IBM Study: Sustainability Remains a Business Imperative, But Current Approaches are Falling Short

– Three-quarters (76%) of surveyed executives agree that sustainability is central to their business, but nearly half (47%) say they struggle to fund sustainability investments
– Organizations that embed sustainability throughout the business are more likely to see financial benefits, yet only 31% of respondents report they incorporate sustainability data and insights into operational improvements to a great extent

ARMONK, N.Y.Feb. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A new global study by the IBM (NYSE: IBM) Institute for Business Value found that while a majority of organizations recognize sustainability as important to their business strategy, many C-suite leaders are struggling to fund their sustainability investments. Data collected from 5,000 global C-suite executives highlighted that organizations that embed sustainability within their operations see better sustainability and financial outcomes, while spending less money than their peers.

The study*, “Beyond checking the box – how to create business value with embedded sustainability,” revealed that almost one-third (30%) of executives surveyed say they have made significant progress in executing their sustainability strategy – up from 10% a year ago – but turning ambitions into impact remains a challenge. Almost half (47%) of executives surveyed struggle to fund sustainability investments; six in 10 say they have to make trade-offs between financial and sustainability outcomes.

Organizations that embed sustainability more deeply into their operations show a marked difference in outcomes from enterprises with a singular focus on areas, such as regulatory reporting or sustainability as a corporate project. Organizations that embed sustainability are 75% more likely to attribute greater improvement in revenue from their sustainability efforts, and are 52% more likely to outperform their peers on profitability.

The findings indicate that many organizations are focused on managing complex, varied reporting requirements rather than real business value and results. The study found that spending on sustainability reporting exceeds spending on sustainability innovation by 43%. Only 31% of executives surveyed report they are incorporating sustainability data and insights into operational improvements to a great extent, while 14% say they do so with innovation initiatives.

“An organization’s approach to sustainability may be holding it back. There is no quick fix. Sustainability requires intentionality and a shared corporate vision,” said Oday Abbosh, Global Managing Partner, Sustainability Services, IBM Consulting. “Sustainability needs to be part of the day-to-day operations, not viewed only as a compliance task or reporting exercise. By embedding sustainability across their business, organizations are more likely to drive internal innovation, attract and retain skilled talent, and be better positioned to deliver both positive environmental impact and financial outcomes.”

Other key study findings include:

Organizations continue to pursue sustainability, but funding, skilling and operationalizing actions remain a challenge

  • Seventy-five percent (75%) of executives surveyed agree that sustainability drives better business results, and 76% agree that sustainability is central to their business strategy.
  • At the same time, 69% of executives surveyed say that sustainability needs to be a higher priority in their organization.
  • While 82% of executive respondents agree that high-quality data and transparency are necessary to achieve sustainability outcomes, only about 4 in 10 organizations can automatically source sustainability data from any of the following core systems: ERP (finance, HR, supply chain), Enterprise Asset Management, CRM, Energy Management Systems, Facilities Management systems.
  • Thirty-nine percent (39%) of executives surveyed also cite a lack of requisite skills as the top barrier to sustainability progress.

Despite most organizations not incorporating sustainability into innovation initiatives, leaders expect generative AI to help supercharge sustainability efforts

  • Sixty-four percent (64%) of executives surveyed agree that generative AI will be important for their sustainability efforts.
  • Seventy-three percent (73%) say they plan to increase their investment in generative AI for sustainability.

Organizations that embed sustainability more deeply into their operations see benefits that can convert sustainability efforts into business value

Further analysis of the survey data found that:

  • Organizations that embed sustainability spend slightly less on dedicated sustainability efforts as a share of their revenue compared to organizations that don’t embed.
  • Fifty-three percent (53%) of these organizations say that business benefits are essential for justifying sustainability investments; only 17% say meeting sustainability objectives is in itself sufficient to justify investment.
  • These organizations are also 191% more likely to have aligned their data and sustainability strategies to a great extent, and 80% more likely to be using AI for sustainability to a great extent.

Beyond checking the box – how to create business value with embedded sustainability underscores the urgent need for organizations to integrate sustainability objectives within business strategy and apply technologies like AI to realize greater progress and profitability. The study also serves as a resource for business leaders, outlining actionable strategies to help enterprises with challenges around data, business integration and decision-making.

To view the full study, visit: https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/en-us/report/sustainability-business-value

*Study Methodology
The study draws on a survey of 5,000 C-suite executives across 22 industries and 22 countries conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value in collaboration with Oxford Economics. In addition to descriptive analysis, the data from the respondents was analyzed to allow for a segmentation of the sample according to how embedded sustainability is in the enterprise. Based on this segmentation, analysis was conducted on differences in sustainability and business outcomes, operational practices, and approaches to enabling progress on sustainability.

The IBM Institute for Business Value, IBM’s thought leadership think tank, combines global research and performance data with expertise from industry thinkers and leading academics to deliver insights that make business leaders smarter. For more world-class thought leadership, visit: www.ibm.com/ibv.

About IBM 
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

Here’s What Policymakers Can Do About Deepfakes, Right Now

WASHINGTONFeb. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Deepfakes – realistic AI-generated audio, video, or images that can recreate a person’s likeness – are one of the most pressing challenges posed by generative AI, given the potential for bad actors to use it to undermine democracy, exploit artists and performers, and harass and harm everyday people.

What this moment requires is both technical and legal solutions. That’s why IBM (NYSE: IBM) signed the Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections (Munich Tech Accord), pledging to help mitigate the risks of AI being used to deceive the public and undermine elections. It’s also why IBM has long advocated for regulations that precisely target harmful applications of technology.

We outline below three key priorities for policymakers to mitigate the harms of deepfakes:

  • Protecting elections,
  • Protecting creators, and
  • Protecting people’s privacy

Protecting elections

Democracy depends on a population’s ability to participate in free and fair elections. Unfortunately, bad actors can use deepfakes to impersonate public officials and candidates to deceive voters in a variety of ways that would undermine this key principle. For example, deepfakes could mislead voters about where, when, and how they can vote, or falsely portray a candidate making controversial statements or participating in scandalous activity.

