AI 'gaps' temper enterprise optimism

Riverbed has published the results of the Riverbed Global AI & Digital Experience Survey, which found that organisations are at an inflection point as they accelerate their adoption of AI. Despite high optimism, the report reveals this reality – while 94% of those surveyed say AI is a top C-Suite priority and 91% agree it provides a competitive advantage, only 37% are fully prepared to implement AI projects now, as organisations address challenges ranging from data quality to scalability that are impacting their ability to realise the full benefits of AI. However, the next three years are anticipated to be a period of rapid expansion as enterprises seek practical AI approaches and solutions, and by 2027, 86% of leaders expect their organisation to be fully prepared to implement their AI strategy and projects.*

During that same time period, AI is expected to mature and become a growth driver.

Whereas today, 54% of leaders say the primary reason for using AI is to drive operational efficiencies over growth (46%), those numbers flip in 2027, with 58% of organisations saying AI will primarily be a growth driver versus driving efficiencies (42%). Trust in AI is also growing— leaders say they would rather use AI to automate a major IT upgrade (61%), than sit in the back seat of a driverless car in the city (39%).

The global survey polled 1,200 IT, business, and public sector decision-makers across seven countries and seven industries, providing a comprehensive overview of how organisations are navigating the adoption and implementation of AI. The study explores: global sentiment around AI and generational attitudes; the adoption curve; AI benefits, gaps and strategies for success; and AI’s role to IT operations and the digital experience.

“AI is on the C-Suite agenda and a priority for IT leaders, as AI can deliver tremendous benefits for IT operations, and transform industries and how we work,” said Jim Gargan, Chief Marketing Officer, Riverbed. “Despite the enthusiasm, our study uncovered several gaps organisations must overcome to realize the full potential of AI. What leaders really want is to move from the AI hype to practical AI that works and delivers measurable results. At Riverbed, we’re helping customers with a practical approach to AI that provides an enterprise-wide strategy to optimise digital experiences and improve IT operations. Riverbed’s AI is safe, secure and accurate, and we’re addressing enterprises’ most pressing challenges: providing AI automation that works at scale; solving the data gap with comprehensive observability across all of IT using real data; and with acceleration solutions that support AI efforts by moving data to anywhere, fast.”

AI Optimism is High Among C-Suite and Younger Generation Employees

With AI set to transform organisations worldwide, the survey found enthusiasm for AI is high among the C-Suite, younger generation employees and organisations as a whole.

Today, 66% of leaders say AI is a key strategic priority for their organisation, and another 33% say it’s at least moderately important.

94% agree AI will help them deliver a better digital experience for end users.

· 59% say AI sentiment in their organisation is positive, 37% neutral and only 4% sceptical.

· When asked which generation is most comfortable with AI in the workplace, leaders said Gen Z (52%), followed by Millennials (39%), Gen X (8%) and Baby Boomers (1%).

The research also found that most organisations have moved past the stages of assessing and experimenting with AI— and today, 65% are accelerating their AI strategies with growing investment in infrastructure and talent; and another 23% are in the final transformative stage where AI is fully integrated into their business processes.

Improving Digital Experience and IT Operations with AI

Riverbed’s previous Global Digital Employee Experience (DEX) survey from 2023 found that DEX is a critical focus for organisations, especially with heightened digital expectations of Gen Z and Millennial employees, accounting for about half of the global workforce. In this year’s survey, enterprises recognized the role AI plays in DEX, as 86% of leaders agreed AI automation is important to improve IT efficiency and deliver an improved digital experience for end users. Survey respondents ranked the top five ways they expect to use AI within IT to improve DEX within 3 years’ time, which included: workflow automation (72%), automated remediation (69%), 24/7 support availability such as chatbots (63%), data-driven insights (59%) and feedback analysis (57%). Leaders surveyed also said they expect to see many benefits through the use of AI in IT operations, including improved operational efficiencies and productivity, faster IT service desk response times, increased revenue, and a better employee digital experience.

All leaders surveyed expect to use, test or begin ideation for Generative AI (the most hyped type of AI) for IT operations within 12-18 months. Currently, only 34% of organisations have put Gen AI use cases for IT operations in production or completed prototypes they plan on taking to production. Within 12-18 months, this will nearly double to 67%, with the remainder of organisations in the ideation phases.

Despite AI Enthusiasm and Benefits, Several Gaps Exist

Despite wide AI enthusiasm, the research identified three major gaps that organisations must overcome to ensure their AI adoption results in benefits and enterprise success.

Reality Gap. The vast majority of respondents (82%) believe they are ahead of their competitors (including 30% significantly) when it comes to AI adoption for IT services and digital experience, and only 5% say they are slightly behind. This gap between perception and reality indicates many leaders are overconfident about where their IT function is on their AI journey relative to their industry peers.

Readiness Gap. As stated earlier, there’s a readiness gap as only 37% of leaders say their organisation is fully prepared to implement AI projects now. Additionally, 72% say with AI still maturing, it’s challenging to implement AI that works and scales.

Data Gap. Nearly all leaders (85%) acknowledge that great data is critical for great AI. However, of those surveyed, 69% are concerned about the effectiveness of their organisation’s data for AI usage, and only about four in 10 rated their data as excellent for completeness (43%) and accuracy (40%), with 42% saying their data quality is a barrier to further AI investment. Furthermore, many surveyed had data security concerns about AI, including 76% of leaders who are worried about their proprietary data being accessible in the public domain.

Strategies to Drive Successful AI Initiatives

Enterprises are taking several steps to overcome challenges and drive successful AI strategies that deliver tangible results. To address AI preparedness, 57% of organisations have formed dedicated AI teams, and 45% observability and/or user experience teams.

When it comes to data, the vast majority of leaders (86%) say using real data, rather than synthetic data, is crucial in AI efforts to improve the digital experience. Additionally, 84% of respondents agree that observability across all elements of IT is important in an AIOps strategy, and at least 82% say observability to overcome network blind spots – including public cloud, remote work environments, Zero Trust architectures, and enterprise-owned mobile devices— is either extremely or moderately important.

The research also found several correlations between high-performing organisations’ (with 10.5% or higher revenue growth) successful adoption of AI, versus low-performing organisations (flat to declining revenue).

High performers are prioritising AI, with 74% reporting AI as a key strategic priority (and 26% as moderately important) compared to 56% of low performers.

67% of high performers are leveraging AI to its full potential today to improve the digital employee experience (DEX) vs 45% of low performers.

63% of high performers provide extensive AI training versus 41% of low performers.