Dive Brief:
- Businesses are universally embracing AI, but many of them just aren’t seeing the everyday value. Less than half of organizations say AI is essential to their core work, even though 98% have already adopted AI, according to a study of more than 1,500 decision-makers by software company Aptean published Tuesday.
- The top barriers for measurable AI value are data quality and access, workflow integration and governance, per the report. Vertical AI — AI tailored to specific industries — is emerging as a potential solution, said TVN Reddy, CEO of Aptean, which offers its own industry-focused software.
- The channel will be critical to bridging the value gap, Reddy said. “If we go back to 40 years ago, when software came out, somebody had to translate the value,” Reddy told Channel Dive. “Humans had to help humans adopt the software — that’s where the channel came out of. We’re at the same place. AI is super powerful, but someone has to help companies translate power to the businesses. That’s why we’re having our channel help implement our vertical platform.”
Dive Insight:
General-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are trained on broad datasets, and they can sometimes lack relevance for corporate users. On the other hand, AI models specialized for industries such as healthcare or finance are trained on sector-specific data, and can be more experienced with sector rules and workflows. To maximize return on investment, vertical AI is more effective, according to Reddy.
“There’s a gap in what people think AI is,” he said. “Every month there’s a new LLM. But how do we bring the power of that AI to a company? That’s still missing.”
The Aptean report measured performance across key operational metrics, including customer retention, revenue growth and employee productivity, over one year. Aptean found that companies using both vertical, industry-specific AI and general-purpose LLMs in tandem outperformed those relying solely on general-purpose tools on all performance indicators measured.
“That translation layer of bringing the LLMs to the business is where the vertical AI platforms like us have to close the gap,” Reddy said. “Over the next few months and quarters, I think we'll start to see more and more gap fillers there.”
Reddy added that the businesses he works with are still optimistic about AI, despite shortages in measurable value. According to the report, 82% of organizations say AI offers clear value that hasn't been fully realized yet.
Reddy is also hopeful about the future of AI.
“Talking to customers that deploy AI properly, especially the ones we work with closely in deploying AI — whether it’s AI we built for them or helping them solve custom problems — they're seeing immense returns,” Reddy said. “And it’s only going to get better and better.”
