The German Manager Magazin reported on an exciting study by ZEW, which was published last December. The study shows that companies that use artificial intelligence (AI) can achieve an average of 25% more profit. Below you can find out how the study achieved these impressive results and what insights it provides.
The study:
First of all, the study is probably more accurate than other publications. At the end of last year, for example, there were various publications stating that the majority or even a large proportion of SMEs were already using AI. It was clear to all experts that this was an incorrect survey. The ZEW comes up with a factor of 6% - and this seems to be much more in line with our observations and experience in the market. After all, 300,000 companies were surveyed, which makes this study representative in contrast to others.
The study, which was commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Economics and can be read in detail here, also found that German companies were able to generate around 25% more revenue thanks to AI. One interesting key figure is the return on sales. This is 1.3% higher for companies with AI - a remarkable figure in view of an overall return of 6.4%.
The innovation curve increases by 4% due to AI compared to the global market. It can be deduced that AI brings a technological pull effect and an additional learning curve for the company. At this point, we list the application areas that can generate a sales effect of the order of magnitude mentioned.Studie, Seite 7)
Possible areas of application
In production and logistics, AI enables intelligent automation of processes, such as learning systems, predictive maintenance of systems or new forms of human-machine interaction in production.
In the area of business processes, the comprehensive analysis of existing data together with the systematic development of data sources can enable a wide range of innovations, from more effective marketing to increasing the efficiency of internal administrative processes.
Chancen für Prozessinnovationen durch KI ergeben sich auch im Bereich der Forschung und Entwicklung (F&E) und dem Hervorbringen von Innovationen. So können durch den Einsatz von KI-Methoden F&E-Prozesse deutlich beschleunigt werden (Cockburn et al. 2018).
In the area of product innovation, AI enables the development of smart products and services that promise additional performance features and customer benefits (e.g. individualised offers), but also completely new product features (e.g. driving assistants and autonomous driving), for example through the analysis of real-time usage data.
Finally, AI applications can also be used to generate completely new business models (see Lee et al. 2019), particularly in the area of platform markets.
It is also interesting to ask which industries would give preference to AI. And not surprisingly, it is still more the large companies, but significantly more SMEs have jumped on the bandwagon than in previous comparative studies. (Study see above, page 12)
Source: ZEW – Mannheimer Innovationspanel, Befragung 2009
Looking at the factor "Anteil am gesamten Umsatz which is share of total sales", SMEs with >100 employees in particular have already exceeded the 10% mark. For companies with 1000+ employees, the 60% mark has been exceeded. Financial service providers, software companies, and vehicle manufacturers have led the way so far, but the media, advertising, electronics, mechanical engineering, and metals industries also follow closely behind and have recognized the benefits of AI in use.
In 2018, nearly 50,000 new jobs were created in Germany that can be attributed to the use of AI.
What is surprising about the study is the almost even distribution when it comes to the question of which AI methods are used overall. (hes.)
| Anwendungsgebiete | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KI-Verfahren | Produkte, Dienstleist. |
Automat. Prozesse |
Kunden- kommun. |
Daten- analyse |
andere Reports |
Gesamt |
| Sprachverstehen | 15 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 30 |
| Bilderkennung | 24 | 24 | 5 | 11 | 3 | 49 |
| Maschinelles Lernen | 32 | 32 | 9 | 17 | 4 | 55 |
| Wissensbasierte Systeme | 25 | 25 | 10 | 16 | 4 | 46 |
| Gesamt | 60 | 56 | 22 | 34 | 11 | 100 |
Conclusion of the study
AI is undergoing a huge upswing, but the starting point in companies is significantly lower than previous publications suggested. The survey, which indicates that AI is not only a complex and costly technology, but also a significant contributor to revenue, averaging 25%, confirms the view that AI should be deployed in as many SMEs as possible.
The company Circly is working on a no-code AI concept so that the technology loses complexity and investment effort. Through this, a broad use for companies, especially SME's, only the will to implement it should stand in the way.
For further information, please contact contact@circly.at or use our contact form https://www.circly.at/en/contact to book an appointment.
This article is based on a contribution from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Digitalization.
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