83% of technology leaders say AI (artificial intelligence) is “now mandatory” in cloud environments, and that they need the channel to help them deploy it.
Security vendor Dynatrace commissioned global research among 1,300 CTOs, CIOs, and other technology leaders in large organisations. It found firms are looking to increase their investments in AI across all areas of their business to improve productivity, automate tasks, reduce costs, and keep pace with the competition.
However, they also have “significant concerns” about the challenges and risks they need to manage. "This underscores the need for the channel to deliver services that help customers to accelerate their AI adoption strategies with greater confidence and reduced risk," said Dynatrace.
In addition to helping them in the cloud, 82% of technology leaders say AI will be "critical" to security threat detection, investigation, and response.
And 88% of them expect AI to extend access to data analytics to non-technical employees through natural language queries. The same number think AI will enable cloud cost efficiencies by supporting FinOps (financial operations) practices.
But 93% are concerned AI could be used for “non-approved uses”, as employees become more accustomed to using tools such as ChatGPT.
“The channel has already seen that the hype cycle triggered by the release of ChatGPT late last year has generated significant interest in AI over the past 12 months,” said Michael Allen, VP partner sales worldwide at Dynatrace. “Customers need to drive down operational costs while also increasing the speed of digital transformation, and are therefore looking to invest in technologies like AI and automation.
"However, they’re also alert to the risks of moving too quickly and handing over control to AI or an automated process before sufficient guard-rails are in place.”
He said channel partners have an “unmistakable opportunity” to “add value and unlock new revenue” by helping customers to establish these controls, so they can adopt AI “safely and securely”.
