Gartner: China's COVID-19 policy adjustments will promote digitalization and AI applications

February 24, 2023 - The 2023 Gartner CIO and technology executive survey shows that the Chinese companies surveyed ranked digital transformation as their top priority. In the future, corresponding policy adjustments made in response to the uncertainty of the new coronavirus will become an important driver of digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Affected by the government’s anti-epidemic policies in the past three years and the severity of COVID-19 infection symptoms, people are more inclined to choose online business processes. This change will prompt corporate organizations to redesign business processes and operating models, reduce physical touch points and opportunities for people to gather offline, and ultimately accelerate China's digitalization process and the wider application of AI. To accelerate the adoption of AI, the use case prism in the figure below shows the prioritization of AI investments.

Gartner Prism

Online activities have become a future trend, not a short-term behavior

How to do it in a healthier and safer way Providing products and services to customers will soon become a key measure of customer satisfaction. The mutation or recurrence of the virus in the future may also have an impact on daily business operations, so only temporary or short-term digital smart solutions should no longer be adopted as in the past three years. Eventually, this ongoing impact will become the new normal. Organizations must adapt or even redesign business processes, decision-making processes, and work environments.

“Virtual first” or “digital first” will become a trend, not an option. Behind this trend, AI will play a key role in efficiently monitoring, verifying and coordinating all new business operations, and the data generated by these new digital solutions will in turn feed AI.

Automated and flexible production lines and operations are priority development goals to deal with the potential future impact of the new coronavirus

The uncertainty of the new coronavirus in the future will affect the production and customer interaction of labor-intensive industries. The operations of the industry bring greater risks, and policy adjustments brought about by this uncertainty will affect the decision-making of corporate leaders. The application of automation and AI will no longer be “optional” but “essential”. Enterprise organizations need to improve the intelligence of production scheduling, reduce reliance on people in the manufacturing process, and improve indicative decision-making capabilities.

Re-make the business case for AI applications rather than focusing primarily on short-term ROI and costs

In China, organizations should consider how people, including employees and customers, are responding to the coronavirus long-term attitude. People will increasingly expect more efficient and convenient digital solutions, and short-term return on investment will no longer be the main consideration. In addition, AI costs can be offset by the mitigation of risks from the impact of the new coronavirus and customer requirements for service continuity and reliability. Generally speaking, the level of digitalization and automation, as well as intelligent and flexible planning and scheduling capabilities, will become strategic development goals for enterprise organizations. These capabilities will give organizations an edge over their competitors in terms of reliability.

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