CEO’S RECEPTION

Building an AI-First Organisation: How can business leaders use AI to drive stakeholder value?

Hosted by Salil Parekh & The Financial Times | January 16th, 2024

Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominated the discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where leaders took stock of what the 2023 shift towards generative AI means for business and society. Leaders can already see that AI opportunities are transformational - from improving productivity to advancing drug discovery, and from speeding up processes to freeing up teams to focus on higher value-added tasks. However, CEOs are leveraging the technology to deliver breakthroughs in their organisations against a backdrop of concern about its potential impact on jobs, society, safety, privacy and civil rights.

Research shows that investment in AI increased more than sixfold from 2016 to 2022, with global total corporate investment in the technology reaching almost US$92bn in 2022 alone. With 2023 seen as the breakout year for the industry, the AI market is expected to expand at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 38.1% between 2022 and 2030. Investment in this rapidly expanding market is driving CEOs to consider what AI will mean for the jobs in the future; how it can be used as a force for good to leverage benefits across a range of stakeholders; how the technology can be harnessed to support and complement the workforce; and whether it can be used to cut costs and improve the customer experience.

Hosted by Gillian Tett, Member of the Financial Times Editorial Board, in partnership with Infosys, this event gathered together corporate leaders to discuss closing the gap in understanding between the handful of people who have developed the technology and wider business and society; what steps businesses can take to ensure they don’t get left behind while ensuring key stakeholders remain on board; and how AI should be regulated. This event took place in Davos on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.

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