SEATTLE, Oct. 31, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Slalom, the global business and technology consulting company, today announced the results of its annual AI Research Report, which revealed the latest trends and insights from executives leading AI transformation at their companies. Slalom’s research is available for free to help customers and business executives make smarter decisions about AI investments.
“We are witnessing a transformative era where the integration of AI is reshaping industries and unlocking unprecedented opportunities and measurable value,” said Amy Loftus, Chief Customer Officer at Slalom. “According to our research, 82% of executives are increasing their AI investments for 2025 compared to 2024, and 30% of companies plan to increase their AI investment by 25% or more, indicating robust confidence in AI’s future impact.”
Slalom’s research revealed significant shifts and trends in AI adoption and integration, especially when compared year-over-year to its 2023 research results:
- Responsibility Shift to Cross-Functional Teams: There’s a notable shift in the responsibility for driving AI transformation within companies. In 2024, 52% of respondents reported leveraging a cross-functional team of business and technology leaders, up from just 5% in 2023. Conversely, the responsibility of AI transformation to a single executive technology leader (e.g., CIO, CTO, CAO) has decreased from 84% in 2023 to 32% in 2024.
- Top AI Skills Are Uniquely Human: The focus on AI skills is evolving. Companies are placing less emphasis on purely technical skills and more on critical thinking and problem-solving (52%), creativity and innovation (43%), and cognitive flexibility and learning agility (38%). This shift underscores the need for adaptable and innovative thinking in AI-driven environments.
- AI Redefines Roles: Most executive respondents (57%) are redesigning roles to focus on higher-value tasks and automate repetitive tasks. Additionally, 31% are aligning performance metrics with AI-enhanced productivity goals, highlighting AI's tangible benefits in enhancing workforce efficiency.
- Barriers Include Skilling and Resistance to Change: While AI's potential is immense, barriers remain. 42% of respondents cite inadequate workforce skills and training as a significant barrier to realizing productivity gains from AI, and 37% cite employee resistance to change.
“There have been significant shifts in how executives lead, implement, and utilize AI within their organizations from just a year ago. We’re hearing from leaders firsthand the importance of redefining roles to drive culture change and AI business transformation better,” added Ali Minnick, General Manager at Slalom. “These results further showcase the value of human skills – like critical thinking and creativity – and collaboration as organizations take a cross-functional approach to AI decision-making.”
You can access the full research report for free at https://www.slalom.com/us/en/insights/slalom-ai-free-research-report-2024.
Slalom’s AI Value Calculator Can Help Customers Save Time and Money
In addition to creating primary research, Slalom technologists have been hard at work in 2024 creating AI-based solutions to help people and organizations dream bigger, move faster, and build better tomorrows for all.
With the rapid advancements in technology, businesses across various industries are increasingly looking for ways to integrate AI into their operations. Slalom's AI solutions are tailored to meet clients’ unique needs, ensuring they can leverage AI to achieve their strategic goals. Recognizing the need for executives to have a clearer way to forecast the returns of their AI investments and maximize their quantifiable outcomes, Slalom developed a proprietary AI Value Calculator.
When companies partner with Slalom, they can use the AI Value Calculator to forecast their total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) for AI use cases. The Calculator leverages Slalom’s AI use case library to help customers gather valuable insights, benchmark successes, explore what other experts at Slalom have delivered, and discover new strategies to make informed decisions.
“We created the AI Value Calculator because often the hardest part of embracing AI change is estimating the unknown cost,” says Minnick. “Our advisory services and AI expertise, accelerated by this calculator, help customers forecast the return of their AI investments in minutes instead of days or weeks, enabling them to make faster, more confident decisions.”
Slalom Chat Is The AI-Powered Secret Sauce For Consultants
Slalom employees practice what they preach and use the latest AI tools to work better and more efficiently every day. To make the transition to an AI-skilled workforce more easily, Slalom technologists built a tool called Slalom Chat.
Slalom Chat is a proprietary AI-powered work sidekick that has become an integral tool for enhancing collaboration and efficiency among Slalom employees. Built with access to the world’s leading large language models (LLMs), including OpenAI ChatGPT 4.0, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Gemini, Slalom Chat addresses the evolving needs of a collaborative and adaptive workplace by enhancing communication and streamlining workflows across the company.
“Slalom Chat is the secret sauce that our consultants are using to scale their natural abilities and work faster to deliver for our customers more effectively,” said Kevin McClelland, General Manager at Slalom.
Slalom Delivers AI-Powered Wins to Customers in 2024
This year, Slalom has partnered with numerous companies to leverage AI-empowered solutions to meet their goals, including:
- United Airlines: Slalom and United Airlines brought GenAI use cases to production that elevate United’s customer experience, and built an internal platform that enables teams to continue their innovation
- Global Security Leader: Slalom helped a company create a fleet of AI-driven analysts, empowering a small team to efficiently analyze complex data and capitalize on untapped global revenue streams across 55+ countries
- Healthcare: A leading healthcare provider leveraged Slalom's predictive analytics solution to improve patient outcomes by identifying high-risk patients and providing personalized care plans.
- Retail: A global retail chain enhanced its customer service with Slalom’s NLP-powered chatbot, significantly reducing response times and increasing customer satisfaction.
- Manufacturing: A major manufacturer implemented Slalom's computer vision solution to automate quality control, reduce defects, and increase production efficiency.
For more information about Slalom's AI solutions and successes, please visit https://www.slalom.com/us/en/services/artificial-intelligence.
About Slalom:
Slalom is a next-generation professional services company creating value at the intersection of business, technology, and humanity. With our fiercely human approach, we deeply understand our customers—and their customers—to deliver practical, end-to-end solutions that drive meaningful impact. Backed by over 700 technology partners, our nearly 12,000 team members in ten countries and 49 offices help people and organizations dream bigger, move faster, and build better tomorrows for all. We’re honored to be consistently recognized as a great place to work, including being one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For nine years running. Learn more at slalom.com.
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