Tech leaders are divided on whether AI investments should boost productivity, revenue, or worker satisfaction

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — New research from revenue intelligence leader Gong reveals widely varying viewpoints among CIOs and other tech leaders over how to evaluate the success of AI projects. Surveying over 500 CIOs and heads of IT across the UK and US, the findings illustrate the challenge many businesses face when it comes to strategically implementing AI and the uncertainty in measuring whether those AI investments are paying off.

While over half of CIOs (53 percent) prioritize productivity gains, an equal proportion focus on revenue growth as their key success metrics, with worker satisfaction trailing closely behind (46 percent). This divergence underscores a broader challenge: confusion about where AI can deliver the most business value and a well-defined approach for evaluation.

Key insights from the study include:

Revenue Growth vs. Time Savings: 61 percent of global CIOs believe increased revenue alone justifies AI costs, while 60 percent say that time savings alone will justify costs. Yet, only 32 percent actively measure both, suggesting that many companies still don’t have systems in place to measure and assess the impact on the variables they say matter most.A Growing Interest in Predictive AI: While generative AI attracts much of the buzz around the technology, it is not the clear leader among CIOs in terms of driving value. Fifty-four percent of tech leaders prioritize generative AI, 51 percent prioritize automation, and 31 percent prioritize predictive AI. To capitalize on this discord and deliver value across a broad spectrum, AI models must be tuned to support workflow automation and predictive analytics.Adoption of Domain-Specific Solutions: While nearly three-quarters of tech leaders rely on off-the-shelf large language models (LLMs) as part of their AI investments, 58 percent are utilizing domain-specific solutions. These AI tools are trained on industry- and function-specific data to deliver more precise and measurable results.Security is a Key Obstacle…: Security remains a top priority for 68 percent of tech leaders, but 28 percent admit this is where their AI projects most often fall short.…As is Data Integration: Data integration challenges also threaten project success, with 36 percent of CIOs likely to pause initiatives if implementation complexities arise. Without the right underlying data, AI outputs risk delivering little value or, worse, biased or inaccurate results.AI’s Long-Term Value Persists: Despite mixed measurement strategies, only a small fraction (under 20 percent) cited a lack of provable ROI as a reason to abandon AI initiatives, indicating that most companies continue to explore its potential and long-term value.Smaller companies are more eager to prove ROI: Smaller US firms (250-500 employees) are more ROI-focused, with 40 percent willing to halt projects lacking clear ROI, compared to just 19 percent of larger companies. This suggests that while smaller US firms see the value in investing in AI, they need to focus on initiatives that deliver measurable and immediate returns and have less budget for experimentation. In contrast, larger companies might have more capacity to invest in long-term projects without immediate ROI.

“Over the last two years, the AI hype and pace of innovation has created incredible excitement and confusion for CIOs and tech leaders about its potential and where to focus,” said Eilon Reshef, co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Gong. “But one thing is clear: leaders are pursuing value and exploring different areas across the business where AI can have a transformative impact.”

To learn more about the survey’s findings, read the blog.

Methodology
The research was conducted by Censuswide with 573 CIOs/Heads of IT (aged 25+) in medium and large companies who have purchased an off-the-shelf AI application in the last 2 years across the UK and US (250 and 323 respondents respectively) between October 9 -October 16, 2024. Censuswide abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles. Censuswide are also members of the British Polling Council.

About Gong
Gong transforms revenue organizations by driving business efficiency, revenue growth, and improved decision-making. The Revenue Intelligence Platform uses proprietary artificial intelligence technology to enable teams to capture, understand, and act on all customer interactions in a single, integrated platform. Thousands of companies around the world rely on Gong to support their go-to-market strategies and grow revenue efficiently. For more information, visit www.gong.io.

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SOURCE Gong

December 4th and November Offer 2024’s Lowest Homebuying Premiums

IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property data, and real estate analytics, today released its annual analysis highlighting the best days of the year to purchase a home. The report found that while November offers a 7.3 percent premium, it remains the lowest premium for buyers. Additionally, December 4th stands out as the single best day to buy a home.

2024 Best Time to Buy A Home Infographic

According to ATTOM’s latest analysis of more than 52 million single family home and condo sales over the past 11 years, buyers who close on December 4th are seeing the lowest premium above the automated valuation model (AVM). While still above market value, homebuyers are only paying a 4.8 percent premium, compared to the 14.6 percent premium buyers are seeing on May 27th. (Full methodology is enclosed below.)

Other days of the year offering lower premiums for homebuyers include: October 2nd (5.0 percent premium above market value); December 24th (5.1 percent premium); January 16th (5.1 percent premium); November 13th (5.3 percent premium); and October 9th (5.5 percent premium).

ATTOM’s new analysis also looked at the best months to buy at the national level and best months to buy at the state level.

Best Months to Buy
Nationally, the best months to buy are November (7.3 percent premium above market value); October (7.4 percent premium); December (7.6 percent premium); August (8.0 percent premium); and September (8.0 percent premium).

Best Months to Buy by State
According to the study, the states realizing the biggest discounts below full market value are Michigan (-3.2 percent in December); Connecticut (-1.2 percent in January); Hawaii (-1.1 percent in June); Illinois (-0.9 percent in December); and Minnesota (-0.9 percent in December).

Methodology
For this analysis ATTOM looked at any calendar day in the last 11 years (2013 to 2023) with at least 15,000 single family home and condo sales. There were 362 days (including leap year data) that matched these criteria, with the four exceptions being Jan. 1, July 4, Nov. 11, and Dec. 25. To calculate the premium or discount paid on a given day, ATTOM compared the median sales price for homes with a purchase closing on that day with the median automated valuation model (AVM) for those same homes at the time of sale.

About ATTOM 
ATTOM provides premium property data and analytics that power a myriad of solutions that improve transparency, innovation, digitization and efficiency in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation’s population. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes, and enhances the real estate data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID — the ATTOM ID. The 30TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include ATTOM Cloud, bulk file licenses, property data APIs, real estate market trends, property navigator and more. Also, introducing our newest innovative solution, making property data more readily accessible and optimized for AI applications – AI-Ready Solutions.

Media Contact:
Megan Hunt
megan.hunt@attomdata.com 

Data and Report Licensing:
datareports@attomdata.com

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SOURCE ATTOM

Endorsed by 40+ global business leaders and 700+ financial institutions, the Industrial Transition Accelerator (ITA) has issued an open letter urging governments to use policy to stimulate demand for green productsUncertain demand and a lack of incentives is stalling industrial decarbonisation, with producers and customers at a stalemate due to lower priced higher carbon productsNew data shows growth in the overall number of planned large-scale, green industrial facilities in 2024, but only eight projects have secured finance since April

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Governments must urgently act to stimulate demand for green materials, chemicals and fuels to accelerate the decarbonisation of the world’s highest-emitting industries[1], according to 40+ business/ finance leaders and coalitions, representing more than 1,000 companies and financial institutions, in a new open letter. Doing so could unlock up to $1tn[2] of investment and bring more than 500 green industrial plants to construction by 2030. This would enable the emissions reduction needed from aluminium, cement, chemicals, steel, aviation and shipping – to align with a 1.5°C pathway in the next decade. 

New data from the ITA and the Mission Possible Partnership (MPP) reveals a growing pipeline of industrial projects. However, < 20% are operational or have the finance and approvals necessary to begin construction. Since April 2024, only eight facilities globally have reached Final Investment Decision (FID), leaving 561 announced but not yet definitively confirmed. 300 of these have been awaiting investment decisions for at least two years. If this rate continues linearly, it would take around 35 years for enough facilities to begin construction[3].

To move to a 1.5°C-aligned trajectory the full pipeline of projects must be financed and begin construction within the next two years[4].

A lack of policies has led to insufficient demand for green products leaving corporations and financiers without the certainty needed for long-term investments. Consequently, projects are stalling. Buyers are unable to commit to long-term offtake agreements at scale due to the continued availability of cheaper, higher-carbon equivalents and lack of incentives to opt for the cleaner option.

Led by the ITA and endorsed by The Glasgow Finance Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), the coalition from more than 50 countries, calls for governments to deploy policy measures in the open letter:

Supporting global carbon pricing and fuel standard measuresSetting and enforcing mandatory quotas for low- and near-zero-carbon fuels and productsSetting mandatory targets for low- and near-zero-carbon materials in public procurementSetting stringent and progressively tightening limits on whole life carbon Implementing mechanisms that help bridge the price gap between green commodities and potential buyers

Alongside the letter, the ITA has published a Green Demand Policy Playbook setting out evidence-based policy measures available to governments to increase demand for low- and near-zero-carbon materials, chemicals and fuels so as to unlock supply.

[1] Aluminium, cement, chemicals, steel, aviation and shipping
[2] The total investment figures in USD (global and regional) have been calculated using the number of identified projects in the MPP’s Global Project Tracker – which uses aggregated data to chart investment progress into net-zero-aligned projects – and publicly available investment data and insight on the amount of investment required for a green industrial plant to reach FID . Sources include: MPP, RMI, Systemiq and BNEF.
[3] 40 years for 552 projects at the pace of 7 projects over 6 months (552/7)/2
[4] The Tracker compares actual investment progress against the MPP’s 2030 pipeline targets, representing around 70% of the emissions abatement needed to keep the sectors within their sectoral carbon budgets for 2030 and on track for net zero 2050. The remaining 30% can be achieved through energy and materials efficiency

Infographic: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2556879/ITA_Infographic.jpg

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