkes Research on behalf of the software company SAS, which specializes in data analysis and management with a focus on artificial intelligence. The survey polled 1600 decision-makers worldwide in organizations with at least 500 and up to more than 10,000 employees. The respondents work in many different industries such as banking, insurance, healthcare, telecommunications, life sciences, manufacturing, retail, energy, services and the public sector.
The results of the survey show that China has caught up tremendously since OpenAI released ChatGPT to all interested parties in November 2022, with dozens of Chinese companies developing and releasing their own versions of this language model, writes Reuters. In addition, the United Nations recently reported that China filed more than 38,000 AI patents between 2014 and 2023, while there were only 6276 patent applications of this type in the USA during the same period.
China's AI application: Surveillance
The SAS survey report describes continuous automated monitoring (CAM) as a "controversial but widespread use case for generative AI tools" in China. The Middle Kingdom is a leader in this field. CAM can collect and analyze large amounts of data on human activities, behavior and communication.
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This could lead to violations of data protection and privacy, as many people are not aware of what is being monitored and how, explains Udo Sglavo from SAS. In addition, "the algorithms and processes used in CAM are often proprietary and not transparent", he explains. "This can make it difficult to hold the companies that use CAM accountable for misuse or errors," Sglavo continues.
AI in industries and company departments
The survey did not determine whether AI implementation in the US is also used for surveillance in many cases. However, it does state that the telecommunications industry is the leader in the daily use of generative AI at 29%, ahead of retail (27%), banking (23%), services (23%) and insurance (22%).
Another interesting result of the survey is that sales departments are among the biggest users within companies. 86% of sales employees would use generative AI or plan to do so in the future. This puts sales staff ahead of marketing (85%), IT (81%), finance (75%) and production (75%) in terms of AI usage.
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