IT Budgets Slowly Increase as Business ROI of Tech Comes to Light
Even with all the hype surrounding machine learning and AI, IT budgets have been lagging in terms of allowing the adoption of emerging technologies.
It’s hard to get away from the hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. From cybersecurity to communications and marketing, businesses are finding new and creative ways to utilize these emerging solutions. Until now, AI has been used in research and cybersecurity but the expanded options that are currently available will have IT teams frothing to gain access to advanced tools. Even the federal government is boosting its AI investments, doubling its billion-dollar budget in AI while also investing heavily in quantum computing. While few organizations are fortunate enough to have access to that level of funding, CIOs are still finding ways to accelerate projects — and senior leadership is responding to the potentials offered by AI and machine learning by expanding IT budgets to support these expensive new solutions.
Tech Priorities for 2020 — and Beyond
The recent CIO Tech Poll takes the measure of approximately 200 CIOs in a variety of verticals. Aimed at discovering trends in spending, 62% of IT leaders in the 2020 research note that they’re considering AI and ML to be the most disruptive technology introduced into their organization over the next several years. This points to the need for additional budgeting for projects — and ultimately boosted spending levels for their companies. The CIOs that were polled were evenly split between increasing their spending with external companies and keeping spending levels the same, with a much smaller percentage dropping their external spending or being unsure of the direction. While the US government is in an outright race against China in the world of AI, many organizations are still struggling to determine how best to take advantage of these new features. What is clear is that simply increasing budgets will not help organizations make sense of how to integrate emerging technology solutions into their daily operations.
Making the Case for Increased Funding
With a coming emphasis on AI and machine learning, are there other platforms that will see their funding reduced? In many cases, companies are simply shifting away from aging infrastructure and looking for ways to reduce their reliance on long-term contracts with expensive, unwieldy platforms that may no longer meet the needs of the organization. Determining how to add AI funding to your 2020 budget often requires a specific project in mind that will help reduce expenses, boost revenue or improve the customer experience. “AI can improve customer experience by understanding individual behaviors, preferences and/or purchase patterns, to perform predictive analysis,” said Jim Hare, research vice president at Gartner. “This can drive better engagement by providing personalized recommendations and engagement at the right place, and the right time.”
With the right planning and foresight, technology can become a strategic differentiator for your business. With the new solutions in machine learning and AI, IT directors and business executives are working together to define options to leverage these solutions to create a competitive advantage for the future. Helping executives and other senior business leaders understand the possibilities — and the reality — of these emerging technologies is what will help ensure that IT budgets continue to receive the funding that they deserve. As the top-rated Las Vegas IT services firm, Network Security Associates is one of only three IT services providers licensed to work directly with casinos. Contact us at 702-547-9800 to learn more about how to implement cutting-edge solutions in a way that respects budgetary limitations while delivering value back to the organization.