Hartford Business Journal

24 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER 2, 2023 IMAGE | ADOBE STOCK Business leaders view generative AI as 'most impactful emerging technology' By Greg Bordonaro gbordonaro@hartfordbusiness.com H ow important of a role do business leaders think gener- ative artificial intelligence will play in the coming months and years? A major one, according to a recent survey conducted by accounting and consulting firm KPMG. KPMG's 2023 "Generative AI Survey," which received input in June from 200 global business leaders in diverse industries, found that 74% of executives see generative AI as by far the most impactful emerging tech- nology that will impact their business, while 71% plan to implement their first generative AI project within two years. Business leaders think it has the potential to reshape how they interact with customers, run their workplaces and grow revenue. They will likely use it to create content, engage users, develop software and analyze data, the survey found. But while there is a bullish outlook on generative AI's future capabilities, there are also some concerns related to security, reliability, impact on jobs and potential value. Executives in the KPMG survey cited lack of talent, cost issues and unclear applications as top barriers to implementation. Kevin Bolen, a principal and head of strategy and investments at KPMG Advisory, has been moni- toring and investing in AI technology for the last decade or so. Bolen said he doesn't view gener- ative AI as a fleeting technology, but instead, a tool that can have wide applications across various indus- tries. Businesses of all sizes should start to modestly experiment with genera- tive AI to better understand its poten- tial capabilities, he said. Bolen's own firm, which has Connecticut offices in Hartford and Stamford, is making a big bet on the technology. KPMG in July announced it will spend $2 billion over the next five years on artificial intelligence to automate parts of its tax, audit and consulting businesses. The firm estimates the investment, which is part of a partnership with Microsoft, will yield more than $12 billion in revenue during that time period by providing faster analysis and allowing employees to spend more time consulting with clients, including helping companies with their own AI adoption. "There are opportunities for us to leverage the capabilities of AI to streamline and enhance our audit and tax business offerings in terms of what our professionals are spending their time on each day, and making sure that their efforts are able to be focused on the more value-added components versus data assess- ment, which can now be done poten- tially more efficiently with AI over time," Bolen said. Bolen recently chatted with the Hartford Business Journal about his views on AI's future impact. Here's what else he had to say. The Q&A was edited for length and clarity. Q. What's your sense of how fast generative AI adoption is going to take place? Are companies really eager to dive into this? A. I think there's a lot of eager- ness and a lot of inquiry around this because it made a big media splash. Executives recognize they can't ignore it. In terms of their investment, though, most of them are saying they are still one or two years away from implementing their first solution. So, there's a lot of interest and enthu- siasm on what the potential could be, but there are also a lot of open questions. They are asking: How do I control the output of this? How do I under- stand where it's getting its answers from? What are the different use cases I should be prioritizing within my organization? What's the cost to deploy this? What do I need from an infrastructure standpoint? It's going to take a little while before they really start to double down on the transformations. Q. Are you seeing companies create AI departments within their organizations? A. In our recent survey, only 5% of the executives said they actually have a governance process in place for AI. I think that'll change over time. They'll start to build out a dedicated team, and you'll start to see more internal organizational structures dedicated to this. And those teams will be helping decide where AI should be deployed across various functions. I think the reality is, it will eventually KEVIN BOLEN Principal & Head of Strategy and Investments KPMG Advisory Education: MBA, NYU Stern School of Business AI IN CT

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