New Figure Eight Report Finds 29% of Line-of-Business Owners Spend $250,000 or More on AI

SAN FRANCISCO, May 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Figure Eight, an Appen company, today announced the results of its State of AI and Machine Learning Report. The report underscores the growing prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives and the budgets with which organizations are arming line-of-business owners to pursue those initiatives. The report also illustrates an occasional dichotomy between how line-of-business owners and technical practitioners, like data scientists, approach AI.

"When organizations adopt and embrace AI to improve business processes or develop products with AI at their core, they can create an impressive impact on their bottom line and on the real world as a whole," said Sid Mistry, Vice President of Marketing, Figure Eight. "However, for AI endeavors to be successful, many organizations must work to remove internal bottlenecks and bridge any divides that exist between the line-of-business owners of these projects and the technical practitioners responsible for developing, training, and testing machine learning models. This report shows the challenges organizations face and how they might overcome them to successfully jumpstart their AI initiatives."

Across all industries, companies are starting to pour resources into AI, especially as it proves to provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace. According to the report, 44% of line-of-business owners say 50% or more of their organization's focus is on the success of AI initiatives. Furthermore, 62% of line-of-business owners reported that those responsible for AI initiatives hold titles of VP and above. These figures suggest AI has made its way to the boardroom as a serious and necessary initiative.

Perception Differences and Bottlenecks Prevent AI Adoption and Progress
Nearly 60% of line-of-business owners say they are behind when it comes to AI. Just 49% of technical practitioners feel similarly, highlighting a difference in perception about organizational progress when it comes to AI. Potentially fueling this perception of AI adoption are:

• 17% of technical practitioners report that executive "lack of buy-in" is a bottleneck for proceeding with AI projects, among other roadblocks.
• 47% of technical practitioners believe their AI projects will have a large or massive impact on the world, though a majority (59.5%) of line-of-business owners feel similarly.

Too Much Time Managing Data, Not Enough Time Managing Models
While 56.7% of technical practitioners believe they have enough data to support their AI initiative, many (73.5%) spend 25% or more of their time managing, cleaning, and/or labeling data. The type of data most (75.8%) technical practitioners are working with was reported to be "text," followed by "time-series" data (66%) and "still images" (34%).

Having accessible, organized, and annotated data—no matter the data type—is crucial for delivering successful AI projects. Unfortunately, the survey shows that many technical practitioners spend their time with data management. 62.3% of technical practitioners responded that they are only able to "update/maintain" their models sometimes or never.

Download the entire State of AI and Machine Learning Report here to learn more.

About Appen
Appen is a global leader in the development of high-quality, human-annotated datasets for machine learning and artificial intelligence. Appen brings over 20 years of experience capturing and enriching a wide variety of data types including speech, text, image and video. With deep expertise in more than 180 languages and access to a global crowd of over 1 million skilled contractors, Appen partners with technology, automotive and eCommerce companies — as well as governments worldwide — to help them develop, enhance and use products that rely on natural languages and machine learning. To learn more, visit www.appen.com.

About Figure Eight
Figure Eight, an Appen company, combines the best of human and machine intelligence to provide high-quality annotated training data that powers the world's most innovative machine learning and business solutions. With over a decade of experience and 10+ billion judgments, Figure Eight's enterprise-ready data annotation platform delivers unprecedented quality and scale across a diverse set of industries and use cases. To learn more, visit www.figure-eight.com.

SOURCE Figure Eight

Related Links

http://www.figure-eight.com