Cisco’s 2024 AI Readiness Index reveals growing gap between AI readiness and urgency

Artificial intelligence technology is creating mounting pressure on businesses to adopt AI solutions, even as many struggle with implementation challenges and readiness concerns.

Current state of AI readiness: Cisco’s second annual AI Readiness Index reveals that only 13% of companies are fully prepared to implement AI effectively, a slight decrease from 14% in the previous year.

• Nearly all organizations (98%) report increased pressure to deploy AI solutions
• 85% of companies believe they have less than 18 months to demonstrate AI’s impact
• Organizations expect AI-related spending to comprise 30% of IT budgets within five years, almost double current levels

Infrastructure and technical challenges: Companies face significant hurdles in establishing the necessary technical foundation for AI implementation.

• Only 21% of organizations possess adequate GPU capacity for current and future AI workloads
• Just 30% have comprehensive data security measures in place
• 80% of respondents struggle with data pre-processing and cleaning for AI projects
• 64% face challenges in tracking data origins, impacting AI system accuracy

Talent and governance gaps: Organizations are grappling with significant shortages in AI expertise and formal oversight structures.

• Only 31% of organizations report high levels of talent preparedness
• 24% lack necessary in-house expertise for effective AI deployment
• 51% cite a shortage of professionals with expertise in AI governance, ethics, and law
• Just 31% have comprehensive AI policies and protocols in place

Cultural resistance and declining support: The implementation of AI faces growing skepticism from both leadership and employees.

• Board-level receptiveness to AI has dropped from 82% to 66%
• Employee resistance to AI adoption has increased, with 30% showing hesitancy or opposition
• Nearly half of respondents report AI implementations falling short of expectations

Strategic implications: The findings suggest a widening gap between AI ambitions and organizational capabilities that could have lasting competitive consequences.

• Organizations that fail to effectively implement AI risk becoming irrelevant in their markets
• Companies must urgently address infrastructure, talent, and governance challenges
• The need for comprehensive AI strategies that encompass data center preparation and cloud integration is becoming increasingly critical

Future outlook: As AI technology continues to evolve rapidly, organizations face mounting pressure to bridge their readiness gaps while managing increasing implementation costs and complexity, suggesting that the divide between AI leaders and laggards may continue to widen in the coming years.