Second annual report shows the race to get AI
right is on, with a critical focus on networking
infrastructure
News Summary:
- Leaders feel the pressure; 98% report increased urgency to
deliver on AI and 85% believe they have less than 18 months to
act.
- Networks are not equipped to meet AI workloads; only 21% of
companies report having the necessary GPUs to meet current and
future AI demands.
- Only 13% say they are fully ready to capture AI's potential
– down from 14% last year.
SAN
JOSE, Calif., Nov. 19,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), the
worldwide leader in networking and security, today announced the
findings from the second annual AI Readiness Index. The report
explores how prepared organizations are to invest in, deploy and
use AI. Nearly eight thousand organizations took part in the
report.
Most notably, the report highlights a huge chasm between the
urgency companies feel to deploy AI and their readiness to do so.
Nearly all companies (98%) report the urgency to deploy AI has
increased in the last year. However, the research found that from
2023 to 2024, global AI readiness in the enterprise has actually
declined. Only 13% of companies today are fully ready to capture
AI's potential – down from 14% a year ago. Given the rapid market
evolution and the significant impact AI is anticipated to have on
businesses, this gap between urgency and ability is especially
startling.
"Eventually there will be only two kinds of companies: those
that are AI companies, and those that are irrelevant. AI is making
us rethink power requirements, compute needs, high-performance
connectivity inside and between data centers, data requirements,
security and more," said Jeetu
Patel, Chief Product Officer at Cisco. "Regardless of where
they are on their AI journey, organizations need to be preparing
existing data centers and cloud strategies for changing
requirements, and have a plan for how to adopt AI, with agility and
resilience, as strategies evolve."
Key Findings
Alongside the finding that only 13% of companies are fully
prepared to implement their AI strategies, some of the most
significant findings include:
- URGENCY: Companies feel they only have 18 months to showcase
the impact of AI. Nearly all (85%) companies say they only have
18 months to start demonstrating the impact of AI. More than half
(59%) give it only 12 months.
- STRATEGY: Companies agree that AI cannot be deployed
effectively in an organization without a clear strategy.
Cybersecurity is the top priority for AI deployment with 42% of
respondents having achieved advanced security deployment.
Infrastructure follows at 40%, and data analysis and data
management tied for third at 39%.
- INVESTMENT: Companies are doubling down on AI despite
lukewarm results from current AI projects. In the next five
years, respondents anticipate that roughly 30% of IT budgets will
be dedicated to AI, nearly double what it is today. Close to half
of companies say AI implementations across top priorities have
fallen short of expectations this year, yet 59% believe the impact
from AI investments will surpass expectations after five
years.
- INFRASTRUCTURE: Networks are not equipped to meet AI
workloads. The largest decline was in infrastructure readiness,
with gaps in compute, data center network performance, and
cybersecurity, amongst other areas. Only 21% of organizations have
the necessary GPUs to meet current and future AI demands and 30%
have the capabilities to protect data in AI models with end–to–end
encryption, security audits, continuous monitoring and instant
threat response.
- DATA: Companies report feeling less ready to manage
data effectively for AI initiatives, compared to a year ago.
Nearly a third (32%) of respondents report high readiness from a
data perspective to adapt, deploy and fully leverage AI
technologies. Most companies (80%) report inconsistencies or
shortcomings in the pre-processing and cleaning of data for AI
projects. This remains almost as high as a year ago (81%).
Additionally, 64% report that they feel there is room for
improvement in tracking the origins of data.
- TALENT: A lack of skilled talent is a top challenge across
infrastructure, data, and governance, underscoring the critical
need for skilled professionals to drive AI initiatives. Only
31% of organizations claim their talent is at a high state of
readiness to fully leverage AI. Twenty-four percent say their
organizations are under resourced in terms of in-house talent
necessary for successful AI deployment. Twenty-four percent of all
respondents also say that there is not enough talent available in
their sector with the right skillsets to address the growing demand
for AI.
- GOVERNANCE: Effective AI governance is more crucial than
ever, yet respondents feel that it has become more difficult.
When asked about the comprehensiveness of their organizations' AI
policies and protocols, 31% of the organizations said they are
highly comprehensive. Fifty-one percent of respondents identified
"the lack of talent with expertise in AI governance, law and ethics
in the market" as a challenge in improving their readiness from the
governance perspective.
- CULTURE: There has been a noticeable reduction in
cultural readiness to embrace AI. A lack of receptiveness to
AI's changes has contributed to the decline in cultural readiness:
boards have become less receptive to embracing the transformative
power of AI, with 66% of them being highly or moderately receptive,
down from 82% last year while 30% of organizations report employees
are limited in their willingness to adopt AI or are outright
resistant.
Cisco AI Readiness Index:
The Cisco AI Readiness Index is conducted by an independent
third-party and based on a double-blind survey of 7,985 senior
business leaders, with responsibility for AI integration and
deployment at organizations across 30 markets with 500 or more
employees. The Index assessed respondents' AI readiness across six
key pillars: strategy, infrastructure, data, talent, governance and
culture.
Companies were examined on 49 different metrics across these six
pillars to determine a readiness score for each, as well as an
overall readiness score for the respondents' organization. Each
indicator was assigned an individual weightage based on its
relative importance to achieving readiness for the applicable
pillar. Based on their overall score, Cisco has identified
four groups at different levels of organizational readiness –
Pacesetters (fully prepared), Chasers (moderately prepared),
Followers (limited preparedness) and Laggards
(unprepared).
Additional Resources:
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that
securely connects everything to make anything possible. Our purpose
is to power an inclusive future for all by helping our customers
reimagine their applications, power hybrid work, secure their
enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their
sustainability goals.
Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on X
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Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A
listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found
at http://www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks
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the word 'partner' does not imply a partnership relationship
between Cisco and any other company.
Media Contacts:
Ramona
Redlingshafer
rredling@cisco.com
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SOURCE Cisco Systems, Inc.