Policymakers should prohibit the distribution of materially deceptive deepfake content related to elections. For example, the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act, introduced by Senators Klobuchar, Hawley, Coons, and Collins, would curtail the use of AI to generate deceptive content falsely depicting federal candidates in political advertisements with the intent of influencing an election. Other policy approaches could enable candidates targeted by materially deceptive AI-generated content used in political advertisements or fundraising campaigns to seek damages or remove deceptive content, while preserving protections for free speech.

In the EU, IBM has been supportive of the Digital Services Act, which imposes on large internet platforms certain obligations regarding the moderation of online content. Recent guidelines published by the European Commission have also proposed additional requirements for consumer-facing platforms to mitigate against “systemic risks for electoral processes.”

Protecting creators

Musicians, artists, actors, and creators of all kinds use their talents and likeness to help shape culture, inspire, entertain, and make a living. Deepfakes can enable bad actors to exploit creators’ likenesses to push deceptive advertising, scam and mislead consumers, improperly reduce a creator’s ability to profit from their talents, and more.

Policymakers should hold people accountable for producing unauthorized deepfakes of creator performances and hold platforms accountable if they knowingly disseminate such unauthorized content. Some jurisdictions already have what are known as “likeness laws” that prohibit the unauthorized use of a person’s likeness for commercial exploitation, but these can be inconsistent, and few explicitly cover digital replicas or the rights to use a person’s likeness after they die. Given these jurisdictional inconsistencies, IBM supports the NO FAKES Act in the U.S., which would create federal protections for individuals whose voices and/or likenesses are generated by third parties without their consent.

Protecting people’s privacy

Everyday people are already being harmed by deepfakes in profoundly concerning ways, particularly by bad actors using their likeness to create nonconsensual pornography. This abuse primarily targets women, victims have included minors, and could potentially enable further abuse and extortion by bad actors. Nonconsensual sharing of intimate imagery, also known as revenge porn, is expanding with the use of deepfakes but ultimately is not a new problem. But few existing laws adequately hold bad actors accountable for sharing or threatening to share this material, or necessarily cover AI-generated content.

Policymakers should create strong criminal and civil liability for people that distribute nonconsensual intimate audiovisual content, including AI-generated content, as well as for people that threaten to do so. Penalties should be particularly severe when the victim is a minor. Legislators can act on this recommendation now by supporting and passing the bipartisan Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act in the U.S. This bill would create liability for individuals who disclose, or threaten to disclose, a nonconsensual intimate digital depiction of someone, including AI-generated content, and allow affected parties to pursue damages. This legislation would create a much-needed federal baseline of accountability that is inconsistently addressed in various revenge porn laws at the state level, providing greater protections for victims and individuals across the United States.

The EU AI Act – which IBM has long-supported – already addresses many of these types of issues, covering deepfakes more generally and imposing transparency requirements that clarify when particular content is not authentic. As policymakers look towards the Act’s implementation in the coming months, particular attention should be paid to ensuring individuals are protected from non-consensual intimate audiovisual content.

Conclusion

Solving the problems posed by deepfakes will require thoughtful, whole-of-society approaches leveraging both changes in law and technology. Technology companies have a responsibility to pursue technical and governance solutions that address AI-generated content, such as those articulated in the Munich Accord, the White House Voluntary AI Commitments, and Canada’s Voluntary Code of Conduct on the Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI Systems.

IBM encourages policymakers to seize this opportunity to swiftly target three of the most significant harmful applications of deepfakes to ensure that AI remains a positive force for the global economy and society.

New IBM Study Data Reveals 74% of Energy & Utility Companies Surveyed Embracing AI

– 63% of Energy CEOs surveyed expect to realize value from generative AI and automation

ORLANDO, Fla.Feb. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Today, at Distributech 2024, IBM (NYSE: IBM) unveiled additional findings from its global study findings that show that 74% of Energy & Utility companies surveyed have implemented or are exploring using AI in their operations.

Within the sector, among surveyed IT Professionals, 33% are focusing AI projects on HR/Talent Acquisition and 27% are focused on AI Monitoring & Governance. The findings are from IBM’s Global AI Adoption Index 2023 global study* administered by Morning Consult and commissioned by IBM, based on interviews with 2,342 IT Professionals at enterprises located across 20 countries.

This new data echoes insights from the IBM Institute for Business Value’s 2023 study, ‘CEO decision-making in the age of AI,’ which also interviewed 420 Energy & Resources CEOs thinking around AI. The fresh analysis of the Industry C-suite data shows that:

  • 63% Energy & Resources CEOs surveyed are more likely than their global peers to expect to realize value in the next three years from generative AI and automation
  • 61% of CEOs surveyed express concerns about the sources of data used in generative AI

When considering the impact of transformational technologies, Energy Industry CEOs surveyed appear to place Generative AI first in terms of expected value. To help the industry chart a path forward to realize the value of generative AI, at Distributech 2024, the leading annual transmission and distribution event, IBM at booth#2743 today showcased watsonx – its enterprise ready AI and data platform.

Importantly, to help, Energy & Resources companies to navigate data-related challenges, including unclear data calculation and, critically, a lack of insights, IBM is highlighting its watsonx.governance toolkit for AI governance which allows a Utility company to direct, manage and monitor its AI . It employs software automation to strengthen a company’s ability to mitigate risks, manage regulatory requirements and address ethical concerns for both generative AI and machine learning models. While not all models are created equal, every model should have governance to drive responsible and ethical decision-making throughout the business.

Casey Werth, Global Energy Industry General Manager IBM said, “Energy & Utility CEOs have moved beyond experimentation with AI to focusing on where they can drive the most business value with AI. As they manage ongoing transformation efforts they can also capitalize on the great opportunities of generative AI and foundation models.  In doing so they need to remember to focus on their own data, how it is gathered, accessed and used within their workflows along with the governance that should be baked into their tools and processes.”

