Although it is still early days for the technology, the McKinsey report showed its adoption is picking up across industry sectors. Credit: gorodenkoff The usage of generative AI across enterprises is already widespread, although it is still early days for the new technology, according to a report from McKinsey’s AI consulting service, Quantum Black. The report is based on an online survey conducted in April, which received responses from 1,684 participants globally across multiple industry sectors, company sizes, and functional specialties. Nearly 22% of the respondents said they are using generative AI for their work. This usage was highest in the technology sector, and among respondents from North America, the report showed. Industry verticals, including financial services, retail, professional services, and healthcare were also using generative AI but trailed behind the technology sector, according to the report. “While our estimates suggest that tech companies, unsurprisingly, are poised to see the highest impact from gen AI — adding value equivalent to as much as 9% of global industry revenue — knowledge-based industries such as banking (up to 5%), pharmaceuticals, and medical products (also up to 5%), and education (up to 4%) could experience significant effects as well,” the report said. In contrast, manufacturing-based industries, such as aerospace, automotive, and advanced electronics could experience less disruptive effects due to limitations of the new technology’s usage in these industries as most work requires physical labor, the report said. The findings also showed that the most commonly reported uses of generative AI are in marketing, sales, product development, and service operations. Almost 14% of the respondents said their organization was using generative AI in the marketing and sales division, followed by 13% and 10% of the respondents saying their organizations were making use of the new AI technology across product development and service operations, respectively. Marketing use cases of generative AI, as per the report, included crafting text documents, summarizing documents, and personalized marketing. Other functions were found to be using generative AI to identify customer needs, draft technical documents, create new product designs, and forecast trends. Related content opinion The AI cat and mouse game has begun Proactive adoption of sophisticated AI-based solutions is necessary to stay ahead of digital imposters. By Rick Grinnell Apr 29, 2024 5 mins Artificial Intelligence Security opinion Capitalizing on technology budgets: A CIO’s story There are untapped profits in data-driven technology budgeting. By David Smith Apr 29, 2024 5 mins CIO news analysis Microsoft can’t keep up with demand for AI in the cloud — for now Usually when demand outstrips supply, prices go up or customers go elsewhere. But will they have time to before the balance changes? By Anirban Ghoshal Apr 29, 2024 5 mins Generative AI Microsoft news Data protection activists accuse ChatGPT of GDPR breach When the LLM hallucinates incorrect personal information, there’s no way to get it fixed, they say. By Jennifer Baker Apr 29, 2024 3 mins Data Privacy Generative AI Compliance PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe