Investing.com – Only 13% of organizations are fully ready to unleash the potential of artificial intelligence (AI), down slightly from last year, Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:) said on Tuesday, citing the AI Readiness Index .
The report shows that despite 98% of organizations reporting an increased urgency to implement AI, only 13% are fully prepared to realize its potential – down slightly from 14% last year.
“Given the rapid market evolution and the significant impact AI is expected to have on businesses, this gap between urgency and capability is particularly surprising,” Cisco said.
The report, which surveyed nearly 8,000 organizations worldwide to assess AI readiness across six key pillars: strategy, infrastructure, data, talent, governance and culture, found a gap between the urgency companies feel to deploy AI and their actual willingness to do so.
Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s chief product officer, warned that in the future there will ultimately be “only two types of companies: those that are AI, and those that are not.”
“AI is causing us to rethink energy requirements, computing needs, high-quality connectivity within and between data centers, data requirements, security and more.”
Cisco revealed that companies feel an urgent need to demonstrate the impact of AI within 12 to 18 months, with 85% saying they have just 18 months to show results.
However, many companies are still struggling with the necessary investments and infrastructure to support AI initiatives, with networks and data management systems largely ill-equipped for AI workloads.
Respondents expect that around 30% of IT budgets will be spent on AI over the next five years, almost double what it is today.
Nearly half of companies say AI implementations across top priorities have fallen short of expectations this year, yet 59% believe the impact of AI investments will exceed expectations after five years.
