How is AI impacting FDI attraction?

Generative AI is radically disrupting the marketing industry and represents a significant challenge and a paradigm shift for Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs). 

The 2024 State of Marketing Report by the AI Marketing Institute found that 66% of marketers said AI is either very important or critically important to their marketing success over the next 12 months.  

However, 67% identified a lack of education and training as a top barrier to AI adoption. This knowledge gap will become increasingly problematic for those who get left behind in the race to develop AI expertise.  

This raises three important questions: 

• What percentage of IPAs permit the use of Gen AI by their employees? 

• What percentage of these IPAs have Gen AI usage policies in place? 

• What percentage of IPAs provide FDI specific Gen AI education and training? 

Generative AI is a game-changer for Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) professionals.  

Gen AI is at the forefront of the fourth industrial revolution, empowering machines to understand, learn from, generate new content and interact in ways once exclusive to humans based on vast datasets.

The Gartner Hype Cycle for AI (2023) positioned prompt engineering at the peak of inflated expectations. It forecasts that prompt engineering will reach the final stage of the hype cycle called the plateau of productivity within two to five years.   

IPAs can leverage tech like Gen AI to leap ahead by identifying patterns, predicting trends, and personalising investor interactions at a scale and speed unattainable by humans alone. 

Gen AI is also sparking other fears from plagiarism and the generation of inaccurate, copyrighted, biased or prejudicial data to the inadvertent disclosure of commercially sensitive data.  

These issues highlight the importance of quality assurance and the need to develop AI Ethics Policies to reassure inward investors and stakeholders that this tech is being used responsibly. 

Gartner predicts that by 2027, more than 50% of the Gen AI models that enterprises use will be specific to either an industry or business function.

If the investment promotion industry proves consistent with this Gartner prediction most IPAs will be using domain specific Gen AI models both internally and externally. ​​

Gen AI needs to be deployed responsibly but it also needs to be deployed strategically and creatively to maximise the benefits for your FDI attraction work.    

Gen AI enables IPA professionals to generate highly customised business development pursuit toolkits and provide much more customised support tailored to FDI client strategy.  

In the Copilot for FDI Attraction Toolkit Course I explain how you can use Copilot to support, empower, and optimise your engagement with target FDI clients.  

FDI is a people business. Gen AI can help you be a more effective IPA professional, exercise more empathy and engage much more effectively with your clients.   

77% of companies are now using AI to inform their FDI decision making according to the Kearney 2024 FDI Confidence Index.  

This will help investors to improve their strategic planning but it also places a pressure on IPAs to ensure they offer value add over and above what investors can now generate with AI. 

Better understanding your FDI target clients and adding more value to the support you provide will increase your FDI conversion rates and help clients succeed in your market. 

One problem I identified from speaking to IPA investment directors is that they are so busy overseeing delivery they don’t have time to explore Gen AI end use applications for FDI. 

This Course will help you to grasp the foundational aspects of Gen AI and Copilot. It offers you an FDI Gen AI capability accelerator tailored to your everyday workflows. 

You will acquire Copilot prompt engineering skills that unlock a productivity uplift across your investor engagement enabling you to deliver more client centric FDI support. 

Book a Demo Call Today with Greg Rogers, the Course Trainer to find out how the Copilot for FDI Attraction Toolkit Course will help your agency to attract more high value FDI faster.

Get in touch with Greg at: info@marketentryleaders.com