Cisco AI Readiness Index Report

Investing.com – Only 13% of organizations are fully ready to capture Artificial Intelligence’s (AI) potential, a slight decline from last year, Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) stated on Tuesday, citing its AI Readiness Index.

The report found that despite 98% of organizations reporting increased urgency to implement AI, only 13% are fully prepared to capitalize on its potential—a slight decline from 14% last year.

> “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,” Cisco said.

The report, which surveyed nearly 8,000 organizations globally, assessed AI readiness across six key pillars: strategy, infrastructure, data, talent, governance, and culture, revealing a gap between companies' urgent desire to deploy AI and their actual readiness.

Cisco’s Chief Product Officer, Jeetu Patel, warned that in the future “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.”

Cisco revealed that companies feel a pressing need to demonstrate AI’s impact within 12 to 18 months, with 85% stating they have just 18 months to showcase results. However, many companies are still struggling with the necessary investments and infrastructure to support AI initiatives, as networks and data management systems are largely ill-equipped for AI workloads.

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.