A good example of how Utility companies can tap large language models is to augment their internal compliance process. For a Utility company this can allow them to automate and align internal compliance processes to their specific business needs. For example, a utility can:

  • Provide a single repository of obligation management to classify complex requirements.
  • Enable their organization to govern their environmental, social and governance (ESG) programs and sustainability.
  • Track provenance and document model performance against key performance indicators determined by the business.
  • Provide visibility to key stakeholders through dynamic, user-based dashboards, charts and dimensional reporting.

At #DISTRIBUTECH24, IBM has several executive speaking sessions designed to help show how the industry can digitally transform at pace. Topics include; Quantum in the Energy Sector, Digitally Managing Emergency Response & Mobilization, Digital Twin for advanced and predictive Load Management, Preparing the Grid for tomorrow, Applying weather & climate risk analytics to create more sustainable and resilient grids. IBM’s Energy CTO Bryan Sacks, will also lead an industry roundtable focused on AI for Grid Management discussing how companies in the energy and utilities industry are thinking about AI, use cases, policy and governance.

The full IBM Institute for Business Value 2023  CEO Study can be accessed here, data on the specific Energy & Resources cuts of the data are available on request.

* Methodology: IBM’s Global AI Adoption Index 2023 global study administered by Morning Consult and commissioned by IBM was conducted from Nov. 8 – 23, 2023 among a sample of 2,342 IT Professionals at enterprises (organizations with > 1,000 employees) in AustraliaCanadaChinaFranceGermanyIndiaItalyJapanSingaporeSouth KoreaSpain, UAE, UK, US and LATAM (BrazilMexicoPeruArgentinaChileColombia)

IBM Report: Identity Comes Under Attack, Straining Enterprises’ Recovery Time from Breaches

-71% spike in cyberattacks caused by exploiting identity
– 50% AI market share milestone to trigger a cyber problem
– Nearly 70% of attacks globally targeted critical infrastructure in 2023
– Europe feels brunt of cyberattacks, making up 32% of global incidents

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today released the 2024 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index highlighting an emerging global identity crisis as cybercriminals double down on exploiting user identities to compromise enterprises worldwide. According to IBM X-Force, IBM Consulting’s offensive and defensive security services arm, in 2023, cybercriminals saw more opportunities to “log in” versus hack into corporate networks through valid accounts – making this tactic a preferred weapon of choice for threat actors.

The X-Force Threat Intelligence Index is based on insights and observations from monitoring over 150 billion security events per day in more than 130 countries. In addition, data is gathered and analyzed from multiple sources within IBM, including IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence, Incident Response, X-Force Red, IBM Managed Security Services, and data provided from Red Hat Insights and Intezer , which contributed to the 2024 report.

Some of the key highlights include:

  • Attacks on critical infrastructure reveal industry “faux pas.” In nearly 85% of attacks on critical sectors, compromise could have been mitigated with patching, multi-factor authentication, or least-privilege principals – indicating that what the security industry historically described as “basic security” may be harder to achieve than portrayed.
  • Ransomware groups pivot to leaner business model. Ransomware attacks on enterprises saw a nearly 12% drop last year, as larger organizations opt against paying and decrypting, in favor of rebuilding their infrastructure. With this growing pushback likely to impact adversaries’ revenue expectations from encryption-based extortion, groups that previously specialized in ransomware were observed pivoting to infostealers.
  • ROI from attacks on generative AI not there – yet. X-Force analysis projects that when a single generative AI technology approaches 50% market share or when the market consolidates to three or less technologies, it could trigger at-scale attacks against these platforms.

“While ‘security fundamentals’ doesn’t get as many head turns as ‘AI-engineered attacks,’ it remains that enterprises’ biggest security problem boils down to the basic and known – not the novel and unknown” said Charles Henderson, Global Managing Partner, IBM Consulting, and Head of IBM X-Force. “Identity is being used against enterprises time and time again, a problem that will worsen as adversaries invest in AI to optimize the tactic.”

A Global Identity Crisis Poised to Worsen

Exploiting valid accounts has become the path of least resistance for cybercriminals, with billions of compromised credentials accessible on the Dark Web today. In 2023, X-Force saw attackers increasingly invest in operations to obtain users’ identities – with a 266% uptick in infostealing malware, designed to steal personal identifiable information like emails, social media and messaging app credentials, banking details, crypto wallet data and more.

This “easy entry” for attackers is one that’s harder to detect, eliciting a costly response from enterprises. According to X-Force, major incidents caused by attackers using valid accounts were associated to nearly 200% more complex response measures by security teams than the average incident – with defenders needing to distinguish between legitimate and malicious user activity on the network. In fact, IBM’s 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report found that breaches caused by stolen or compromised credentials required roughly 11 months to detect and recover from – the longest response lifecycle than any other infection vector.

This wide reach into users’ online activity was evident in the FBI and European law enforcement’s April 2023 takedown of a global cybercrime forum that collected the login details of more than 80 million user accounts. Identity-based threats will likely continue to grow as adversaries leverage generative AI to optimize their attacks. Already in 2023, X-Force observed over 800,000 posts on AI and GPT across Dark Web forums, reaffirming these innovations have caught cybercriminals attention and interest.

Adversaries “Log into” Critical Infrastructure Networks

Worldwide, nearly 70% of attacks that X-Force responded to were against critical infrastructure organizations, an alarming finding highlighting that cybercriminals are wagering on these high value targets’ need for uptime to advance their objectives.

Nearly 85% of attacks that X-Force responded to on this sector were caused by exploiting public-facing applications, phishing emails, and the use of valid accounts.  The latter poses an increased risk to the sector, with DHS CISA stating that the majority of successful attacks on government agencies, critical infrastructure organizations and state-level government bodies in 2022 involved the use of valid accounts. This highlights the need for these organizations to frequently stress test their environments for potential exposures and develop incident response plans.

Generative AI – The Next Big Frontier to Secure

For cybercriminals to see ROI from their campaigns, the technologies they target must be ubiquitous across most organizations worldwide. Just as past technological enablers fostered cybercriminal activities – as observed with ransomware and Windows Server’s market dominance, BEC scams and Microsoft 365 dominance or cryptojacking and the Infrastructure-as-a-Service market consolidation – this pattern will most likely extend across AI.

