A recent survey of 13,000 consumers in 13 countries found that more than 20 percent of respondents said they spend up to half of their leisure time playing video games. Conducted by market research firm GMI, the poll found 30 percent of those surveyed in India and 20 percent of respondents in Mexico spend up to half of their leisure time playing games, compared with respondents from the U.S. (24%) and Germany (24%). Eighty percent of all consumers surveyed said they believe people will spend more time playing video games over the next ten years. "Relatively unexploited markets in Latin America and in Asia such as India offer new growth to the videogame industry," said analyst Billy Pidgeon. While 58 percent of consumers overall don't think games are a good form of social activity, this thinking is reversed in India and Mexico, where 4 percent and 64 percent of those surveyed, respectively, play games to socialize -- compared with other nations like the Netherlands and France, where only 14 percent and 20 percent of respondents, respectively, said they played games socially.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly become the defining force in business technology development, but integrating AI into applications remains a formidable challenge. According to a recent Gartner survey, 77 percent of engineering leaders identify AI integration in apps as a major hurdle for their organizations. As demand for AI-powered solutions accelerates across every industry, understanding the tools, the barriers, and the opportunities is essential for business and technology leaders seeking to evolve. The Gartner survey highlights a key trend: while AI’s potential is widely recognized, the path to useful integration is anything but straightforward. IT leaders cite complexities in embedding AI models into existing software, managing data pipelines, ensuring security, and maintaining compliance as persistent obstacles. These challenges are compounded by a shortage of skilled AI engineers and the rapid evolution of AI technologies, which can outpace organizational readiness and...