94% of new digital products and services created using AI by 2028, new data from Emergn reveals

AI will be pervasive in product development. Broader than expected implementation carries bigger risks and adoption challenges.

LONDON – October 30, 2023 – Data released today in a survey conducted by Emergn, one of the world’s most innovative digital services firms, shows that AI is set to reach further into global product and service development than many currently expect.

Despite the continued absence of clear regulatory frameworks or settled best practice in terms of responsible value creation, by 2028, an immense 94% of new digital products and services are expected to have been created using some form of AI in their development cycle.

Pervasive AI means increased risk from failed implementation

Emergn’s data shows that 75% of industry leaders in the UK and US view AI as a crucial technology in reshaping their sector and product development cycle over the next three years.

Yet despite the enthusiasm, Emergn’s survey also makes clear that a huge amount of work is still required to ensure pervasive AI adoption actually delivers the desired results in terms of productivity, efficiency, and accessibility. Specifically, 71% advocated for the need to resolve ongoing challenges around data privacy (the ability to control data information); 70% focused on the need to ensure AI can deliver accuracy (information or results that are correct, credible, and reliable); and 60% focused on issues with AI solutions’ dubious scalability (the ability to expand or accelerate whilst maintaining product quality or service efficiency).

With AI set to disrupt product and service development across most industry sectors, the societal cost of failure could be huge. For example, AI built on skewed data sets is already entrenching bias. Failure to secure sensitive patient data could limit rather than endanger access to healthcare. Automation in public services could reinforce rather than rebalance wealth inequality.

The right framework for successful AI implementation

A lack of experience with AI is putting successful implementation at risk. To harness the full potential promised by AI, organizations will need access to experts who can help them close the gap between executive expectations and implementation realities, and who also offer expert thinking and knowledge of best practice. Emergn does this in three ways:

First, by helping clients understand the opportunities AI brings in realizing business value, from improving efficiency to improving customer experiences to creating new business models.

Second, by developing leadership, product management, and agility competencies their people and teams needed to maximize the return on investments in AI.

Third, by providing experienced product development teams who can build and deliver the AI and related technology solutions clients demand.

AI offers a tremendous opportunity to create more useful products that deliver better experiences, more efficiently. However, it’s true value lies in its application. To use it best, organizations must be building their product in the right way. This requires organizations to really understand what their customers care about and then have in place appropriate structures to oversee the use of AI, particularly the data on which it is trained, to develop and test the product. Our mission is the same as AI’s promise: improving how people and companies work forever.

Alex Adamopoulos, CEO of Emergn

Emergn Survey

Emergn’s survey was conducted from July 24 to August 17, 2023. Respondents – 403 total, from the United States and the United Kingdom.

  • 28% were business leaders from companies with annual revenue of $100M – $999M
  • 51% were business leaders from companies with annual revenues of $1B – $4.999B
  • 21% were business leaders from companies with annual revenues of $5B or more

The survey results were not weighted.

About Emergn

Emergn is a global digital business services firm with a mission to improve the way people and companies work. Forever. With an ‘Ideas to Impact’ philosophy, Emergn helps some of the world’s most respected businesses – including Fortune 500, FTSE 100, and Global 2000 companies – develop their most promising ideas into valuable digital products and customer experiences, faster.

Emergn’s experts work with clients to transform their business in three ways:

  • Helping to better define their thinking, including shaping their product organization and clarifying and communicating their product strategy.
  • Developing their people by delivering exemplary training in product management, modern ways of working, and leadership.
  • Delivering their outcomes by building customer-centric products and customer experiences.

Emergn has invested nearly fifteen years perfecting a game-changing philosophy for the world of work to transform businesses – Value, Flow, Quality (or VFQ for short) – combining the best of Agile, Lean, design thinking, systems thinking, economics, psychology, and sociology. Its unique approach has been built to support enterprise-scale change and consists of the latest models, techniques, and tools for delivering work in an agile and effective way. Emergn has a strong presence in over a dozen countries, with its US headquarters in Boston and EMEA headquarters in London.

Learn more about Emergn from its website and follow Emergn on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).

Media contact:

Dentons Global Advisors
James Melville-Ross, Adam Davidson, Nishad Sanzagiri +44 7895 187727 [email protected]