X-Force assesses that once generative AI market dominance is established – where a single technology approaches 50% market share or when the market consolidates to three or less technologies – it could trigger the maturity of AI as an attack surface, mobilizing further investment in new tools from cybercriminals. Although generative AI is currently in its pre-mass market stage, it’s paramount that enterprises secure their AI models before cybercriminals scale their activity. Enterprises should also recognize that their existing underlying infrastructure is a gateway to their AI models that doesn’t require novel tactics from attackers to target – highlighting the need for a holistic approach to security in the age of generative AI, as outlined in the IBM Framework for Securing Generative AI.

Additional findings:

  • Europe – adversaries’ preferred target — Nearly one in three attacks observed worldwide targeted Europe, with the region also experiencing the most ransomware attacks globally (26%).
  • Where did all the phish go? Despite remaining a top infection vector, phishing attacks saw a 44% decrease in volume from 2022. But with AI poised to optimize this attack and X-Force research indicating that AI can speed up attacks by nearly two days, the infection vector will remain a preferred choice for cybercriminals.
  • Everyone is vulnerable – Red Hat Insights found that 92% of customers have at least one CVE with known exploits unaddressed in their environment at the time of scanning, while 80% of the top ten vulnerabilities detected across systems in 2023 were given a ‘High’ or ‘Critical’ CVSS base severity score.
  • “Kerberoasting” pays off – X-Force observed a 100% increase in “kerberoasting” attacks, wherein attackers attempt to impersonate users to escalate privileges by abusing Microsoft Active Directory tickets.
  • Security misconfigurations – X-Force Red penetration testing engagements indicate that security misconfigurations accounted for 30% of total exposures identified, observing more than 140 ways that attackers can exploit misconfigurations.

Wipro and IBM Expand Partnership to Offer New AI Services and Support to Clients

Wipro launches an Enterprise AI-Ready Platform, leveraging IBM watsonx, to advance enterprise adoption of Generative AI
As part of the expanded partnership, IBM and Wipro will establish a centralized tech hub to support joint clients in their AI pursuits

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. | BENGALURU, India – Feb. 20, 2024: Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading technology services and consulting company, today announced the launch of Wipro Enterprise Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Ready Platform, a new service that will allow clients to create their enterprise-level, fully integrated and customized AI environments.

The Wipro Enterprise AI-Ready Platform leverages the IBM (NYSE: IBM) watsonx AI and data platform, including watsonx.ai, watsonx.data, and watsonx.governance and AI assistants, to deliver to clients an interoperable service that helps accelerate AI adoption. This new service enhances operations with a suite of capabilities spanning across tools, large language models (LLMs), streamlined processes, and robust governance, and lays the foundation for future industry analytic solutions to be built on watsonx.data and AI.

Wipro Enterprise AI-Ready Platform is born out of an expanded multi-year partnership between Wipro and IBM. The expanded partnership brings together the technology and industry expertise of Wipro with leading hybrid cloud and AI innovation from IBM and aims to build joint solutions that help advance the implementation of robust, reliable, integrated, and enterprise-ready AI solutions.

“This expanded partnership with IBM combines our deep contextual cloud, AI, and industry expertise with IBM’s leading AI innovation capabilities,” said Jo Debecker, Managing Partner & Global Head, Wipro FullStride Cloud“The solutions we are creating as part of this partnership will help enterprises achieve new levels of flexibility when building their own enterprise-specific AI ecosystems. Our goal is to make AI consumption as efficient, agile, reliable, and sustainable as possible—ultimately, helping advance the adoption of enterprise-level AI.”

As part of the partnership, Wipro and IBM are jointly funding the IBM TechHub@Wipro solution, which is designed to drive and support joint client pursuits through a centralized group of subject matter experts, engineers, assets, and processes. The IBM TechHub@Wipro will include a watsonx Center of Excellence, which will focus on infusing IBM’s watsonx capabilities across Wipro’s offerings.

Kate Woolley, General Manager, IBM Ecosystem, added, “We’re pleased to reach this new milestone in our 20-year partnership to support clients through the combination of Wipro’s and IBM’s joint expertise and technology, including watsonx. We’re also looking forward to supporting our joint clients with IBM TechHub@Wipro, which will comprise a network of Wipro and IBM subject matter experts operating in global centers of excellence, focused on AI, automation, IT modernization and sustainability.”

Wipro Enterprise AI-Ready Platform will provide clients with infrastructure and core software for the consumption of AI and generative AI workloads, including using code-based configurations to enhance automation; dynamic resource management to dynamically adjust to varying workloads using predictive analytics; and helping drive improvements in incident reduction and operational efficiency in the enterprise. The Platform will also support specialized industry use cases for banking, retail, health, energy, and manufacturing, providing conversational AI for customer support, customized marketing, customer feedback analysis, content generation and design optimization, thereby enhancing value for clients.

“Wipro’s Enterprise AI-Ready Platform will allow clients to easily integrate and standardize multiple data sources augmenting AI- and GenAI-enabled transformation across business functions,” said Nagendra Bandaru, Managing Partner and President, Wipro Enterprise Futuring. “The service will provide clients with the flexibility and freedom to choose how they want to develop and deploy their large language models, giving them the option to use IBM’s existing models, co-develop their custom applications, or create their own models based on the foundational models and tools available on the platform. Further, clients will have the flexibility to run these models in their preferred cloud environment—whether that’s public, private, or hybrid.”

Wipro Enterprise AI-Ready Platform will leverage watsonx.governance to automate AI governance through the AI life cycle. This will help the business to control and monitor risks and adhere to the key tenets of responsible AI: transparency, data protection and compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

As part of this expanded partnership, Wipro associates will be trained in IBM hybrid cloud, AI, and data analytics technologies to help accelerate the development of joint solutions.

