Cisco has released a report based on findings from their 2024 AI Readiness Index, revealing that just 18% of Indian companies were fully prepared to deploy and leverage AI, a fall from 26% a year ago. The index was based on a survey of 3,660 senior business leaders from organisations with 500 or more employees across 14 markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

The index measures companies’ readiness based on six parameters including strategy, infrastructure, data, governance, talent and culture.

The report stated that companies were now allotting a significant amount of their resources towards AI, with 57% reporting that as much as between 10% and 30% of their IT budgets were set aside for AI.

AI investments have mainly focused on three strategic areas including cybersecurity (47% of companies are at full/advanced deployment), data analysis (44%), and data management (42%), to improve efficiency of processes and increase profitability.

But half of the respondents said that they either hadn’t seen any gains or the returns had fallen short of their expectations in augmenting, assisting, or automating current processes or operations.

One of the biggest gaps are in compute, data center network performance, and cybersecurity, amongst other areas. Only 21% of organizations were found to have the necessary GPUs to meet current and future AI demands and 36% had the capabilities to protect data in AI models with end–to–end encryption, security audits, continuous monitoring, and instant threat response.  

Besides, there was mounting pressure from top execs to implement AI tech. Nearly half (48%) of the companies said that the CEO and the leadership team are driving AI deployment, closely followed by the board of directors (39%). Companies also underlined the shortage of skilled AI talent to carry initiatives.

“As the race to adopt AI picks up pace, talent will be a key differentiator for companies. There is already a shortage of skilled talent across various aspects of AI. This means companies will need to invest in their existing talent pool to meet the growing demand. At the same time, it is crucial that all stakeholders – the private and public sectors, educational institutions, and governments – work together to develop local talent so that the entire ecosystem can benefit from the immense potential that AI offers,” Anupam Trehan, VP, People and Communities APJC, at Cisco said.