Accelerating Innovation with Cloud and AI (Guest blog from PLANEKS)

Author: Iryna Mahalias, Co-Founder & CEO, PLANEKS

I’m Irina, a CEO at PLANEKS, and today, I’d like to discuss the value of cloud computing for businesses and how it opens prospects for adopting Artificial Intelligence. As a forward-thinking team of tech-savvy experts, we recognize the value that AI can bring to a broad spectrum of industries.

Our core focus at PLANEKS is helping startups and SMEs adopt and leverage technology like AI to drive growth and productivity. Nonetheless, accessing and implementing such a technology can be complex without the proper, flexible infrastructure and resources. In these terms, cloud computing is beneficial, offering scalable solutions that facilitate the integration and deployment of AI across various market sectors.

Let’s discuss how the cloud helps access the potential of AI, elevate productivity, and explore practical use cases in different sectors.

The Role of Cloud in Facilitating AI Adoption

Cloud computing is the foundation for using AI in businesses. It ensures companies have the tools to develop, deploy, and use AI applications. With cloud platforms, companies can get scalable computing power and storage space without buying expensive equipment from the outset. According to my team's experience, using cloud resources makes it easier for any business to try out AI solutions and be more innovative in the market.

Boosting Productivity Through Cloud-Based AI Solutions

Many of the PLANEKS partners claim that the core benefit of integrating cloud and AI is the significant boost in productivity across various functions. The valuable improvements brought by AI-powered solutions that streamline operations, enhance decision-making processes, and analyze large datasets and actionable insights are the delegation of day-to-day tasks and the ability of employees to focus on high-value tasks. As for customer service, AI-powered chatbots deployed on cloud platforms can efficiently handle routine requests within any domain, decreasing the workloads from live agents to handle more complex challenges and, as a result, elevating overall service efficiency and customer satisfaction. 

These advantages have facilitated an active adoption of the cloud within UK businesses. In fact, according to Statista, in 2020, revenue generated from public cloud services in the UK, which dominates the cloud computing market, reached approximately $12 billion. This covers roughly 4% of the global public cloud market share. In addition, each of these providers has established partnerships with prominent UK businesses. For instance, AWS serves clients such as BP and Deliveroo, while Microsoft works with companies like Rolls-Royce and Centria, and Google Cloud spans Sky TV and HSBC among its clientele. 

In 2021, AWS was the primary choice for cloud infrastructure by 68% of respondents. Google and Microsoft Azure ranked second and third, closely behind. On the other hand, medium-sized and smaller companies tend to favour VMware, IBM, and OVH for their cloud infrastructure needs. Additionally, Software as a Service has become the leading segment in the UK public cloud market, generating around $8 billion in revenue in 2020. Over the years, cloud service usage has elevated in the UK, particularly among younger demographics

As for AI adoption, according to the Gov.UK insights, 15% of all UK businesses have implemented at least one AI technology, comprising 432,000 companies in total, and have invested roughly £16.7 billion. The average spend was £9,500 per small, £380,000 per medium, and £1.6 million per large business. Currently, 2% of enterprises are piloting AI, and 10% plan to integrate AI in the future, amounting to 62,000 and 292,000 companies, respectively. Furthermore, adopting AI tends to increase in parallel with business size: 68% of large, 34% of medium-sized, and 15% of small companies have implemented at least one AI technology. The predominant part of UK businesses is small-sized, covering a 15% adoption rate of AI in the UK market. 

Approximately 20% of large market players, 8% of medium firms, and 3% of small organisations currently employ four or five AI-based technologies to boost their workflows. Big companies typically implement multiple solutions in their business operations. 

The investments in AI are projected to reach between £27.2 billion and £35.6 billion by 2025, at a yearly rate of 10% - 16%. Expenditures are forecasted to rise from £16.7 billion to £30.3 billion at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.6%. Analyzing the investments from 2020 to 2040, outgoings on Al technologies grew from £16.7 billion to £83.5 billion in 2040 at a CAGR of 8.4% in the key scenario of Gov.UK. 

Spending on AI-related labour is predicted to rise from £80.2 billion to £103.2 billion by 2025, with annual growth rates of approximately 11.7% to 17.5%. In the nominal term, labour-related investments for AI development, operation, or maintenance are forecasted to increase from £46.0 billion in 2020 to £304.2 billion by 2040 at a CAGR of 9.9%.

Key Use Cases Across Different Industries

As a technical vendor specializing in web software development, our team actively employs cloud technologies, delivering various benefits to our clients. They gain access to scalable resources, increased flexibility and data security, and reduced infrastructure and maintenance costs.

When it comes to AI, the myth of its inaccessibility to small and medium-sized businesses has been dispelled. Today, every company, whether a sole proprietorship or a government agency, can implement AI and gain significant advantages. This covers increased productivity, automation of repetitive tasks, improved customer service quality, and reduced operational costs. From practical instances, some of our clients have increased their profitability by streamlining processes with AI, establishing new revenue streams, and significantly reducing the time spent on task execution. These benefits have allowed our partners to accelerate the Return on Investment while gaining market prosperity and competitiveness.

A combination of cloud computing and AI is guaranteed to enhance how organizations access and benefit from new technologies, offering tangible productivity gains and innovation across various industries. Cloud platforms' inherent scalability, flexibility, and power allow businesses to accelerate AI adoption, streamline operations, unlock new growth opportunities, and gain sustainable success.