More than 75 percent of healthcare executive leaders said their organization is increasing the pace of investment in big data and AI, with a majority citing fear of disruption by competitors, according to a survey by NewVantage Partners.
The survey asked C-level executives how big data and AI are accelerating business transformation, the current state of AI and big data investment, and how firms are leveraging the technology to transform their businesses. It included responses from 65 leading firms, with 16.6 percent of respondents from the healthcare industry. Last year, only 8.8 percent of the survey respondents were from healthcare firms.
Overall, 91.6 percent of executives said they’re increasing the pace of their big data and AI investments at their companies, with 55 percent investing more than $50 million. For healthcare, 79.9 percent of respondents said they’re increasing the pace of big data and AI investments.
More than 87 percent of all firms said they felt a greater urgency to invest in big data and AI. Of those firms, 91.7 percent stated business transformation and greater agility the biggest drivers of their investments. However for healthcare firms, 78.6 percent of them said fear of disruptions was the biggest driver of big data and AI investments.
The findings back up another recent survey that revealed healthcare organizations are expected to invest an average of $32.4 million each in AI over the next five years, and more than 90 percent of healthcare executives are confident their organizations will see a return on investment from AI.
“The findings reinforce the view that companies are accelerating their investments in Big Data and AI to stave off competition and bring greater agility to their own firms,” the NewVantage survey stated. “Motivated by a fear of disruption, firms are accelerating the pace and urgency with which they undertake Big Data and AI initiatives.”
Additionally, the report revealed healthcare firms have greater success in competing on analytics than their financial services counterparts, with 57.1 percent of healthcare firms indicating they were successful at competing on data and analytics, while only 45.1 percent of financial services firms reported success.
Danielle covers Clinical Innovation & Technology as a senior news writer for TriMed Media. Previously, she worked as a news reporter in northeast Missouri and earned a journalism degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She's also a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs, Bears and Bulls.