For more information on Wipro’s partnership with IBM, please visit: https://www.wipro.com/cloud/cloud-operations/wipro-enterprise-ai-ready-platform/.

About Wipro Limited

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading technology services and consulting company focused on building innovative solutions that address clients’ most complex digital transformation needs. Leveraging our holistic portfolio of capabilities in consulting, design, engineering, and operations, we help clients realize their boldest ambitions and build future-ready, sustainable businesses. With over 240,000 employees and business partners across 65 countries, we deliver on the promise of helping our customers, colleagues, and communities thrive in an ever-changing world. For additional information, visit us at www.wipro.com.

GSMA and IBM Collaborate to Accelerate AI Adoption and Skills for the Telecoms Sector with Launch of Generative AI Training Program and Industry Challenge

AI training initiative is first in new GSMA Advance series aims to build skills, foster innovation and champion workforce diversity

LONDON and NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The GSMA and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new collaboration to support the adoption and skills of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the telecom industry through the launch of GSMA Advance’s AI Training program and the GSMA Foundry Generative AI program.

The AI training program, the first in a new series of courses by GSMA Advance, seeks to prepare telco leaders for the AI-era and bridge skills gaps in the telecom industry, by equipping members with skills and knowledge to help effectively leverage Gen AI technologies utilizing watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform with AI assistants.

The training program, designed for telecoms leaders, will span a wide range of topics, from fundamental AI principles to specialized Gen AI applications in telecoms. To ensure a wide-range of participants can benefit, GSMA Advance AI Training sessions will take place at IBM offices in five locations around the world in 2024, including Dubai, London, Mexico, New York and Seoul, and an online training program will be available in multiple languages.

A digital version of the program will be available to help address both the business strategy and technology fundamentals of Generative AI. This program will leverage IBM watsonx to deliver hands-on training designed to equip architects and developers with in-depth practical Gen AI knowledge.

The GSMA Foundry Generative AI program will provide GSMA members with access to IBM’s watsonx. This platform is intended to help telecom industry players explore innovative industry-specific use cases of Generative AI, enabling members to improve cost leadership, revenue growth and enhance customer experience. As part of the ongoing collaboration GSMA Foundry and IBM will drive a series of Gen AI industry programs and challenges to investigate the use of Generative AI in various functional areas of a telecom provider. 

Bridging The AI Adoption Gap 

Through both the GSMA Advance AI Training and Foundry Gen AI programs, the GSMA and IBM will help address the gap in AI skills, training and tools, supporting GSMA’s commitment to operators of all sizes across the world.

IBM’s latest AI Adoption Index found 40% of telecoms surveyed are exploring or experimenting with generative AI, and 45% have accelerated the rollout of AI. Research from GSMA Intelligence also shows that while 56% of operators surveyed are actively trialing generative AI solutions – at a rate higher than any other priority technology – adoption is less prevalent amongst mid-sized and smaller operators surveyed.

Through this initiative, the GSMA and IBM aim to allow operators, including those supporting the world’s least connected communities, to benefit from AI technology, and develop new innovative and inclusive solutions to help connect those in society who are not yet online.

Generative AI holds tremendous potential to help improve all manner of operations and customer engagement. Specifically, generative AI can help transform customer care, IT and network optimization —all areas in which automation can notably help increase agility and efficiency. Through their commitment to developing generative AI skills and training for the telecom industry, the GSMA and IBM want to enable mobile operators to provide better services and, ultimately, help more people benefit from digital connectivity.

“Artificial Intelligence provides the telecoms industry, and the societies it serves, with huge opportunities to launch new services, improve connectivity and customer experience. Overall, it’s estimated that AI could contribute $15.7 trillion1 to the global economy by 2030,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer at the GSMA. “However, it’s critical that AI is democratized to ensure that all parts of the connectivity industry and their customers, wherever they are in the world, benefit. Bringing operators access to AI tools and knowledge, alongside the necessary skills, access and training, is key to achieving this.”

“As a world leader in AI for business, IBM will provide critical support to this training for the telecom industry through this collaboration with the GSMA,” said Stephen Rose, GM, Global Industries, IBM. “Generative AI can create massive opportunities for communication service providers as they look to optimize current processes, and like the GSMA, our goal is to offer this technology within the industry, which we’re making possible through watsonx.”

With Mobile World Congress around the corner, the GSMA will share more on the future of the program and additional initiatives to address the AI skills gap. For more on watsonx, please visit ibm.com/watsonx

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.

About GSMA
The GSMA is a global organization unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change. Our vision is to unlock the full power of connectivity so that people, industry, and society thrive. Representing mobile operators and organizations across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries, the GSMA delivers for its members across three broad pillars: Connectivity for Good, Industry Services and Solutions, and Outreach. This activity includes advancing policy, tackling today’s biggest societal challenges, underpinning the technology and interoperability that make mobile work, and providing the world’s largest platform to convene the mobile ecosystem at the MWC and M360 series of events.

We invite you to find out more at gsma.com

About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

NTT DATA Business Solutions Announces a Global Center of Excellence for Generative AI Centered on IBM watsonx

Bielefeld, Germany / Copenhagen, Denmark — January 24, 2024  NTT DATA Business Solutions and IBM (NYSE: IBM) have announced the establishment of a Center of Excellence (CoE) for the watsonx generative AI platform. The joint CoE will focus on the use of the IBM watsonx AI and data platform with watsonx AI assistants for the development of embedded generative AI solutions for clients. The CoE combines the industry expertise of NTT DATA Business Solutions with IBM technology to help NTT DATA Business Solutions clients scale and accelerate the impact of generative AI.

“While currently anchored in Denmark, this initiative is a global endeavor, empowering our customers worldwide,” explains Norbert Rotter, CEO of NTT DATA Business Solutions and EVP NTT DATA, Inc.

The CoE is also instrumental in helping to extend new use cases for generative AI to NTT DATA’s it.human platform which incorporates IBM watsonx capabilities, machine learning, speech recognition, natural language processing and conversational AI to enhance the customer experience.

