82% of British businesses are keen to embrace more AI technology with 40% believing AI will be imperative to the future of business
- British businesses resoundingly see the need for AI, with 89% already adopting it
- 65% of business decision-makers agree that the strict regulation of AI will impede the competitiveness of British business
- Nearly half of British businesses are harnessing AI to help take pressure off workers and improve productivity
Research from Gong, the revenue intelligence leader, suggests the majority (82%) of British businesses have an appetite to embrace more AI technology, with almost two thirds (65%) agreeing that stricter regulation of AI will impede competitiveness.
The results indicate business attitudes towards regulation ahead of world leaders arriving in the UK for the government’s AI Safety Summit in November.
The data shows that over half of businesses (52%) want clarity on rules and regulation, followed by regulatory protection (47%). And with the risks of stifling growth or reducing the potential of AI through regulatory restrictions being well documented, it’s no surprise that 65% believe that strictly regulating how and when businesses use AI will impede the competitiveness of British businesses.
LOW PRODUCTIVITY & ECONOMIC CLIMATE DRIVING AI ADOPTION
With UK productivity plateauing (ONS), it makes sense that 46% of British businesses are looking to AI to improve it across their teams. Respondents report using AI to help drive news sales (33%), improve marketing (34%) and drive content creation (26%). Although AI is not a panacea or magic bullet, 82% are optimistic about the future of AI and how it will impact businesses, particularly for saving employees’ time.
Respondents felt that AI would allow people-hours to be directed to more fruitful endeavors, including complicated analysis of company data (48%), generating new business opportunities (43%) and strengthening existing client relationships (36%).
Business leaders have been hurrying to see how best they can benefit from AI, with 30% of those surveyed saying that adopting AI is crucial for their business to thrive, and 40% believing it will be imperative to the future of their business.
Lesley Ronaldson, EMEA Senior Director at Gong said: “AI technology doesn’t just impact a business’s profitability, but also makes employees more efficient and effective at what they do. 77% of a seller’s time is spent on non-selling activity*, so it’s no surprise that the biggest motivation for adopting AI was to improve productivity.
She continued: “We believe that sensible regulations can and should be applied to AI in a way that does not stifle the important innovation happening in the space. To avoid unnecessary risks and maximise the technology’s benefits, we suggest a moderated approach that takes into account the critical importance of data privacy and security and enterprise utility. ”
Gong has a large team of experts and has been advancing AI since the company’s inception in 2015, as part of its Revenue Intelligence platform. In August, Gong launched Call Spotlight, a generative AI solution that delivers revenue teams highly relevant, secure, and accurate summaries and next steps from customer interactions. By leveraging Gong’s extensive dataset and sales domain expertise, Call Spotlight delivers results that are twice as accurate as off-the-shelf models.
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Research Methodology
Survey conducted by Censuswide on 500 UK business decision makers at SMEs with 20+ employees (18+), between 9.6.23 and 13.6.23. These business decision makers were asked about their current use of AI and where they hope to receive support from government regulation. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles.