China and India execs leading in emerging tech familiarity, investment
Executives in China and India are leading the global pack in terms of emerging technology understanding, investment, and implementation. A recent survey from accounting and advisory firm Mazars found that US executives are generally middle of the pack in these areas, while France and the UK lag.
The Mazars study surveyed 600 C-suite executives from China, India, Germany, the US, France, and the UK to examine decision-maker’s understanding and enthusiasm in regard to artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), internet of things (IoT), blockchain, and enterprise resource planning (ERP).
Leaders in China (79%) were most familiar with the five technologies, followed by leaders in Germany (71%) and India (69%). Sixty-four percent of US execs were familiar with the key technologies, while France (53%) and the UK (44%) lagged behind.
AI was the technology that most executives were familiar with (71%), while RPA and blockchain were the ones leaders were least familiar with.
The survey found that more than half of respondents already spend more than a quarter of their IT budgets on a combination of the five technologies. India execs are the most keen on increasing budgets for the technologies, at 52%, followed by 49% of China execs. US and Germany respondents shared a similar level of enthusiasm for investment (39% and 38%, respectively), while France (28%) and the UK (20%) were most reluctant to increase spending.
China and India were the most likely to have implemented at least one of the technologies, while sharing the highest adoption rate across the five technologies, the Mazars report found. France and the UK were least likely to have implemented the tech.
Insurance and manufacturing were the most likely to have the five technologies already implemented, while the public sector lagged the most, with half of respondents in the sector saying “nothing is happening” in regard to the five technologies.
Cost saving, business model transformation, and improvements in quality were tagged as the top expected benefits from tech implementation, while the top barriers identified were cost, adequate skills/talent, and market maturity, i.e. whether it’s the right time to adopt the tech.
“Our findings show strong forward momentum in regard to these five game-changing technologies – with China and India leading the pack,” Guillaume Devaux, partner and head of the technology sector at Mazars, said. “Overall, familiarity levels are high, leaders see the impact these technologies can have, and they have plans to increase investment. But there are areas of concern and certain sectors and countries pale in comparison with others."
