Global spending on cloud infrastructure services rose in the latest quarter by over 20%. Only about one in four AI tests in the Asia/Pacific are moving on to full production. Cybersecurity is about to become preemptive. And the rise of AI has many U.S. adults concerned.
That’s the latest from leading IT researchers, market watchers and pollsters. And here’s your research roundup.
Cloud Infrastructure Spending: Up, Up and Away
Global spending on cloud infrastructure services rose 22% year-on-year in this year’s second quarter (April, May and June), reaching a total of $95.3 billion, according to market watcher Canalys. This marks the sector’s fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth topping 20%.
All that demand was driven by three main forces, Canalys says: AI consumption, revived legacy migrations, and cloud-native scale-ups.
Also during Q2, the Big Three cloud providers—Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure—held their collective 65% share of the market. What’s more, customer spending with the Big Three increased in the quarter by 27% year-on-year, Canalys says.
Customer demand for AI is shifting, too. “An increasing number of enterprises are seeking the capability to switch between different AI models based on specific business requirements,” says Canalys senior analyst Yi Zhang. Their goal: an optimal balance of performance, cost and application fit.
AI PoC to Production? Not Many Yet
Organizations in the Asia/Pacific region are experimenting with AI, but fewer than one in four of their AI applications (23%) have moved from proof-of-concept (PoC) to production, finds industry analyst IDC.
One result, says IDC researcher Abhishek Kumar: “Many Asian businesses are reassessing how to launch and scale AI.”
Part of this reassessment involves a shift to new AI approaches based on end-to-end platforms. However, moving to these approaches won’t be easy, Kumar says. Organizations need to understand not only each vendor’s approach, but also how the proposed systems align with their own organization’s requirements.
IDC recommends that organizations start thinking of their AI suppliers as partners, not just providers. Though we’ve heard that before, this time it’s different: AI is likely to dramatically reshape entire workflows.
Cybersecurity’s Future: Preemptive
Detection and response are currently the main cybersecurity techniques, but that’s about to change, predicts Gartner. The research firm believes that by 2030, over half of all cybersecurity spending worldwide will instead go to technologies that are preemptive.
“Preemptive cybersecurity will soon be “the new gold standard,” asserts Gartner VP Carl Manion.
Why the shift? Because detection/response-based cybersecurity will no longer be enough to keep assets safe from AI-enabled attackers, Manion says.
As part of this shift, organizations will move away from one-size-fits-all security solutions, instead adopting approaches that are more targeted. These could include security systems for specific verticals, such as healthcare and finance; specific application types, such as industrial control systems; and specific threat actor methods, such as supply-chain attacks.
Preemptive cybersec could also include what are known as autonomous cyber immune systems (ACIS). Like a biological immune system, an ACIS will be able to both detect attacks and fight them off.
Resistance to this shift will be futile, Manion says. Organizations that stick with older detection and response security systems, will be exposing their products, services and customers to what he calls “a new, rapidly escalating level of danger.”
AI has U.S. Adults Fretting
The rise of artificial intelligence has U.S. adults concerned, finds a new poll by Pew Research. A majority of respondents say they believe the rising use of AI will worsen people’s ability to think creatively, form meaningful relationships, make difficult decisions and solve problems.
The poll, conducted by Pew in June, reached over 5,000 adults who live in the United States. Pew released the poll results earlier this month.
Overall, more than half the survey respondents (57%) rated the societal risks of AI as high. Only one in four (25%) said the benefits of AI are high.
Other findings include:
- Creative thinking: In the poll, more than half the respondents (53%) said increased use of AI will worsen people’s ability to think creatively. Only 16% thought increased use of AI would improve this ability. Another 16% said it would be neither better nor worse, and a final 16% wasn’t sure.
- Relationships: Exactly half the respondents (50%) believe increased use of AI will worsen people’s ability to form meaningful relationships. Only 5% believe wider AI use would improve this ability. A quarter (25%) thought there would be no change, while one in five (20%) weren’t sure.
- Decisions: More than a third of respondents (40%) believe increased use of AI will worsen our ability to make difficult decisions. Fewer than one in five (19%) expect AI to improve this ability. About the same number (20%) foresee no change, and the same percentage said they weren’t sure.
- Problem-solving: This was a closer contest. Over a third of respondents (38%) said wider use of AI will worsen our ability to solve problems, while more than a quarter (29%) said it would improve this ability. Fifteen percent expect no change, and 17% weren’t sure.
- Deepfakes: Over three-quarters of respondents (76%) said it’s important to be able to detect whether a picture, video or text was created by AI. But over half of all (53%) also said they’re not confident they can make these detections.
These concerns aside, the AI market still has plenty of room for growth. A recent forecast from Grand View Research has global AI sales rising from about $280 billion last year to nearly $3.5 trillion in 2033. That would represent an impressive 8-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just over 30%.