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The era of artificial intelligence (AI) has arrived - this is one of the few consensuses in the current era of lack of consensus. But there is still a gap between consensus and action. A research report jointly released by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and MIT Sloan Management Review shows that among the 3,000 executives surveyed worldwide, more than 85% believe that AI will bring new competitive advantages to the company, but less than 39% of companies have formulated their own AI strategies. Although the penetration rate of generative AI is far faster than any previous technology, its significant leap in development speed often overwhelms decision makers. On the other hand, the huge investment in the AI ​​industry may have an impact on existing business processes and talent teams, which has strengthened the wait-and-see mentality of enterprises.

Starting from the market and consumer side, it may help companies better understand and control this surging AI wave. For example, how deep is Chinese consumers' understanding of AI, how much are they accepting AI, and what are the barriers to their acceptance of AI? These questions have not been quantitatively answered and analyzed in more depth. BCG's related research can help Chinese companies better understand consumers' expectations of AI and help companies seize opportunities in the new landscape of the AI ​​era.

Chinese consumers are at the forefront of the world in terms of their knowledge of generative AI, and they also have high expectations for AI, which has led to the widespread application of AI in the Chinese market. BCG has drawn a user portrait of generative AI in China, and based on the emerging needs in different scenarios, it helps companies think about the direction of future demand extension and the business model of generative AI in enterprise applications.

AI highly penetrates Chinese consumers

Generative AI is neither a product that suddenly appeared out of nowhere nor the whole of artificial intelligence. Instead, it is a major breakthrough in the development of artificial intelligence with the maturity of technologies such as algorithms, data and computing power. Marked by the sudden appearance of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, ultra-large-scale, ultra-multi-parameter deep neural networks (large models) continue to demonstrate amazing intelligence levels. Generative AI has quickly penetrated and attracted a lot of investment. Various large model companies have made great progress in the competition, and related industrial chains such as AI infrastructure, AI applications and cloud computing have been initially formed.

Compared with previous generations of general-purpose technologies, generative AI has achieved large-scale penetration in just 10 months, far exceeding the 37 years of electricity and the 17 years of the Internet. BCG's research shows that global consumers have a high level of awareness of generative AI, and Chinese consumers are among the top in 21 countries. In the dissemination of short video platforms, the awareness rate of ChatGPT has reached 86%, exceeding markets such as the United States, Japan and France. Among the 3,000 Chinese consumers surveyed by BCG, more than 80% have an understanding of generative AI, and 44% have used generative AI or its related functions.

From the perspective of population stratification, the population that recognizes and uses generative AI is relatively young, has relatively high incomes and is highly educated. For example, the recognition and usage rates of Generation Z and Generation Y are ahead of Generation X, and the recognition rate of the wealthy is as high as 99%, far higher than the 73% of the mainstream middle-income population.

Interestingly, although the popularity of certain products is often led by first-tier cities, this regional difference has been greatly reduced in the recognition and use of generative AI. The recognition rate is generally high. In terms of usage rate, new first-tier cities are actually ahead.

One of the reasons why the awareness rate is generally high at all city levels is that Chinese consumers have a wide range of information sources for AI. As two major mainstream channels, short video platforms and social networks play a key role in popularizing AI knowledge and promoting AI applications. At the same time, the behavioral path of professional information platforms cannot be ignored, which has jointly promoted the rapid popularization and popularization of generative AI among the public.

Among 21 countries around the world, Chinese consumers have the highest expectations for AI. Overall, Chinese consumers have a positive attitude towards generative AI. Despite concerns, they believe and expect AI to bring positive changes to their work and lives.

Emphasis on both life and work

Unlike most previous technology applications that were limited to certain areas of life or work, one of the advantages of generative AI or large model products is its strong versatility. BCG's research found that more than half (53%) of generative AI users actively try this technology in both personal life and work. Among users who adopt AI in the work environment, the proportion of Generation Y and people with a higher education background is significantly higher than others; in life scenarios, people with middle incomes and above have become the main force in adopting this technology.

Further exploring users' dual-scenario application habits, BCG found a consistent behavior pattern: about 60% of users use it at least once a week. In addition, most users are not limited to a single product, but tend to explore and use three or more different types of generative AI products to help their lives and work.

