Correction: Because of incorrect data initially provided in the Narrative Science report, a previous version of this article reported that 56% of survey respondents were planning to deploy AI technologies within the next two years.

Dive Brief:

Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is on the rise, with more than half of organizations surveyed reporting plans to deploy AI technologies by 2018, according to a new report from Narrative Science and the National Business Research Institute.

While just 38% of the survey group uses AI technologies today, 26% say they plan to implement AI within the next two years, the report found.

Predictive analytics is currently the most popular AI technology in the enterprise, with almost 60% of respondents reporting that they are now using that technology.

Dive Insight:

The study also found that a lack of data science talent is currently the biggest barrier to adopting AI, with 59% of respondents naming it as the primary obstacle to getting value out of the Big Data available to them. A recent study from Square Root showed that despite spending up to 20 hours per week collecting, analyzing and reporting on data, nearly one in three companies fail to act on their collected data.

The Narrative Science study also found that 61% of the respondents who have an innovation strategy are using AI to identify opportunities in data that would be otherwise missed.

"One of the major compelling differences in this year’s survey compared to last year is the changing perception of AI technologies," said Stuart Frankel, CEO of Narrative Science in an an announcement. "This year, the conversations pertaining to AI are about the power of the partnership. There is growing awareness that AI technologies, when combined with human skills, is optimal because it produces results reaching beyond what either group could achieve alone."

A Bank of America report citing IDC research recently predicted that the AI industry will grow to $70 billion by 2020 from just $8.2 billion in 2013.