“As businesses move to adopt generative AI, they need the right client and industry expertise, combined with the best open technology,” said Kate Woolley, General Manager, IBM Ecosystem. “IBM’s partnership with NTT DATA Business Solutions allows us to co-develop solutions for clients that are purpose-built with flexibility, governance and openness.”

The collaboration also leverages IBM’s training, education and technology resources, including IBM Cloud, to build use cases and provide access to foundation models and best practices to assist with client projects using the watsonx platform. NTT DATA Business Solutions provides the CoE with sales resources to engage with customers, build use cases and implement AI products.

“We expect an increased investment in AI on the customer side this year,” says Nicolaj Vang Jessen, EVP, Global Innovation & Industry Consulting, NTT DATA SAP TFA and responsible for the Region NEE at NTT DATA Business Solutions. “The CoE harmonizes our resources, methodologies and industry expertise, reinforced by the exceptional competence of IBM.”

A preview into the work underway will be offered at the IBM TechXchange Summit EMEA in Barcelona, where Thomas Noermark, Global Head of Innovation at NTT DATA Business Solutions, and Thor Hauberg, Director Venture Lab and Digital Business Transformation at NTT DATA Business Solutions, will share their knowledge in several sessions.

For more information visit nttdata-solutions.com.
 

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About NTT DATA Business Solutions

NTT DATA Business Solutions drives innovation – from advisory and implementation, to managed services and beyond, continuously enhances SAP solutions to make them work for companies – and for their people. Aiming to help companies to transform, grow and become more successful, NTT DATA Business Solutions connects with a more than in-depth expertise for SAP solutions its clients´ business opportunities with the latest technologies – individually and across all business areas. As part of the NTT DATA group and as a global strategic partner of SAP, with close ties to other partners, NTT DATA Business Solutions gives clients and prospects access to innovative solutions and developments and thus makes an important contribution to innovation and long-term business success. NTT DATA Business Solutions employs more than 15,000 people in more than 30 countries.

About NTT DATA

NTT DATA – a part of NTT Group – is a trusted global innovator of IT and business services headquartered in Tokyo. We help clients transform through consulting, industry solutions, business process services, digital & IT modernization and managed services. NTT DATA enables them, as well as society, to move confidently into the digital future. We are committed to our clients’ long-term success and combine global reach with local client attention to serve them in over 50 countries around the globe. Visit us at nttdata.com.

About IBM

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

NRF 2024: IBM Reports Generative AI Can Bridge the Consumer Expectation Gap with Unified, Integrated Shopping Experiences

NEW YORK, Jan. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — As we enter 2024, the retail landscape is undergoing a transformation, propelled by changes in consumer preferences and advancements in new technologies. According to a recent IBM (NYSE: IBM) Institute for Business Value study today’s discerning shoppers expect a tailored shopping journey, complete with the convenience of product choices, detailed information, diverse payment methods and a seamless integration of in-store and online experiences that cater to their individual preferences.

Generative AI can help address these expectations, creating retail environments as intuitive and unified as they are finely tuned to individual needs. AI-driven solutions are at the heart of IBM’s offerings, focus, and solutions at NRF’24.

Consumers Welcome AI-Driven Advancements to Improve the Retail Experience

A global IBM Institute for Business Value study has laid bare the discrepancy between consumer expectations and the current state of retail offerings. The “Revolutionize retail with AI everywhere: Consumers won’t wait” study, unveiled ahead of NRF, surveyed nearly 20,000 individuals worldwide, revealing a dissatisfaction with retail experiences. Just 9% of consumers surveyed said they are content with in-store shopping and just 14% are content with online shopping.

Technology could play an integral role in enhancing the overall shopping experience. Most consumers (59%) surveyed said they would like to use AI applications as they shop and 4 in 5 consumers who haven’t used the technology for shopping reported being interested in trying it, including in product research (86%), deal hunting (79%) and customer service (82%). Personalization and targeted offerings present opportunities for retailers, with 52% of surveyed consumers interested in receiving information, advertisements, and offerings from stores that are relevant to their specific interests.

Still, there remains a clear satisfaction gap for current AI assistant users surveyed. Only about one-third of consumers surveyed who have used virtual assistants are satisfied with the experience and nearly 20% were so disappointed that they don’t want to use virtual assistants again, signaling a mismatch between current tech offerings and shopper expectations.

IBM, Samsung, and Workday partner to empower frontline retail workers through technology

As the retail sector grapples with inflation, rising labor costs, shifting workforce expectations, and hiring challenges, C-Suite executives are confronted with challenges and mounting pressure to boost revenue and expand margins.

IBM has collaborated with Samsung and Workday to provide a strategic answer—Workforce Experience (WEx). The bespoke retail solution combines the power of IBM Consulting‘s iX application design and watsonx AI capabilities with Samsung mobile devices, while leveraging Workday’s Human Capital Management (HCM) and Workday workforce management applications, to equip frontline retail workers with technology to streamline operations.

WEx was built to promote associate and manager productivity, boost employee retention and improve customer satisfaction. The solution uses automation to help solve common challenges like task management and employee onboarding, and generative AI to measure store metrics and performance and help associates with product availability. It is designed to help reduce the time to train associates using a centralized, easy-to-use interface with nudges and notifications and offers on-the-go training and development opportunities through Workday. WEx also offers store associates more detailed information about product availability, in turn helping the customer.

At NRF, IBM will demonstrate how WEx can equip employees with technology to help them  provide the level of service that customers expect. Stop by booth #5006 at NRF to see a demo.

Enhancing the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry with SAP

In addition to enhancing the customer experience and helping retail employees better meet customer expectations, AI has an important back-office role to play across the industry. At NRF, IBM and SAP will discuss how they seek to combine their expertise to help CPG and retail clients enhance their supply chain, finance operations, sales and services using AI and gen AI.

The goal of the AI-powered solutions is to address the complexities of direct store delivery business process and product portfolio management. IBM Consulting and SAP are already working with CPG clients worldwide to gather detailed requirements to create secured and scalable AI solutions that can be integrated with the SAP Direct Distribution solution.

