Mentions of artificial intelligence within the filings of companies in the tech sector were 285% higher between July 2021 and June 2022 than in 2016, according to the latest analysis of data from GlobalData.
When tech companies publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports and other filings, GlobalData analyses the text and identifies individual sentences that relate to disruptive forces facing companies in the coming years. Artificial intelligence is one of these topics – companies that excel and invest in these areas are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.
To assess whether artificial intelligence is featuring more in the summaries and strategies of tech companies, two measures were calculated. Firstly, we looked at the percentage of companies which have mentioned artificial intelligence at least once in filings during the past twelve months – this was 81% compared to 47% in 2016. Secondly, we calculated the percentage of total analysed sentences that referred to artificial intelligence.
Of the 10 biggest employers in the tech sector, IBM was the company which referred to artificial intelligence the most between July 2021 and June 2022. GlobalData identified 283 artificial intelligence-related sentences in the United States-based company’s filings – 3.4% of all sentences. Hitachi mentioned artificial intelligence the second most – the issue was referred to in 1.3% of sentences in the company’s filings. Other top employers with high artificial intelligence mentions included Accenture, Capgemini and Infosys.
Across all tech companies the filing published in the second quarter of 2022 which exhibited the greatest focus on artificial intelligence came from SenseTime. Of the document’s 2,020 sentences, 170 (8.4%) referred to artificial intelligence.
This analysis provides an approximate indication of which companies are focusing on artificial intelligence and how important the issue is considered within the tech sector, but it also has limitations and should be interpreted carefully. For example, a company mentioning artificial intelligence more regularly is not necessarily proof that they are utilising new techniques or prioritising the issue, nor does it indicate whether the company’s ventures into artificial intelligence have been successes or failures.
GlobalData also categorises artificial intelligence mentions by a series of subthemes. Of these subthemes, the most commonly referred to topic in the second quarter of 2022 was ‘machine learning’, which made up 38% of all artificial intelligence subtheme mentions by tech companies.
Source: https://www.verdict.co.uk/filings-buzz-tracking-artificial-intelligence-mentions-in-the-tech-sector-2/
