**:Scroll.
Finance Associated Press, December 26 (Editor Zhao Hao) If 2023 is the year of "hype" of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), then 2024 will be the year when most companies make substantial investments in technology.
From the end of last month to the beginning of this month, a sample survey of 22 top technology companies was conducted, including chief technology officers, chief information officers, and chief cybersecurity officers of major companies, across all major economic sectors.
Nearly six in ten (59%) executives surveyed said their company's new investment in AI technology is accelerating, while the rest are more cautious, with no respondents saying they will not make new investments next year.
The results also show that more than half (55%) of executives say they plan to purchase a new generation of enterprise-grade AI software, such as Microsoft's Copilot, within six monthsNearly a third (32%) said they had not yet made a spending decision.
The potential spending plans of big companies are obvious good news for Microsoft, which has also won the favor of Wall Street. As of last week, Microsoft had risen 57% this year, more than double the gains of the S&P 500.
Daniel Ives, managing director and senior analyst at Wedbush Securities, said this is a clear tailwind, and only Microsoft is absolutely competitive in this area at the moment. Ives also noted that Copilot will be a torchbearer for the broader AI market, given that businesses are actively moving in this direction.
Microsoft is currently trading at $374 per share, with analysts setting a price target of $600 over the next three years and GenAI will generate up to $10 billion in annual revenue for the company.
Microsoft has poured billions of dollars into OpenAI in recent years, and after helping to quell OpenAI's "civil unrest," Microsoft has gained more power to directly monitor the star startup's operations.
Jason Wong, an analyst at industry consulting firm Gartner, said it was no surprise that the popularity surrounding GenAI, coupled with Microsoft's aggressive marketing of Copilot, made Microsoft the "number one" in the industry. A recent Gartner survey also showed that 82% of IT buyers said Microsoft 365 Copilot was in the top three on their wishlist.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is priced at $30 per user per month, while enterprise customers need to commit to a minimum of 300 users, and many companies are preparing to purchase the service. According to Microsoft's November announcement, the company has provided related services to major companies such as Visa, BP, Honda, and Pfizer, as well as partners such as Accenture, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Previously, PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the Big Four accounting firms, also announced that it would roll out its GenAI tool "ChatGPT" jointly developed with Microsoft and OpenAI to all employees. PwC executive Joe Atkinson told the future of AI "I haven't seen in 30 years, but it's going to live up to its name, it's going to change everything." ”
But Wong points out that Gartner's multiple consultations found that most organizations don't have such tools for all employees. As a result, the consultancy expects that the requirement of 300 users for enterprise customers will be eliminated in the near future.
In terms of productivity, Microsoft's Work Trend Index report, released last month, wrote that 77% of people who have used Copilot say they want to continue using it, 70% say they are more productive, and 68% say it improves the quality of their work. The survey also found that 72% of respondents said that AI has increased productivity, or that Microsoft's results are not boastful.
*: Microsoft's official website Gartner said that with the widespread use of GenAI, many companies will try to make tools enter more professional industries, which is currently a project being studied by SAFSE, SAP, Adobe, etc.
Correspondingly, the demand for these specialized AI tools will be higher, which may put consumer companies at risk of overspending, but the potential market for these tools is still positive, given that many companies are unwilling to miss this opportunity.