A recent report revealed that while nearly half of IT leaders believe their organisations are adequately prepared to leverage artificial intelligence (AI), significant strategic and operational gaps could hinder these efforts.
Despite the growing investments in AI, with nearly all IT leaders planning to increase spending in the next year, the report highlighted a troubling lack of alignment and understanding that could impede successful AI outcomes.
Data management, a cornerstone of AI success, appears to be a particularly weak point. The study showed that only 7 per cent of organisations are capable of executing real-time data analytics to drive innovation and just 26 per cent have established robust data governance models. Further, less than 60 per cent of respondents felt their organisations could effectively manage key data preparation stages necessary for AI, such as accessing, storing, processing and recovering data. This deficiency poses a significant risk of slowing AI deployments and producing inaccurate insights, potentially leading to negative return on investment (ROI).
Another area of concern is the preparedness of IT infrastructure to support AI. While a majority of leaders expressed confidence in their networking and compute capabilities, less than half possess a full understanding of the demands these technologies face throughout different stages of the AI lifecycle. This gap in knowledge could lead to inefficiencies and failures in supporting AI workloads adequately.
Moreover, the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) report found a considerable disconnect in integrating AI strategies across business functions, with over a third of organisations having separate AI strategies for different departments. Such fragmentation may prevent businesses from fully leveraging AI's potential benefits across the enterprise.
“These findings clearly demonstrate the appetite for AI, but they also highlight very real blind spots that could see progress stagnate if a more holistic approach is not followed. Misalignment on strategy and department involvement – for example – can impede organizations from leveraging critical areas of expertise, making effective and efficient decisions, and ensuring a holistic AI roadmap benefits all areas of the business congruently,” said Sylvia Hooks, VP, HPE Aruba Networking.
Perhaps most alarming is the scant attention given to AI ethics and compliance, despite increasing scrutiny from consumers and regulators. A significant portion of IT leaders deemed these aspects among the least critical for AI success, and nearly a quarter of organizations do not involve their legal teams in AI strategy discussions.
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