Artificial intelligence concept showing businessman operating a virtual display
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By comparison, 58% of companies in the UK and 41% in the US were still experimenting.
Survey respondents are GenAI strategy or data analytics decision makers from 1,600 organizations across major sectors around the world, including banking, insurance, retail and healthcare.
The US leads the way when it comes to integrating GenAI into business processes, with 24% of companies having fully implemented the technology, compared to 19% in China and 11% in the UK.
In our study, adoption refers to both experimentation and full implementation.
Chinese organizations are leading the way in adopting generative AI, with 83% either conducting early testing or fully deploying the technology, well ahead of the UK at 70%, followed by the US at 65% and Australia at 63%.
“China may be leading the way in GenAI adoption rates, but high adoption rates do not necessarily translate into effective adoption or increased profits,” said Steven So, managing director at Coleman Parkes.
According to Udo Sglavo, vice president of applied AI and modeling research and development at SAS, to realize the full benefits of generative AI, it needs to be fully integrated into production systems and processes at an enterprise-wide level.
SAS’s Sgravo said the U.S. has several advantages in integrating generative AI, including a more mature ecosystem and a large pool of highly skilled AI experts and researchers.
He added that the country has a “culture of innovation,” strong AI leadership from the private sector, and a more predictable and transparent regulatory environment than other regions.
Still, the survey showed that China is well poised to catch up in terms of full implementation and maturity.
Respondents in China were most confident in their readiness to comply with AI regulations, with nearly a fifth saying they were well prepared, compared to 14% in the United States.
Among Chinese respondents surveyed, around 31% said they did not have the right tools, and only 21% said they did not have the right expertise in-house.
AI experts previously told CNBC that China has been at the forefront of introducing generative AI regulations, and was working on it even before the popularity of OpenAI’s Chat GPT in 2022 pushed the technology into the mainstream.
Chinese regulators have also been working to crack down on the potential for generative AI to create content that could violate Beijing’s ideological and censorship policies.
This has made Chinese tech companies cautious about launching their own services like ChatGPT, but at the same time, they have focused on enterprise and limited uses of generative AI.
This has helped China dominate the global race for generative artificial intelligence patents, filing more than 38,000 patents between 2014 and 2023, according to a UN report.
Meanwhile, China’s large population and rapid growth of its digital economy are driving demand for such AI technologies, according to Sglavo.
“This high demand has driven businesses to quickly adopt and integrate GenAI solutions, including in e-commerce, healthcare, education and manufacturing applications where AI is used to increase efficiency and innovation,” he said.
Beijing has also been pushing ahead with several initiatives aimed at bolstering the country’s AI usage and infrastructure, and in May launched a three-year plan to boost standards for AI chips and generative AI, as well as build the country’s AI computing capacity.
“With the Chinese government’s focus on AI, Chinese companies are following suit and rapidly adopting various aspects of AI within their organizations,” Sgravo added.
Overall, the survey highlighted how the use of generative AI is becoming important across all regions and industries.
Survey results show that organizations that have adopted generative AI have seen significant improvements, with nearly 90% reporting increased satisfaction and nearly 80% saying they have been able to reduce operational costs.
To capitalize on these benefits, the report says, roughly one in 10 companies globally plan to allocate a budget to generative AI in the next fiscal year, with Asia Pacific leading the way at 94%.
Wei Sun, senior consultant in artificial intelligence research at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” last week that the US has overtaken China in the first round of AI in terms of advances in AI chips and basic large-scale language models.
But the second round will focus on innovation for more specific data sets and applications for consumers, businesses and industries, she added.
According to a 2023 McKinsey report, generative AI could add between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion worth of value annually across 63 business use cases.
