According to a survey of service providers--who provided about 41 percent of the responses--artificial intelligence, digital transformation and internet of things will be the three highest “priorities” for investment in 2024.
Do you really believe that?
And if so, what are the assumptions you would have to make? Most likely, you’d assume “priority” refers to new effort, or incremental effort, not the actual amount of investment. So “priority” likely refers more to “new things we are paying attention to and working on” and less “how much money we are actually spending” as a percent of total investment.
It is highly doubtful any mobile or fixed network services provider is going to spend more on AI, IoT and DX than on repairs to networks; network extension and capacity upgrades, for example.
You would have to assume that “investment” refers only to capital investment in software, hardware, spectrum or services investment, not all the other elements of capital or operational investments such as people, rolling stock, capacity and so forth.
You would also need to filter responses that were provided by the 60 percent of respondents that do not work for service providers, 37 percent of whom work for infra suppliers or consultancies, both categories where actual work priorities are going to be weighted towards adding AI to services and products, creating and supplying IoT or other “digital products” to their customers.
Infra suppliers and system integrators also reflect their product lines, new product investment and the engagements service providers and other customers have asked them to undertake. Cloud computing suppliers also clearly are investing in GPUs and other infra to support “AI as a service” capabilities.
You would also have to acknowledge that the survey spending categories offered as options also were aimed at mobile operators, not fixed network operators, for whatever difference that might have made.
The artificial intelligence “priority” might be explained by efforts to integrate large language models into parts of the business, for example. “Digital transformation” is a nebulous term that could include all sorts of effort and spending including AI and IoT, for example.
In principle, DX could include:
Cloud computing
Cybersecurity
Data analytics and visualization
Internet of Things (IoT) and sensor technologies
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning
Customer relationship management
Enterprise resource planning
Digital marketing and analytics
E-commerce platforms and online marketplaces
Collaboration and communication
Employee training and development
Culture change initiatives
Agile and DevOps methodologies
Data governance and privacy.
Many other types of effort and spending could be added as well.
The survey responses also are shaped by whether you think about service providers only; infrastructure suppliers only or consultants and all the others allied to the field? How many firms supplying PR support, engineering services, HR and headhunting or legal services really are going to invest in AI, DX and IoT, for example?
The point is not to dispute the actual survey responses. The point is that methodology always matters when crafting such surveys.
Compared to everything you know about service providers, infra suppliers and consultancies, is it believable that spending and outcomes actually will track the reported “priorities?”
And if not, how much do we really learn from the responses, in context?
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