The cognitive advantage for developersLeading the charge on innovation with artificial intelligence

https://www.ibm.com/watson/advantage-reports/market-report.html

The AI renaissance is here. Organizations are using artificial intelligence to stay

ahead of the market--unlocking new digital intelligence from large volumes of

data.

The AI market is now on an exponential growth curve, expected to grow from $2.5

billion in 2014 to more than $12.5 billion by 2019.1 By 2018, over 50% of developer

teams will embed AI services in their apps,2 and it is expected that half of all

consumers will interact with the technology on a regular basis.

To understand how early adopters are taking advantage of AI, we garnered

insights from more than 600 decision makers worldwide, cross-industry, from IT

to line of business, at various stages of cognitive adoption.

We learned that organizations already gain major competitive advantage from

their use of AI. They achieve a range of business outcomes–from customer

engagement to productivity and efficiency and business growth. And a key

strategy for many of these organizations making inroads with AI initiatives is to let

their developers lead the charge.

Developers are at the front lines of AI innovation. They play a prominent role in AI decision making and implementation in their organizations

Major 35%

Major 60%

Influential 65%

Influential 40%

Non-Developers

Developers

Major 52%

Major 78%

Small 43%

Small 22%

Non-Developers

Developers

Role in organization's AI implementation

Role in organization’s AI decision making

Developers have greater visibility into what their organizations are doing with AI and are able to shepherd these initiatives from planning to reality

91%of developers report their org has already adopted one or more AI capabilities

30%of non-developers report their org is planning to implement AI, but is not yet in the adoption stage

of developers say adopting AI is very important to their organization’s strategy & success(vs. 61% of non-developers)

75%

70%of developers say outcomes from AI initiatives exceed theirexpectations(vs. 57% of non-developers)

Developers believe in the ability of AI to deliver major competitive advantage to their organizations. They overwhelmingly see it as a key differentiator

64%of developers

43%of non-developers

report their org is gaining major competitive advantage from AI

External customer demand

Developer experimentation

Business user experimentation

62%

60%59%

For developers, AI adoption is motivated by customer demand and experimentation

Ø IT automation 59%Ø Business process automation 57%

Ø Product & service innovation 57%

Ø Cloud management 56%Ø Personalized advice & recommendations 55%Ø Intelligent virtual assistants 55%

% of developers reporting their organization uses AI for this scenario

Developers report using AI across the organization, prioritizing automation and product & service innovation

Developers report higher use of AI capabilities and they are especially attentive to emerging areas of AI opportunity

20%

32%

24%

33%

34%

38%

41%

40%

42%

44%

46%

53%

57%

59%

Intelligent robotics

Machine learning

Social and emotional (affective) computing

Natural language processing (NLP)

Knowledge representation and reasoning

Pattern recognition capability

Automated scheduling and planning

% reporting capability is being used in their organization

Developers Non-Developers

Developers are

more likely than non-developers to use intelligent robotics

83%

100%

more likely to forge ahead with applications of social and emotional computing

Developers are

Developers report their organizations are achieving outcomes with AI--customer engagement, productivity & efficiency, and business growth

Ø Personalized customer/user experience 59%Ø Improved customer service 58%

Ø Improved security & compliance, reduced risk

56%

Ø Improved productivity & efficiency 54%Ø Improved decision making & planning 52%

% of developers reporting their organization is achieving with AI

Top AI adoption challenges for developers include the cost of technology and security concerns

66% 60%

Security concerns

59%

Immature technologies and tools

Cost of technologies / solution development

57% 57% 54%

Insufficient skills Lack of support / executive buy-in

Data issues

Cloud-based services are preferred to access and use cognitive capabilities, and developers are even stronger proponents

68% of developers favor cloud-based services over non-cloud (vs. 48% of non-developers)

Developers are big believers in using open source technology to support their cognitive initiatives

74% of developers expect to make heavy use of open source technology(vs. 46% of non-developers)

An ecosystem of experts, including technology and consulting companies, helps organizations with AI initiatives

15

Developers are more likely to enlist certain ecosystem partners to help with AI activities

To provide / build product components

To influence IT directions / decisions

To train staff

Consulting Companies

External Developers

Developer Communities

Industry Analysts Clients Academia

Technology Companies

1.4x

1.4x

1.5x

1.3x 1.6x

1.4x

1.8x

1.7x

1.4x

1.5x

Note: Other partnerships are on par with non-developers

72%

28%

Respondents

16

In this study, artificial intelligence / cognitive computing refers to computer-based, intelligent technologies that analyze data and interpret information to generate hypotheses, formulate possible answers to questions, or provide recommendations and predictions. These technologies learn and reason as a result of their interactions.

A closer look at developers:To better understand how developers are AI / cognitive computing and to uncover differences in perspective from their non-developer counterparts, we conducted a developer vs. non-developer analysis

Early AI adoptersDevelopers | 28% of respondentsSpend more than 10 hours per week writing software code

Non-developers | 72% of respondents

Cognitive decision makers:To understand how organizations are capitalizing on AI / cognitive computing and to uncover emerging patterns of adoption, we surveyed more than 600 AI / cognitive decision makers worldwide, from IT to line of business, at various stages of adoption.

About the study:

Early AI adoptersAdvanced users | 22% of respondentsUsing 2 or more AI technologies for more than a year

Beginners | 54% of respondentsUsing AI technologies for less than a year or using 1 technology for more than a year

Planners | 24% of respondentsPlanning to adopt AI technologies within 2 years

54%

24%

22%

Principal Analysts:Susanne Hupfer: Susanne_Hupfer@us.ibm.com | Cynthya Peranandam: cynthya@us.ibm.com

Endnotes:1) http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/q5jbvw/cognitive2) http://www.forbes.com/sites/ibm/2015/09/28/watson-uses-cognitive-computing-to-improve-peoples-lives/

ibm.com/cognitive/advantage-reports

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