Troutman Sanders Emerging Technologies Survey
Emerging Technologies - Organizations Increasing Investment While Acknowledging Risk Management
In the second half of 2018, Troutman Sanders surveyed C-level executives and senior level decision makers from IT, finance, product development and legal departments from a broad cross-section of public and private U.S. companies who oversee and actively engage in the decision making regarding their companies’ use of emerging technologies. The 413 respondents were primarily in the banking and financial services, healthcare and life sciences, insurance, manufacturing and energy industries.
An estimated four out of five survey respondents reported their companies plan to increase their technology spend this year. Among those, 54% are boosting their technology budgets by more than ten percent. But despite this reported level of investment, 91% of respondents said their organization’s risk management practices need at least some level of improvement, with 58% significantly concerned about data privacy and cybersecurity.
The report also found that business leaders are concerned about the legal risk and regulatory uncertainty surrounding technologies such as data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain. Although generally optimistic about their organizations’ abilities to adopt emerging technologies, many respondents also cited funding and investment scarcity as an obstacle to the technologies’ implementation.
Some key highlights from the report include:
- 72% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that emerging technologies allow them to stay ahead of the competition.
- More than two-thirds of respondents said they are using AI and machine learning, three-quarters are using IoT, and 93% are using real-time data analytics.
- Different strategies are being employed to implement emerging technologies: 54% are hiring additional talent, 47% are entering into strategic partnerships with technology companies, and 43% are using existing personnel and resources to develop new technologies.
- 69% of respondents said they plan to hire additional employees with technology skills; of those, 65% reported at least a 5% increase in tech hiring. 44% cited finding and retaining high-tech talent as a serious challenge to the implementation of emerging technologies.