State of AI in IT 2024

A snapshot of the AI in IT landscape in 2024, presented in partnership with ITSM.tools. Learn what your peers are doing, optimistic, and cautious about while adopting AI in IT.

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Note from the author

This survey is a great snapshot of where North American IT organizations are with the adoption of AI, with most still assessing the opportunities and understanding what’s involved.

Foreword

As a follow-up to a global 2023 IT service management (ITSM)-focused survey on artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in IT organizations that showed significant growth in AI interest and use, two separate surveys focused on the state of AI adoption in North America were conducted in November 2023.

The AI adoption state

It can be hard for organizations to understand whether they’re ahead of or behind the AI adoption curve. To help, the first “core” survey question asked the respondents to describe their organizations’ current AI adoption state.

• The majority of respondents (58%) said their organizations were still in the early stages of AI adoption – either planning (20%), early exploitation (24%), or pilot projects (14%).
• 27% of respondents have progressed past the AI pilot projects stage to have functioning AI capabilities in IT.
• Only 11% of respondents stated that their organizations have no plans for AI adoption in IT.

AI resource allocation

The lack of appropriate AI skills and resources is often cited as a barrier to AI Adoption. A surprising 28% of respondents stated that their organizations don’t have anyone specifically focusing on AI.

IT budget spend

The extra costs associated with AI adoption are inevitably a barrier to its adoption. However, more than half (60%) of respondents stated that their organizations are spending at least 5% of their IT budgets on AI.

The perceived benefits of AI

The three most stated benefits of AI adoption in IT are:

• Data analytics and synthesizing insights (45%)
• Chatbots for self-service adoption (38%)
• Improving employee experience (34%)

The AI adoption timeframe

For the survey question related to the speed with which IT organizations would adopt AI, the highest scoring response was that AI will take 1-2 years to become common within IT teams (28.4%).

AI adoption barriers

A common challenge or barrier to AI adoption has long been the availability of suitable people and expertise.

AI no-go areas

The three top most stated areas were:

• Ethical and legal decision-making (41%)
• People management (30%)
• Customer relationship management (29%)

Conclusion

We believe that the two discrete data sets targeting IT professionals and end users do offer valuable and holistic insights into the usage of AI. While most organizations are still in the early stages of AI adoption, IT leaders do realize the tremendous benefits of adopting AI in IT.