Retool’s State of AI in Production Survey Reveals That Collective Business Transformation Remains to Be Seen
17 Junio 2024 - 10:21AM
Business Wire
Retool, the leading platform for internal software development,
today released the findings from its second State of AI in
Production survey. Retool is used by thousands of companies from
Fortune 10s to growth-stage startups to build customized internal
applications that solve business-critical problems. In September
2023, Retool launched Retool AI, which enables developers to
design, develop, and deploy AI-powered applications and workflows
quickly in a single platform.
Sociologists have dubbed this decade the “age of AI,” and an
estimated 55% of Americans are “regularly” using it. Yet, in
polling 730 technology workers, Retool found that while AI is
bearing significant ROI for individuals (with 85.5% of respondents
that use AI tools saying it positively impacted productivity),
businesses as a whole haven’t quite found their footing when it
comes to leveraging AI collectively. The data also revealed higher
expectations for AI’s utility in internal—versus external—use
cases, and mixed feelings on whether AI will replace workers.
“AI has transformative potential—but the hype around it often
overshadows the necessary hard work of identifying and building
viable use cases. Similarly, fear mongering around whether AI will
replace jobs can prevent companies from using it to unlock
productivity and build high-quality software,” said David Hsu, CEO
and founder of Retool. “There is a lot of excitement around AI, but
actually applying it in your business—and driving business value
out of it—is not simple. Developers are the key here—wrangling AI
to be consistent, reliable, and requires core software engineering
concepts (e.g. testing, observability, etc.). And we need to move
far beyond the chat UI, which is fully reactive and difficult to
derive value from. Enterprises will need to invest in software
engineering talent and custom software in order to stay competitive
and leverage the transformative potential of AI.”
In fact, while public narratives speculate about the impact on
jobs, in practice, some respondents say the real risks are not
between humans and the machine (AI, in this case), but between
those that use the machine and those that do not, both humans and
businesses. For business leaders, this could mean that broader
company-wide AI initiatives will become a competitive advantage
versus a catalyst for employee fear of replacement. As the economy
continues to digest the impact of a non-ZIRP reality, businesses
are more conscious than ever of bottom line, creating opportunities
for those who are able to deploy AI to drive significant
operational efficiencies.
Still respondents, who include software developers, business and
engineering leaders, executives, product managers, designers, and
more, did allow some job risk. 45.7% of respondents suggested
entry-level ICs were most at risk of replacement by AI. (This
underscores findings from our 2023 report: C-suite and VPs had the
biggest expectation of AI changing—not necessarily replacing—their
roles; a year on, many seem to view it as a tool rather than a
threat.)
The survey also found that daily use of AI increases exactly
linearly with seniority: C-suite respondents were the biggest daily
users of AI at ~72%, begging the question of how leadership can
lead by example when it comes to AI adoption.
Additional findings of the survey include:
- This year’s survey saw a decrease in those secretly using AI at
work. More than a quarter (27.3%) of respondents using AI at work
are doing so in secret, down from last year’s 34.4%.
- Almost three-quarters of respondents use copilots and other AI
tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) in their work at least every
week, with 56.4% nearing daily use. Product and Engineering are
leading daily adoption at 68% and 62.6% respectively.
- When asked what respondents would change in their AI stack,
41.2% of respondents said they would change something in the pipes
(e.g., the tools/frameworks used for data transformation and
chaining).
- Respondents shared that their companies are deploying different
approaches to AI hardware and resource allocation. A minority of
those surveyed own or operate GPUs themselves (13.2%), with the
rest split between renting from major cloud providers (38.9%) and
emerging providers (15.8%).
- A slight majority of respondents (53.7%) say operating costs of
GPUs (rented or owned) are worth the investment.
- Only 8.5% of respondents reported seeing more promise for AI in
external use cases, versus 57.9% equal promise for both internal
and external, and 33.7% more promise for internal.
- Despite the prevailing narratives suggesting AI is taking over
the world, 61.7% of respondents said they are only in early innings
with their AI internal use cases.
- The proliferation of the chatbot is well-established, with over
half of respondents (55.1%) saying they have either built an
AI-powered chatbot or their company has. Fully 80% of respondents
said they expect chatbots to remain useful for at least a few
years, but their permeance may fade as other use cases become more
prominent. (And some respondents reported feeling “fatigue” over
their ubiquity.)
About Retool
Retool is the leading development platform for building business
software. Thousands of teams at companies like Amazon, DoorDash,
and Brex use custom-built Retool apps to solve their biggest
business challenges. To learn more, visit retool.com.
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