Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) aren’t being widely adopted yet, but many firms are looking to change this.

In May 2018, Forrester Consulting surveyed 433 decision-makers in Western Europe and the US who were knowledgeable about the procurement of technology at their company. Nearly half said they plan to make a major investment in AI within the next year.

Because people want to give the appearance that they're not missing out on the next big thing, it's difficult to know for sure how many of these respondents will follow through on their pledge to invest in AI. But they are at least showing that the interest is there.

This result is similar to a February 2018 survey of 679 US senior-level decision-makers conducted by PointSource. In that survey, one-third of respondents were considering possible AI vendors, and another 40% were in the discovery phase. A YouAppi poll of 425 global digital marketers released in March found that 36% of respondents plan to invest in AI this year.

According to a BrightEdge survey of 500 marketers worldwide in February, the chief benefit of AI is that it can provide a better understanding of the customer.

But BrightEdge also found that the biggest barrier to AI adoption for marketers was applying it into their workflow.