Market research institute IDC asked 305 German companies across all major industries and from all size classes about artificial intelligence. In response to the question about the most important reason for employing AI, 48% mentioned reduction of operative costs, 47% said improvement of internal efficiency/productivity, 41% improvement of product quality, 33% improvement of customer experience and 32% reduction of internal maintenance costs. Innovation and disruption did not appear in the top 5.

38% of those surveyed identified the biggest hurdles to the use of AI as being a lack of expertise. At the same time, there is obviously major doubt surrounding the quality of AI products: According to the survey, 29% of companies feel that their IT departments are not ready, with 25% it is the specialist departments who are skeptical of the technology. The study showed that if companies employ AI, they prefer cloud-based services and open-source frameworks. At the same time, a higher diffusion rate of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) was visible: 49% of respondents use corresponding applications.