According to Accenture’s latest survey, Pulse of Change, Japanese companies show a strong intention to increase AI investment, but their sense of enterprise-wide business outcomes and employee sentiment remains below the global average.
78% of executives at Japanese companies said they would increase AI investment over the next 12 months, approaching the global average of 82%. At the same time, only 13% of companies said they were “already realizing” enterprise-wide, sustainable business outcomes from AI, below the global average of 23%.
48% of executives expressed confidence in achieving quantifiable results from AI investment, short of the global average of 55%. Employee sentiment was also weaker, with 57% reporting improved productivity from AI, well below the global average of 81%.
The proportion of employees who felt that their job satisfaction had improved was 48%, a significant gap from the global average of 71%. In addition, 50% said they believed they themselves were responsible for meeting the reskilling needs arising from changes to their roles after the introduction of AI, above the global average of 45%.
Executives recognize the difficulty of securing and developing talent as they build organizations that use AI. The findings indicate that advancing transformation requires people, AI and the business to be designed as an integrated whole.