A survey of business leaders by DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) and Vanson Bourne, an independent research firm, reveals that 86 percent of IT and business decision makers believe that being able to predict and prevent future challenges with applications could be a “game changer” for their organizations. This could be achieved via automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and lean processes.

Respondents said investing in automation of applications management would have numerous benefits, including improved customer experience (49 percent), higher customer retention (46 percent) and greater customer satisfaction (46 percent). And 78 percent of respondents agree that without systematic automation, achieving zero application downtime would be a “distant dream.”

The findings provide a view of the attitudes, experiences and expectations of 500 IT and business decision makers on the impact of application performance in the digital economy. The survey was completed in four markets — the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and the United States — and respondents represented sectors including banking, insurance, healthcare, and travel and transportation.

Despite the digital transformation opportunities, only 36 percent of senior managers surveyed said their peers are completely accepting of new technologies such as AI and automation to improve applications quality. Additionally, respondents said that the top barriers to investing in automation were security risks (44 percent) and legacy technology hurdles (36 percent).

“Because legacy technologies can require so much of an organization’s resources, it is essential for organizations to establish a plan to simplify their existing IT structures and free up funds for automation and other digital technologies,” said Rick Sullivan, vice president of digital applications and testing, Application Services, DXC Technology. “We are committed to helping our clients optimize applications performance through AI, lean processes and automation to enable great customer experiences today and future growth opportunities.”

While 82 percent of respondents agree that companywide strategies to invest in new AI-driven technologies to transform applications management would provide significant competitive advantages for their organizations, only 29 percent said their organizations actually have such strategies.

The survey also revealed several key findings for specific industries:

• Insurance industry organizations are most likely (45 percent) to have implemented companywide strategies to transform the running and maintaining of legacy and digital applications. And they are increasing investment in new AI-driven technologies to enable the systematic automation of their application portfolios (28 percent).
• Travel and transportation organizations are the most likely to recognize the benefits of investing in systematic automation of applications management, largely for customer retention (59 percent) and improved customer experience (56 percent).
• Banking industry respondents said their organizations’ diverse application portfolios present challenges to implementing systematic application automation (39 percent).

To learn more about DXC Application Service Automation, visit dxc.technology/applications.