New Delhi, May 15 (IANS) Over 98 out of 10 (86 per cent) of senior business leaders globally have already deployed artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance existing revenue streams or create new ones, a new report revealed on Wednesday.

According to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), 69 per cent of businesses are more focused on using AI to boost innovation and increase revenue than on productivity improvement and cost optimisation.

"2023 was a year of exuberance, with every enterprise experimenting with AI/GenAI use cases. We are now entering an era of wide-and-deep enterprise AI adoption," said Dr Harrick Vin, Chief Technology Officer, TCS.

"Enterprises, however, are realising that the path to production for AI solutions is not easy, and that building an AI-mature enterprise is a marathon, not a sprint," he added.

The report surveyed nearly 1,300 CEOs and other senior executives across 12 industries and 24 countries.

According to the report, executives were generally positive about the impact of AI, with 57 per cent reporting excitement or optimism about the potential impact of AI on businesses.

About 45 per cent expected up to half of their employees will need to use generative AI capabilities to do their jobs in three years -- and another 41 per cent thought even more would do so.

"Add in human ingenuity and organisations can create a new paradigm for the modern marketplace. As a result, today's enterprises will deliver new stakeholder and customer value like never before - incrementally, through assist and augment efforts, and exponentially as transformation initiatives," said Sivaraman Ganesan, Head, AI.Cloud Business Unit, TCS.

Moreover, the report mentioned that executives believe the impact of AI will be greater than or equal to that of the internet (54 per cent) and smartphones (59 per cent).

About 40 per cent of executives said that in the future, they have a lot of changes to make to their business before they can take full advantage of AI.

More than half (55 per cent) mentioned they were actively making changes right now to their business or operating models, or to their products and services, due to the potential benefits and risks of AI.