Although it is still early days for the technology, the McKinsey report showed its adoption is picking up across industry sectors. Credit: gorodenkoff The usage of generative AI across enterprises is already widespread, although it is still early days for the new technology, according to a report from McKinsey’s AI consulting service, Quantum Black. The report is based on an online survey conducted in April, which received responses from 1,684 participants globally across multiple industry sectors, company sizes, and functional specialties. Nearly 22% of the respondents said they are using generative AI for their work. This usage was highest in the technology sector, and among respondents from North America, the report showed. Industry verticals, including financial services, retail, professional services, and healthcare were also using generative AI but trailed behind the technology sector, according to the report. “While our estimates suggest that tech companies, unsurprisingly, are poised to see the highest impact from gen AI — adding value equivalent to as much as 9% of global industry revenue — knowledge-based industries such as banking (up to 5%), pharmaceuticals, and medical products (also up to 5%), and education (up to 4%) could experience significant effects as well,” the report said. In contrast, manufacturing-based industries, such as aerospace, automotive, and advanced electronics could experience less disruptive effects due to limitations of the new technology’s usage in these industries as most work requires physical labor, the report said. The findings also showed that the most commonly reported uses of generative AI are in marketing, sales, product development, and service operations. Almost 14% of the respondents said their organization was using generative AI in the marketing and sales division, followed by 13% and 10% of the respondents saying their organizations were making use of the new AI technology across product development and service operations, respectively. Marketing use cases of generative AI, as per the report, included crafting text documents, summarizing documents, and personalized marketing. Other functions were found to be using generative AI to identify customer needs, draft technical documents, create new product designs, and forecast trends. Related content feature Coaching your IT team for change: 9 tips Getting your team to accept, and even embrace, is vital for IT success. IT leaders who have mastered the art of leading through change share their advice on this essential leadership skill. By Christina Wood May 02, 2024 12 mins Staff Management Change Management IT Leadership case study Siemens Mobility scales RPA by empowering employees Democratization at the rail tech division of Siemens has been the catalyst to automate more than 700 processes since 2017. By Thor Olavsrud May 02, 2024 6 mins CFO CIO Transportation and Logistics Industry interview CEO Steve Bandrowczak’s playbook for CIO success today The longtime CIO, now driving a reinvention of Xerox, emphasizes three critical capabilities CIOs must harness to steer their companies through their own evolutions. By Brian Watson May 02, 2024 5 mins CIO Business IT Alignment IT Leadership news Google spurs US to ease immigration rules for tech talent Citing a US talent shortage, the tech giant has urged the Department of Labor to expand Schedule A occupations to include AI, software engineering, and cybersecurity roles. By Sascha Brodsky May 01, 2024 4 mins H-1B Visas Hiring Technology Industry PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe