At least 79 per cent of corporate strategists say that technologies such as analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and automation will be critical to their success over the next two years, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc.

Strategists say, on average, 50 per cent of strategic planning and execution activities could be partially or fully automated, against 15 per cent currently.

“Leveraging analytics and AI for more efficient, insightful strategy decisions is one of the biggest challenges and opportunities, corporate strategists face this year. For years, strategists have told their businesses: If you want to stay competitive and effective, you need to go digital. Now, they appear ready to apply that guidance to their own workflows,” said David Akers, Director, Research at Gartner.

While most corporate strategists said they use descriptive and diagnostic analytics, less than half said they use more advanced tools such as predictive, prescriptive, or graph analytics. Similarly, only 20 per cent of strategists reported using AI-related tools, such as machine learning or natural language processing. 

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However, a large percentage of strategy leaders said they are either piloting these tools or exploring use options. For example, 51 per cent said they are investigating machine learning and 45 per cent said the same for predictive analytics.

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One of the biggest obstacles to implementation is establishing a clear use case for new technologies. Fifty-two per cent of strategists report that this is a top-three challenge — the most selected response, according to the report. 

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The survey was conducted from October 2022 through April 2023 among 200 corporate strategy leaders in North America, Western Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and Australia/New Zealand, across different industries, revenue, and company sizes.

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