Chinese firms to increase investment in responsible AI

Chinese companies plan to invest more in responsible artificial intelligence measures as the responsible development and use of data and AI becomes a critical enabler for organizations to gain a competitive edge through innovation, according to a report released by global consultancy Accenture.

About 47 percent of Chinese companies see responsible AI as a strategic tool for AI-related revenue growth, the report said. Responsible AI refers to taking intentional actions to design, deploy and use AI to create value and build trust by protecting against the potential risks of AI.

Only 31 percent of Chinese companies are currently investing more than 20 percent of their AI budget on responsible AI measures. However, 83 percent of Chinese companies plan to allocate more than 20 percent of their AI budget toward such measures in the next two years, the report said.

Companies across the Asia-Pacific are accelerating AI adoption to drive productivity and revenue growth, and 9 out of 10 organizations plan to use agentic AI models in the next three years.

However, organizations are yet to operationalize the responsible AI capabilities that are needed to scale AI and realize its full potential, and only 1 percent of organizations report being prepared for the risks related to compliance, privacy and data among other AI risks.

While overall, more Asian companies are on the right path in terms of both organizational maturity and operational maturity (20 percent) but in China, the companies on right path are fewer (13 percent).

More efforts are needed to establish AI governance and principles, conduct AI risk assessments, enable systemic responsible AI testing, as well as implement ongoing monitoring and compliance, Accenture said.

"As businesses across the Asia-Pacific region deal with change and disruption, they recognize that success lies in embracing flexibility and finding new sources of efficiency and growth by using technology," said Ryoji Sekido, CEO of Accenture Asia Oceania, adding they have increased their investments in AI, but the majority are finding it difficult to extract the right value from this investment.

"To effectively scale AI, particularly generative and agentic AI, businesses need to invest in building trust among their people and their customers, ensure they have the right data foundation, and operationalize responsible AI. That's the only way of creating long term, sustainable value," Sekido said.