Three in four business professionals in the tech sector (74%) believe that the results of the upcoming US election will have a significant impact on the US tech industry’s ability to stay ahead or relevant when compare to their international competitors.
Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) has recently released its latest technology pulse poll, which examines how tech ecosystem professionals think the upcoming US election will impact the technology industry.
The poll of 500 technology industry professionals, which was carried out in October of 2024, reveals that respondents expect the outcome of the US election to “impact artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, initial public offering (IPO) activity, innovation as well as overall international competitiveness.”
The update also noted that tech industry professionals stated that they intend to significantly increase AI investments in the next 12 months, although they indicate that “future progress” toward AI growth may be contingent on the outcome of the elections.
Specific focus areas of AI investment include hiring AI-specific talent, back-office functions and cybersecurity.
As companies look to further develop AI initiatives, there will be a growing need to hire AI-specific talent, while also “restructuring and/or reducing legacy job functions in exchange for other in-demand functions.”
Nearly three-fourths (74%) of technology industry executives think the results of the upcoming US election will have a major impact “on the US tech sector’s ability to stay ahead of global competition in the next two to four years.”
Notably, they think that the outcome of the US election would most impact the following areas of regulation: cybersecurity/data protections, AI and machine learning, and user data and content oversight.
Regardless of the presidential outcome, technology companies will continue “significant investment in AI.”
But all eyes will be on how election results impact the direction of fiscal, tax, tariff, anti-trust and regulatory policies and the resulting impact “on interest rates, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and AI regulations.”
Other key findings from the EY survey include:
Tech leaders double down on AI
The majority of technology leaders (82%) say their company plans to “increase AI investments by 50% or more in the next year.”
The key areas where these leaders report plans to “focus AI investment over the next year include AI-specific talent (60%), cybersecurity (49%) and back-office functions (45%).”
Size hinders AI speed
Tech leaders say around 63% of their organization’s AI initiatives “have successfully moved to the implementation phase.”
However, organizations that employ more employees report less success “moving AI initiatives to the implementation phase.”
Among those who indicate that fewer than half of their AI initiatives have been “implemented successfully, data quality issues (40%) and talent/skills shortages (34%) are the most common reasons for AI initiatives failing to progress to the next stage.”
The search for AI talent accelerates
As companies continue to integrate more AI into their businesses, the need to “hire AI-specific talent will increase, as well as the need to restructure or reduce headcount from legacy job functions.”
In fact, 80% of tech leaders surveyed said they foresee reducing or “restructuring headcount from legacy functions to other in-demand functions, and 77% anticipate an increase in hiring for AI-specific talent.”
Additionally, 40% of technology leaders say their company plans to “focus next year’s AI investments on human capital efforts such as training.”
Survey Methodology:
EY US commissioned Atomik Research in order to conduct an online survey of “503 US business leaders working within the technology industry.”
Participants held roles similar or equivalent to “director, vice president, senior vice president, executive vice president, C-suite or president.”
Business leaders surveyed worked at organizations “consisting of 5,000 or more employees.”
The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points with “a confidence level of 95%.”
Fieldwork took place between Sept 27 and Oct 7, 2024.
