“89% of Korean CIOs are confident that AI will create a competitive advantage, and 31% of them said AI is a game changer that will transform their companies.”

According to Lenovo's 'CIO Playbook 2024 - It's All About Smarter AI' released on the 29th, Asia-Pacific companies plan to increase AI-related spending by 45% year-on-year in 2024.

A survey found that 95% of Korean CIOs have already invested or plan to invest in generative AI, and 55% responded that their edge spending increased this year compared to last year.

Flynn Maloy, vice president of marketing for Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), previously mentioned the high confidence in AI among Korean CIOs, adding, “The high investment in generative AI, machine learning, and deep learning demonstrates the will of companies to improve operational efficiency, security, decision-making processes, and customer experience.”

Additionally, in the Asia Pacific region, ‘utilizing emerging technologies’ such as AI is ranked as the top business priority.It showed a significantly different appearance from last year.

In particular, "Sales and Profit Growth" fell from first place in 2023 to third place in 2024, while "Customer Experience and Satisfaction" rose to second place. This shift signifies companies' strategic moves to achieve cutting-edge innovation and customer-centric approaches in an evolving business environment.

However, there appears to be a gap in perception between business leaders and CIOs regarding AI technology. While business leaders prioritize generative AI for improving customer experience and driving performance, CIOs expressed cautious optimism.

South Korea, along with India, was found to be investing the highest in generative AI in the Asia-Pacific region. Following South Korea were 33%, India 28%, ASEAN 11%, Australia and New Zealand 2%, and Japan 2%.

Domestic use cases for emerging technologies like generative AI include risk and fraud detection within the BFSI sector. In particular, the BFSI sector is expected to see the largest spending this year on high-performance computing platforms (34%) and digital infrastructure management automation (36%).

Domestic CIOs in the retail sector view AI as a critical element in improving automation and efficiency, customer experience, and overall business operations. They believe AI will help retailers maintain their competitiveness in a rapidly changing market.

Domestic spending on edge computing increased by 55% year-over-year, while spending on edge computing in the Asia-Pacific region increased by 25%. As edge devices generate massive amounts of data in real time, a variety of new use cases for AI models are expected to emerge.

Domestic CIOs responded that real-time analytics and insights (42%) and remote monitoring and telemedicine (39%) are the edge use cases most affected by AI.

As of 2024, the growth rates of domestic edge computing spending were as follows: manufacturing 40%, healthcare 33%, retail 31%, BFSI 28%, telecommunications 19%, and government 14%.

Meanwhile, generative AI's reliance on extensive datasets is expected to pose a major challenge for AI. Furthermore, business leaders expressed concerns about employee job security and a lack of essential IT support, resources, and skills.