Artificial Intelligence: CIO Survey Sees Big Gains in 2020

The promise of artificial intelligence—that it can turn masses of fuzzy data into money-making moves—is becoming less sci-fi and more business as usual.

Nearly 80% of chief information officers at U.S. companies plan to increase the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning over the next 12 months, according to Adobe’s 2019 CIO Perspectives Survey. Fortune was provided an early look at the San Jose-based software company’s survey results.

Among the more than 200 CIOs that participated in Adobe’s October survey, none said they’re planning to scale back the use of A.I. or machine learning. That apparent confidence speaks to the success of recent AI breakthroughs.

“As a whole there are massive opportunities to adopt new [A.I.] technologies,” said Ronell Hugh, the product marketing lead for Adobe Experience Platform. “Cloud infrastructure was a first step, now there is a lot of innovation in AI and how to use data in real-time for your business.”

The majority of CIOs also say AI has the greatest potential of all rising technologies. Yet room for growth here is massive: Almost 70% of CIOs say that AI or machine learning are used on only 1% to 20% of their companies’ tech projects.

And 73% of CTOs plan to increase the use of real-time data over the next 12 months. Only 15% of of these technology leaders strongly agree that their companies are real-time-data-focused organizations.

Among the leaders in using real-time data is the hospitality industry. Some hotel chains have algorithms that monitor customer feedback and make suggestions in real-time to hotel staff, Hugh says. If a hotel guest has complained in the past about towels, the algorithm might suggest staff double-check towels.