Executives and engineers at technology companies around the world are optimistic about artificial intelligence and sustainability as broad concepts, but there is uncertainty around the best path forward to advance these initiatives within their companies.
Those revelations emerged from the 2024 Industrial Technology Index from TE Connectivity, a world leader in connectors and sensors. For its second annual report on the state of innovation, TE surveyed 1,000 people representing a wide range of industries in China, Germany, India, Japan and the United States.
"TE has devoted significant resources to sustainability and AI, and we know other companies are doing the same. We wanted to learn more about how these two megatrends are affecting the innovation process and, in turn, how innovation is driving them forward," said CEO Terrence Curtin. "What we found was that the leaders who set a company's goals and the engineers tasked with meeting these goals still have some work to do to align for success."
The survey's results make apparent the disconnect between leaders and engineers when it comes to rolling out artificial intelligence. Three-quarters of executives say that engineers are responsible for driving AI implementation. However, 68% of engineers wish that leadership would lay out a clearer plan for its implementation. When asked to peer into the near future, 79% of both engineers and executives expect their company to invest more in AI training over the next three years.
When responding to questions about sustainable practices at their companies, most engineers revealed a deep passion for the environment. Eighty-seven percent of engineers agree that it is personally important to them to support climate change solutions in their work. This sentiment is so deeply entrenched in the engineering community that 34% said they would leave their job if their company did not provide opportunities to support sustainable initiatives. Survey data indicates that executives need to do some more work to instill confidence in their engineering communities, as there is a five-point difference between the groups when asked if they were satisfied with their organization's sustainability plan.