Organizations that are adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies in finance and operations are growing their annual profits 80 percent faster, according to a new study from Enterprise Strategy Group and Oracle.

The global study, Emerging Technologies: The competitive edge for finance and operations, surveyed 700 finance and operations leaders across 13 countries and found that emerging technologies—AI, Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, digital assistants—have passed the adoption tipping point, exceed expectations, and create significant competitive advantage for organizations.

Organizations embracing emerging technologies in finance have reduced errors by 37 percent on average. 72 percent of organizations using AI have a better understanding of overall business performance. 83 percent of executives believe AI will completely automate financial close processes within the next five years. Digital assistants increase productivity by 36 percent and accelerate financial analysis by 38 percent.

AI, IoT, blockchain and digital assistants are helping organizations improve accuracy, speed and insight in operations and the supply chain, and respondents expect additional business value as blockchain applications become mainstream.

“AI, IoT, blockchain and digital assistant capabilities enable organizations to innovate faster, creating significant competitive advantage and driving increased profit for companies embracing those technologies more decisively than their competitors,” said Juergen Lindner, senior vice president, SaaS product marketing, Oracle. “The research finds that these technologies have become mainstream and organizations that sit on the sidelines risk their business relevance. To help our customers outpace change and consequently the competition, we continuously infuse emerging technologies directly into the business processes to ensure they can harness these business-changing technologies.”

Organizations using AI in their supply chains have seen order fulfillment reduction by an average of 6.7 business days. Applying IoT data to supply chain processes helps organizations reduce fulfillment errors by 26 percent on average. AI is helping organizations reduce fulfillment errors by 25 percent, stock-outs by 30 percent, and manufacturing downtime by 26 percent.

68 percent of respondents see increased business intelligence as a key advantage of emerging technology in supply chain operations. Emerging technologies have become mainstream and 84 percent of organizations are using at least one of these technologies (AI, IoT, blockchain, digital assistants) in production.The vast majority of organizations have now adopted emerging technologies and early adopters (those using three or more solutions) are seeing the greatest benefit and are more likely to outperform competitors.

“This study makes it clear that emerging technologies have passed the trial phase and are moving toward a state of widespread adoption,” said John McKnight, EVP of Research and Analyst Services of Enterprise Strategy Group. “The business case for these technologies in areas such as finance and operations is maturing at a rapid pace—and in most cases benefits exceed expectations. Furthermore, the research shows that emerging technologies complement and amplify the benefits of one another, which underscores the importance of taking a holistic approach.”