From an overall mental perspective, consumers in both scenarios expressed their expectations for the application of artificial intelligence in daily life, looking forward to AI helping individuals achieve a leap in creativity and expression, gaining precious time freedom through efficient task processing, and enjoying tailored product and service recommendations and experiences.

The survey also revealed the complexity of consumers' mentality. Some users expressed worries and ambivalence, with several core concerns: first, deep concern about personal data security and privacy protection, second, worry that the actual results of technology applications will be unsatisfactory, and fear of excessive dependence on AI tools, thereby weakening people's autonomy.

BCG research shows that in life scenarios, information retrieval, personalized recommendations and automatic control are the most commonly used functions of generative AI. The most frequently mentioned AI products in China are Wenyan Yixin, Tongyi Qianwen, ByteDance Doubao and Tencent Yuanbao (in no particular order), and the functions of these products are widely recognized and accepted by Chinese consumers. If the degree of expectation and willingness to pay are used as the horizontal and vertical axes, a matrix of AI demand in life scenarios can be formed. Applications with high survey results in both dimensions belong to high demand potential. These include content creation, automatic control (such as smart homes and autonomous driving) and professional services (course tutoring and medical diagnosis, etc.).

In the work scenario, there is a type of corporate people who are involved in a lot of content creation in their daily work. The powerful content generation capabilities of AI applications can greatly improve their work efficiency, lower the threshold for content creation, and allow them to focus on more critical work. The functions currently most commonly used by users are information retrieval (AI enhanced search), information summary (meeting summary, data summary) and professional services (health diagnosis, etc.). Among them, information summary, professional services, and newly added content creation (copywriting generation, precision delivery), automatic control (supply chain optimization, store operation management) will be the functions that users are looking forward to in the future. These generative AI products with high demand potential will improve employee work efficiency from different dimensions.

In summary, generative AI, as a technological revolution across life and work scenarios, is driving innovation and efficiency upgrades with unprecedented force. Although Chinese consumers are generally optimistic, especially in the work field, they are also alert to potential challenges in the future, especially in terms of data security and potential risks of over-reliance.

Business transformation will lead the next wave

After more than a year of rapid development and widespread consumer adoption, generative AI is becoming increasingly popular and has the potential to reshape the way we live and work, bringing disruptive impacts.

In life scenarios, generative AI will drive "personality and creativity". For example, AI is accelerating the transformation of various media from mass to personalization and customization, which will have a profound impact on industries such as content creation, advertising and marketing.

In the workplace, generative AI will drive “efficiency and effectiveness.” More and more people are getting used to using AI-assisted tools at work, and the development of intelligent agents will allow every worker to have their own personal assistant.

What kind of impact will generative AI, which can improve personal efficiency, have on the entire organization and business? BCG expects the value it generates to double. First, generative AI is expected to enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises. AI can already take over a large number of standardized and repetitive content creation tasks, and help employees focus on more strategic and creative work, thereby activating productivity and improving the efficiency and innovation capabilities of the entire team. Enterprises can use AI to generate personalized content, optimize product design, or provide value-added services based on generative AI to further enhance their market competitiveness and increase their attractiveness to customers.

"The potential of generative AI goes far beyond the current application of general-purpose tools, and it is crucial for corporate management to recognize this." BCG concluded that personal efficiency improvement is just the "tip of the iceberg" of this round of artificial intelligence revolution. Enterprises can deploy general-purpose tools of generative AI in their daily work to achieve productivity enhancement and improvement to a certain extent. At the same time, it is also necessary to realize that when general-purpose technology reaches popular use, it is difficult for it to bring competitive advantages to a single enterprise. With the widespread availability of large model products, it is difficult for enterprises to stand out in the market competition with current general-purpose solutions alone. Therefore, enterprises need to go beyond the application of general-purpose tools and turn to deep customization strategies to design and develop generative AI applications closely around their own unique business needs and operating models.

The key differentiation advantage of leading enterprises in the future does not lie in whether they can apply general AI technology, but in whether they can build customized AI products based on their own business models to help solve complex problems of enterprises, and to improve organizational capabilities end-to-end. Only in this way can we achieve a double breakthrough in efficiency and effectiveness and truly seize the core advantages brought by the generative AI wave.

■ Our reporter Qin Zhigang