The new solutions would be designed to help CPG companies, wholesale distributors and retailers more efficiently manage store-level assortments, improve product distribution, and drive incremental revenue by using AI and gen AI to:

  • Enhance transportation planning and execution — By incorporating data such as weather, traffic and local events into SAP Direct Distribution, CPG companies could enhance delivery routes to help reduce costs, and lower their carbon footprint.
  • Optimize store-level assortments – The solutions could use the market dynamics of each store, sales patterns, anticipated demand and current product mix to make product recommendations and include preliminary planning so enough products are added to the assortment to help maximize sales. Joint clients of SAP and IBM Consulting could be able to manage their last-mile distribution to help effectively identify the most profitable selections and minimize waste.
  • Automate order settlement – CPG companies could use intelligent workflows to help proactively achieve operational efficiencies and increase settlement accuracy based on AI in the SAP Direct Distribution last-mile distribution component.

IBM will also use NRF to demonstrate various aspects of our watsonx generative AI platform, particularly watsonx.governance, a powerful set of tools to help manage enterprise-wide governance processes and control risk. To see how watsonx can help retailers, enhance from customer engagement and personalization to operational efficiency, stop by booth #5006 at NRF to see a demo.

Revolutionizing the grocery aisle with Kroger

Looking beyond NRF’24, gen AI can help transform the way businesses across sectors operate, and grocery retail is no exception. The consumer sector is ready to embrace this disruptive technology: 42% of retail CEOs and 59% of consumer products CEOs expect AI—including gen AI, deep learning, and machine learning—to be the technology that can best deliver desired results in the next three years.

Following NRF, join IBM on January 23rd for the latest installment in our retail-focused LinkedIn Live series. Cathy Reese, Senior Partner for Data & Technology Transformation services at IBM, will speak with Jamie Lancaster, Vice President, Contact Centers and G&A Expense Optimization at Kroger, about the gen AI opportunity in grocery, current and potential use cases and how industry players are navigating the implementation and integration journey.

Casper Labs to Build a Blockchain-Powered Solution with IBM Consulting to Help Improve Transparency and Auditability for Generative AI Systems

New solution intended to help enterprises seeking to better manage training data for generative AI systems across organizations

NEW YORK AND ARMONK, N.Y., Jan. 11, 2023 – Casper Labs, the enterprise blockchain software and services provider, and IBM (NYSE: IBM) Consulting today announced they will work to help clients leverage blockchain to gain greater transparency and auditability in their AI systems. Together, Casper Labs and IBM Consulting plan to develop a new Casper Labs solution, designed with blockchain and built leveraging IBM watsonx.governance, that establishes an additional analytics and policy enforcement layer for governing AI training data across organizations.

The process of training, developing and deploying generative AI models happens across multiple organizations, from the original model creator to the end user organization. As different organizations integrate new data sets or modify the models, their outputs change accordingly, and many organizations need to be able to track and audit those changes as well as accurately diagnose and remediate issues. Blockchain can help organizations share their trusted context information via metadata in the ledger documenting that the models have changed while mitigating the risk of intellectual property crossover or unnecessary data sharing across organizational lines.

Casper Labs’ solution is planned to be built on Casper,  a tamper-resistant and highly serialized ledger, and leverage IBM watsonx.governance and watsonx.ai to monitor and measure highly serialized input and output data for training generative AI systems across organizations. Thanks to the Casper Blockchain’s hybrid nature and permissioning system, organizations can expect to be able to better protect sensitive data stored in the solution from being accessible to external actors; they have control over who can access what data. The solution will also be built to support version control using the serialization capabilities of blockchain, so organizations can efficiently revert to previous iterations of an AI system if performance issues or biased outputs occur.

IBM Consulting’s AI governance and technology experts will assist Casper Labs in building the solution, which Casper Labs expects to be available for clients in beta in first quarter 2024 and later available more broadly in their channels and in the IBM Cloud Marketplace.

“An AI system’s efficacy is ultimately as good as an organization’s ability to govern it,” said Shyam Nagarajan, Global Partner, Blockchain and Responsible AI Leader at IBM Consulting. “Companies need solutions that foster trust, enhance explainability, and mitigate risk. We’re proud to bring IBM Consulting and technology to support Casper Labs in creating a new solution offering an important layer to drive transparency and risk mitigation for companies deploying AI at scale.”

The new solution is planned to help companies across industries, including financial services, healthcare, and retail, deploy AI responsibly at scale across their ecosystem of technology and services providers. Among other features, the solution aims to offer:    

  • Compliance Dashboard: A centralized dashboard for monitoring and managing AI systems as they’re applied across organizations to support their compliance processes with an organization’s ethical guidelines.
  • Quality Control Toolkit: Tools for monitoring the quality and performance of AI systems, along with an interface to enhance the transparency and explainability of AI outputs.
  • Version Control: The ability to correct for performance or other issues by “rolling back” to previous iterations of a given AI system that didn’t display issues.
  • Audit and Reporting System: A system for auditing AI processes and generating detailed reports based on context metadata captured by Casper Labs’ ledger.

“While generative AI has justifiably excited organizations for its transformative potential, its practical applications have been severely limited by an inability to monitor and react to the data feeding AI systems,” said Mrinal Manohar, CEO at Casper Labs. “With IBM’s help, we’re committed to delivering a better way to not only understand why AI systems behave the way that they do but also a clearer path to remediate behavior if hallucinations or performance issues occur. AI’s long-term potential will be dictated by how effectively and efficiently organizations can understand, govern and react to increasingly massive AI training data sets.”

Data Suggests Growth in Enterprise Adoption of AI is Due to Widespread Deployment by Early Adopters, But Barriers Keep 40% in the Exploration and Experimentation Phases

– About 42% of enterprise-scale companies surveyed (> 1,000 employees) report having actively deployed AI in their business.

– An additional 40% are currently exploring or experimenting with AI but have not deployed their models.

– However, 59% of those companies surveyed already exploring or deploying AI say they have accelerated their rollout or investments in the technology.

