Most Aussie businesses aren’t ready for AI: Cisco

The vast majority of Australian businesses are not ready for the integration of artificial intelligence (A) into their operations, with only 5 per cent claiming they’re fully prepared.

This is according to Cisco’s first AI Readiness Index, which surveyed over 8,000 companies worldwide, over 300 of which were in Australia, about the adoption of AI.

The survey found only 5 per cent of Australian companies were Pacesetters, or fully prepared, when it came to AI, compared to 14 per cent globally. Meanwhile, 53 per cent were Followers, or had limited preparedness, and 8 per cent were Laggards, or unprepared.

This is despite 75 per cent of Australian respondents claiming AI will have a significant impact on their business operations and 74 per cent of organisations not having comprehensive AI policies in place – the latter of which Cisco said must be addressed as companies consider and govern all factors that present risks in eroding confidence and trust.

“These factors include data privacy and data sovereignty and the understanding of and compliance with global regulations,” Cisco said. “Additionally, close attention must be paid to the concepts of bias, fairness and transparency in both data and algorithms.”

Additionally, 59 per cent said they have at most one year to implement an AI strategy before they face a significant negative business impact.

Even if there were large levels of readiness, that does not mean there would be adequate levels of protection in place, as 77 per cent said they lacked full readiness in detecting and thwarting cyber attacks on AI models.

“With an overwhelming majority of companies in Australia saying they are not fully ready to leverage AI, coupled with their deep sense of urgency to deploy AI in the coming months, the time to invest in infrastructure with the scalability and flexibility to support AI workloads is now,” said Carl Solder, chief technology officer at Cisco Australia and New Zealand.

The release of Cisco’s AI Readiness Index a week after it revealed its collaborative approach to helping enterprise customers build AI-based infrastructures at its Partner Summit.