Conversational AI Emerges as a Key Enabling
Component for Digital Transformation Post-COVID-19

Despite the economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, adoption rates for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine
learning (ML) technologies in enterprise organizations remained constant over the past year. According to 451 Research's Voice
of the Enterprise: AI & Machine Learning Use Cases 2021 study, the pandemic had uneven effects across the globe, with more
organizations in Western Europe slowing down their current AI initiatives than those in the US, with similar geographical differences
evident when it comes to the pandemic's effect on plans for investment.
Nonetheless, our research shows steadfast adoption overall. Nearly three in five (59%) enterprises surveyed have ML initiatives
either in production or proof of concept. Furthermore, 95% of enterprises consider AI technology to be important to their digital
transformation efforts, while 65% of the enterprises with AI in production consider these initiatives 'very important' to their digital
transformation strategies.