– The top barriers preventing deployment include limited AI skills and expertise (33%), too much data complexity (25%), and ethical concerns (23%).

ARMONK, N.Y., Jan. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — New research commissioned by IBM (NYSE: IBM) found that about 42% of enterprise-scale organizations (over 1,000 employees) surveyed have AI actively in use in their businesses. Early adopters are leading the way, with 59% of responding enterprises already working with AI intending to accelerate and increase investment in the technology. Ongoing challenges for AI adoption in enterprises remain, including hiring employees with the right skillsets, data complexity, and ethical concerns continue to inhibit businesses from adopting AI technologies into their operations. 

Experience the interactive Multimedia News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9240059-ibm-2023-global-ai-adoption-index-report/ 


“We’re seeing that the early adopters who overcame barriers to deploy AI are making further investments, proving to me that they are already experiencing the benefits from AI. More accessible AI tools, the drive for automation of key processes, and increasing amounts of AI embedded into off-the-shelf business applications are top factors driving the expansion of AI at the enterprise level,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, IBM Software. “We see organizations leveraging AI for use cases where I believe the technology can most quickly have a profound impact like IT automation, digital labor, and customer care. For the 40% of companies surveyed stuck in the sandbox, I am confident 2024 will be the year of tackling and overcoming barriers to entry like the skills gap and data complexity.” 

Highlights from the “IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2023,” conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, include: 

Over the last several years, AI adoption has remained steady at large organizations surveyed:  

  • Today, 42% of IT professionals at large organizations report that they have actively deployed AI while an additional 40% are actively exploring using the technology. 
  • Additionally, 38% of IT professionals at enterprises report that their company is actively implementing generative AI and another 42% are exploring it. 
  • Organizations in India (59%), the UAE (58%), Singapore (53%), and China (50%) are leading the way in active use of AI, compared with lagging markets like Spain (28%), Australia (29%), and France (26%).
  • Companies within the financial services industry are most likely to be using AI, with about half of IT professionals within that industry reporting their company has actively deployed AI. 37% of IT professionals within the telecommunications industry state that their company is also deploying AI. 

The majority of surveyed companies actively deploying or exploring AI have accelerated their rollout or investments in the past 24 months:  

  • 59% of IT professionals at companies deploying or exploring AI indicate that their company has accelerated their investments in or rollout of AI in the past 24 months.
  • China (85%), India (74%), and the UAE (72%) are the markets most likely to be accelerating AI rollout, while businesses in the UK (40%), Australia (38%) and Canada (35%) were the least likely to accelerate the rollout. 
  • Research and development (44%) and reskilling/workforce development (39%) are the top AI investments at organizations exploring or deploying AI. 

Easier to use AI tools and the need to reduce costs and automate processes are driving AI adoption among surveyed companies: 

  • Advances in AI tools that make them more accessible (45%), the need to reduce costs and automate key processes (42%), and the increasing amount of AI embedded into standard off the shelf business applications (37%) are the top factors driving AI adoption. 
  • For IT professionals, the two most important changes to AI in recent years are solutions that are easier to deploy (43%) and the increased prevalence of data, AI, and automation skills (42%). 
  • The AI use cases driving adoption for surveyed companies currently exploring or deploying AI are not limited, but cut across many key areas of business operations:
    • Automation of IT processes (33%)
    • Security and threat detection (26%)
    • AI monitoring or governance (25%) 
    • Business analytics or intelligence (24%) 
    • Automating processing, understanding, and flow of documents (24%)
    • Automating customer or employee self-service answers and actions (23%) 
    • Automation of business processes (22%) 
    • Automation of network processes (22%)
    • Digital labor (22%)
    • Marketing and sales (22%)
    • Fraud detection (22%)
    • Search and knowledge discovery (21%)
    • Human resources and talent acquisition (19%)
    • Financial planning and analysis (18%)
    • Supply chain intelligence (18%) 

The same set of barriers are keeping the next wave of surveyed companies from benefiting from AI:

  • The top barriers hindering successful AI adoption at enterprises both exploring or deploying AI are limited AI skills and expertise (33%), too much data complexity (25%), ethical concerns (23%), AI projects that are too difficult to integrate and scale (22%), high price (21%), and lack of tools for AI model development (21%). 

Generative AI poses different barriers to entry from traditional AI models: 

  • Data privacy (57%) and trust and transparency (43%) concerns are the biggest inhibitors of generative AI according to IT professionals at surveyed organizations not exploring or implementing generative AI.
  • 35% also say that lack of skills for implementation are a big inhibitor. 

Among surveyed organizations, AI is already having an impact on the workforce:  

  • One-in-five organizations report they do not have employees with the right skills in place to use new AI or automation tools and 16% cannot find new hires with the skills to address that gap.
  • Among companies citing AI’s use to address labor or skills shortages, they are tapping AI to do things like reduce manual or repetitive tasks with automation tools (55%) or automate customer self-service answers and actions (47%).
  • Only 34% are currently training or reskilling employees to work together with new automation and AI tools. 

The need for trustworthy and governed AI is understood by IT professionals, but barriers are making it difficult for surveyed companies to put into practice:

  • IT professionals are largely in agreement that consumers are more likely to choose services from companies with transparent and ethical AI practices (85% strongly or somewhat agree) and say being able to explain how their AI reached a decision is important to their business (83% among companies exploring or deploying AI).
  • But, with many companies already deploying AI facing multiple barriers in the process, well under half report they are taking key steps towards trustworthy AI like reducing bias (27%), tracking data provenance (37%), making sure they can explain the decisions of their AI models (41%), or developing ethical AI policies (44%). 

Methodology:
This survey was conducted in November 2023 among a representative sample of 8,584 IT Professionals in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, UAE, UK, US and LATAM (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru). To qualify for the survey, participants must be employed full-time, work at companies with more than 1 employee, work in a manager or higher-level role, and have at least some knowledge about how IT operates and is used by their company. The global results have a margin of error of +/- 1 percentage point.