90% Indian CIOs to increase spending on AI tools in 2024: Report

New Delhi : Artificial Intelligence (AI) is dominating the mindshare of Indian Chief Information Officers (CIO)s, with more than 90 per cent looking to increase spending on right tools, according to a report on Monday.

The report by Canva, the world’s only all-in-one visual communication platform, is based on a survey of more than 1,360 CIOs across India, USA, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, and Australia.

The report showed that nearly all CIOs (93 per cent) plan to increase their budget to make investments in AI apps, with over half (51 per cent) planning budget rises of more than 50 per cent.

IT leaders recognise the benefits of adopting AI, such as saving time on creative or strategic tasks (53 per cent), helping consolidate apps (53 per cent), and offering greater insights to guide business decisions (49 per cent).

Identifying the right solution is a challenge, with 89 per cent saying that there are already too many AI tools available, causing confusion and overlap for employees.

“Our findings reinforce that CIOs in India want to be agents of change and innovation, by choosing technology that helps their organisations have a greater impact while consolidating cost and reducing complexity,” said Cameron Adams, co-founder and chief product officer, Canva.

The report showed that more and more apps are entering the workplace, but consolidation and reducing complexity are priority. With the rise in the number of new applications, application sprawl (the growth in individual applications used in a workplace) is a challenge for 88 per cent of CIOs, with 47 per cent being very concerned with increasing complexity, but they plan to reduce it.

Fifty-two per cent are planning on some level of consolidation, with 30 per cent planning for significant levels. The increase in apps is also overwhelming IT teams, the report said. Over half (55 per cent) CIOs report, that they don’t have enough staff to train employees on new apps including on their proper use.

Further, integrating AI is also high on the agenda of the CIOs. Nearly all CIOs (92 per cent) strongly agree that AI tools can dramatically improve both their role and their employees' experience, but cite integrating AI (56 per cent), access to IT talent (34 per cent), and data security (22 per cent) as the most common challenges.

Most seem ready to leverage the technology, with 79 per cent saying they have firm guardrails in place to ensure safe and responsible use.

“Navigating the avalanche of new technologies designed to make business easier is proving to be harder than ever. The balancing act CIOs face is unenviable: Innovate with AI but don’t contribute to app sprawl,” Adams said.