Only 26% Indian firms are prepared to deploy and leverage AI: Cisco AI Readiness Index

The survey found that the top three areas where businesses are looking to AI include IT infrastructure, cybersecurity and customer experience. Representative image

Amid the hype and rush to adopt artificial intelligence (AI), only 26 percent of Indian enterprises are fully prepared to deploy and leverage the technology, according to Cisco’s first edition of the AI Readiness Index. The rest of the companies surveyed, admitted concerns around cybersecurity, governance, and impact on business among other issues in the next 12 months.

Only 23 percent of the companies in the Asia Pacific Japan and China (APJC) region believe that AI will open up new revenue streams despite the chatter and promises of AI becoming the future of businesses.

The index surveyed over 8,000 global companies across 30 markets and considered scores on six major categories of parameters of AI readiness, including strategy, infrastructure, data, governance and talent.

The survey found that the companies experience most challenges when it comes to leveraging AI alongside their data.

“While 93 percent of respondents (globally) believe AI will have a significant impact on their business operations, it also raises new issues around data privacy and security… 73 percent of the respondents admit that this is due to data existing in silos across their organisations,” the report said.

Speaking to the media, Carl Solder, Cisco Chief Technology Officer for ANZ said that the top three areas where businesses are looking to AI include IT infrastructure, cybersecurity and customer experience.

“While for the longest time, AI was mostly being used by enterprises and businesses, that changed last year, when OpenAI introduced ChatGPT – this was the first time when masses got to experience ChatGPT or AI firsthand; what AI can actually do. That direct connection with the end-user has been the impetus to the generation of much of the hype we are seeing in the market today,” he said.

He added, “From Cisco’s standpoint, we are seeing the practical realities and the real impact happening with the convergence of layer 2 and layer 3 which includes companies developing the fundamental AI products and services and the businesses which are deploying AI-powered services to achieve specific outcomes.”

Around 97 percent of the businesses surveyed globally said that the urgency to deploy AI and AI-powered solutions has increased over the past six months. Companies are deploying AI majorly to drive efficiency and productivity, which is expected to have an impact on current revenue, but might not be able to generate newer revenue streams any time soon.