PEX Network’s weekly news bulletin rounds up the latest research, reports and publications in operational excellence (OPEX), digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, business process management (BPM), process mining and process intelligence and more.
This week includes:
- AI infrastructure spending to surpass $100 billion by 2028
- WEF outlines generative AI productivity scenarios
- Most care providers will “reduce or stop” digital transformation
- Process mining enhances efficiency of contract negotiation processes
AI infrastructure spending to surpass $100 billion by 2028
The global AI infrastructure market is on track for unprecedented growth, poised to surpass US$100 billion in spending by 2028, according to new findings from the IDC Worldwide Semi-annual Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Tracker. Organizations increased spending on compute and storage hardware infrastructure for AI deployments by 37 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2024, reaching $31.8 billion.
AI infrastructure deployed in cloud and shared environments accounts for 65 percent of the total server spending in AI in the first half of 2024, as hyperscalers, cloud service providers and digital service providers expand their infrastructure capabilities, IDC stated. Traditional enterprises, by contrast, have largely lagged behind in adopting on-premises AI infrastructure.
Servers with an embedded accelerator are the preferred infrastructure for AI platforms accounting for 58 percent of the total server AI infrastructure spending, growing 63. IDC projects that accelerated servers will exceed 60 percent of the server AI infrastructure spending by 2028, growing at a 19 percent five-year CAGR rate.
“IDC expects AI adoption to continue growing at a remarkable pace as hyperscalers, CSPs, private companies and governments around the world are increasingly prioritizing AI. Growing concerns around energy consumption for AI infrastructure will become a factor in datacenters looking for alternatives to optimize their architectures and minimize energy use” said Lidice Fernandez, group VP, data and analytics at IDC.
AI will be the biggest OPEX and business transforation investment area over the next 12 months, the PEX Report 2025 discovered.
Watch Lee Bogner, Mars Inc., discuss the importance of data in AI
WEF outlines generative AI productivity scenarios
A new report from the World Economic Forum (FEM) outlined four scenarios in which generative AI can boost workforce productivity while reshaping jobs. Drawing on interviews with early adopters of generative AI, it also provides practical insights and an actionable framework for using the technology effectively.
- Scenario 1 – high trust, current applicability and quality: In this scenario, enthusiasm for generative AI workforce adoption is high. “Leadership hopes generative AI will contribute to the solving of labor shortages and anticipates it will improve the quality of work.” The majority of the workforce is also enthusiastic, experimenting with ChatGPT and other LLMs at home and want to use it at work to handle tedious tasks. “However, in this scenario, it turns out that generative AI does not live up to the sky-high expectations. Because confidence is so high, employees also use tools that are not validated or without proper knowledge.” This leads to inaccurate decision-making or reliance on flawed insights.
- Scenario 2 – low trust, current applicability and quality: In this scenario, workers are inclined not to emphasize generative AI’s potential and what it can do but rather the biases and the sometimes-unreliable outcomes. “Workers in this scenario may have access to the tools but tend to trust the quality of human work and judgement over technology so they do not feel motivated to try them out.” Generative AI is primarily used for labor-intensive and low-risk tasks, which means that the risks of “accidents” are not realized, neither are the opportunities for innovation and job augmentation.
- Scenario 3 – low trust, expanding applicability and quality: In this scenario, low trust is due to concern about job displacement as opposed to fear of incorrect tool outcomes. “In fact, in this scenario, the expanding applicability and quality of generative AI is so good that it can potentially take over many tasks and even fully replace a range of jobs.” Pressure from shareholders or boards on leadership is very likely to increase the pace of deploying generative AI on a larger scale, with early adopters potentially achieving substantial competitive advantage by benefiting from the high applicability and quality of generative AI.
- Scenario 4 – high trust, expanding applicability and quality: This scenario involves the enthusiastic and experimenting organizations and workforces encountered in Scenario 1, with trust being high and quality and applicability rapidly expanding, enabling organizations to scale up use cases faster. “Generative AI becomes an integral part of daily processes, tasks, tools and systems. It seamlessly integrates into various roles, automating routine tasks and providing advanced decision-support capabilities, resulting in considerable productivity gains and the creation of new and augmented roles.”
Watch thought leader Vishal Bhalla explore the pros and cons of AI technology
Most care providers will “reduce or stop” digital transformation
Three-quarters of adult social care providers will “reduce or stop” digital transformation projects as a result of financial pressures, according to new findings from UK national trade body the Care Provider Alliance (CPA). The CPA surveyed over 1,180 care and support providers, revealing the social care sector faces potential collapse due to the combined impact of National Insurance changes and National Living Wage increases announced in the recent UK Budget. Other key findings include:
- 71 percent of care and support providers are abandoning growth plans.
- 78 percent will cut service development initiatives.
- 78 percent will halt environmental and de-carbonization efforts.
“Without adequate support, we now know for certain that services will close, care providers will stop delivering public services and care workers will lose their jobs,” said professor Vic Rayner OBE, chair of the CPA. “Critically, a huge number of people who rely on care and support will go without or see their lives deteriorate.”
Watch Nao Anthony, senior manager in OPEX at Commonwealth Bank, and Tariq Munir, APAC financial planning transformation lead at PepsiCo, discuss the complexities and challenges of digital transformation
Process mining enhances efficiency of contract negotiation processes
Researchers proposed a new way for professional legal organizations to improve the efficiency of contract negotiations by using process mining. In-house legal processes, especially contract negotiation, play a critical role in corporate organizations, particularly in the B2B sector where transactions often involve high-value goods and services with associated risks, the researchers wrote. Their paper explores the application of process mining to improve the efficiency of contract negotiation by leveraging metadata collected during the negotiation process in state-of-the-art legal tools. This approach not only highlights where additional rounds of negotiations may be costing time and effort but also provides insights into when accepting certain risks may be financially justified, they added.
“We offer professional legal organizations a new way to monitor the progress of contract negotiations and indicate where additional rounds of negotiations are not only costing time and effort, but also hindering value creation, giving them the information they need to potentially accept an abstract risk.”
Watch James Friend, director of digital strategy at NHS England, reflect on defining the problem in process management
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