• Artificial Intelligence is the technology most leaders feel familiar with
• India has greatest appetite to increase technological investment

Mazars, the international audit and advisory firm, has announced the release of its new report Are you missing the Tech Train? Global investment and implementation surrounding transformative technologies. More than 600 C-suite executives based in six countries (China, France, Germany, India, the UK and the US) and working in different industries, sectors and organisation sizes share insight on these game-changing technologies, their investment appetites, the barriers they face to technological implementation and how to overcome them.

China and India lead, France and the UK Lag

Familiarity: Leaders in China are the most familiar with these five key technologies (79%), followed by Germany (71%), India (69%), the US (64%). France and the UK come bottom (53%, 44%.) AI is the technology most respondents feel familiar with.  

Implementation: China and India are the most likely to have implemented at least one of the technologies and share the highest adoption rates for all five technologies. France and UK are the least likely to have implemented any of the technologies.

Sector splits

Insurance and manufacturing are the top sectors where the five technologies have already been implemented. Leaders in the public sector were least likely to have implemented any of the five - 50% of respondents working in the public sector said "nothing is happening" with the five technologies.

Benefits and barriers

Cost savings (27%), business model transformation (26%) and improvements in quality (24%) are the top three expected benefits of the five technologies.

The most cited barriers globally to implementing technologies are: obtaining necessary financial resources (25%), finding talent and skills that can fully grasp and exploit the technology (23%) and market maturity (22%) - whether it's the right time for an organisation to adopt the technology or not.
Guillaume Devaux, Partner, head of Technology Sector at Mazars, comments: "Our findings show strong forward momentum in regard to these five game-changing technologies - with China and India leading the pack. Overall, familiarity levels are high, leaders see the impact these technologies can have, and they have plans to increase investment. But there are areas of concern and certain sectors and countries pale in comparison with others."

Devaux adds: "Leaders who think they're falling behind need to discover which technology will create significant competitive advantage for their organisation. They should remember that successful tech transformation journeys require broad backing - from a company's leadership and the team at large. Leaders may set the vision, but they must work with others to realise it."