Global chief executives plan to expand investment in artificial intelligence solutions, despite 83% of them recognising the environmental cost associated with rapid AI scaling, a new survey by NTT, Inc. and WSJ Intelligence has found.
According to the survey of 359 CEOs of large companies across multiple regions and sectors, more than two thirds (68%) plan to increase investment in AI over the next two years, with nearly half of the executives surveyed planning to increase budgets by 11% or more.
At the same time, however, less than a fifth (18%) believe their technology infrastructure is optimised to support AI at scale.
Performance first
The survey also found that performance is trumping sustainability when it comes to early AI infrastructure design, with seven in ten CEOs prioritising either a ‘maximum performance’ or ‘performance-first’ approach to AI workloads.
At the same time, three quarters (75%) believe that sustainable practices relating to AI will sacrifice profitability, revealing a ‘persistent zero-sum mindset’, according to the report.
Where steps are being taken to ensure sustainable AI scaling, 56% of respondents said that they are prioritising cloud partners or providers with documented commitments to renewable energy; 56% said that they are optimising AI models to reduce their computational demand; 54% said that they are investing in more energy-efficient hardware; 52% are opting for ‘time aware’ computing to run large AI tasks during off-peak energy grid hours; and 37% are purchasing carbon offsets to counteract their AI-related energy footprint.
‘AI-empowered future’
“Amidst historic AI investments, business leaders are asking vital questions about achieving an AI-empowered future with the potential to unlock unprecedented growth and productivity but without sacrificing quality, resilience, and the employee and social contract that is expected of businesses,” commented Abhijit Dubey, CEO and chief AI officer of NTT DATA Inc.
Other findings from the study include that 83% of respondents believe that human-AI collaboration skills will become ‘critical’ by 2030, with AI seen as a core driver of competitiveness for their organisations.
“When organisations invest in skilled talent, unified teams, resilient platforms, and trusted data, AI moves from isolated experiments to a disciplined capability that drives enterprise transformation,” Dubey added.
The 359 CEOs surveyed for the report hail from companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue for US-based companies or $500 million for internationally-based companies. Read more here.
