Das deutsche Manager Magazin berichtete über eine spannende Studie des ZEW, die im vergangenen Dezember veröffentlicht wurde. Die Studie zeigt, dass Unternehmen, die Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) einsetzen, im Durchschnitt 25% mehr Profit erzielen können. Im Folgenden erfahren Sie, wie die Studie diese beeindruckenden Ergebnisse erzielt hat und welche Erkenntnisse sie liefert.

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. (Study, page 7)Studie, Seite 7)

Possible areas of application

In production and logistics AI enables intelligent automation of processes, such as learning systems, predictive maintenance of equipment, or new forms of human-machine interaction in manufacturing.

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 increased efficiency of internal administrative processes.

Opportunities for process innovations through AI also arise in the area of research and development (R&D) and the creation of innovations. For example, the use of AI methods can R&D processes be significantly accelerated (Cockburn et al. 2018).

In the area of product innovation, , AI enables the development of smart products and services that, for example, promise additional performance features and additional customer benefits through the analysis of real-time usage data (e.g., individualized offers), but also enable completely new product features (e.g., driving assistants and autonomous driving).

Finally, AI applications can also generate completely new business models (cf. Lee et al. 2019), especially 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)

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