UAE companies are preparing to invest heavily in AI technology and expect to see positive results in a short frame of time.
Despite a willingness to spend, many companies say staff lack the skillset to take advantage of AI.
64 per cent of organisations in the UAE have a strategy to deploy AI powered solutions in their organisation, according to Cisco’s AI Readiness Index report.
AI in the UAE
The report highlights that despite increasing urgency in deployment and investment, businesses in the UAE face challenges in adopting, deploying, and fully leveraging AI.
The Index is based on a double-blind survey of 7,985 senior business leaders from organisations with 500 or more employees across 30 markets, including UAE.
These leaders are responsible for AI integration and deployment within their organisations.
The Index is measured across six pillars:
- Strategy
- Infrastructure
- Data
- Governance
- Talent
- Culture
Abdelilah Nejjari, Managing Director, Cisco in Gulf and Levant, said: “Our survey reveals that companies need to prioritise investments in infrastructure and talent to effectively navigate the complexities of AI deployment.
“Organisations in the region need to prepare their workforce, existing data centres and cloud strategies to meet the AI requirements and harness its full potential.”
Key findings of the survey include:
- Acting with urgency: AI has become a cornerstone for business strategy, and there is an increasing urgency among companies to adopt and deploy AI technologies. In the UAE, nearly all (99 per cent) report an increased urgency to deploy AI, primarily driven by the CEO and leadership team. Nearly all (86 per cent) companies say they only have 18 months to start demonstrating the impact of AI. More than half (64 per cent) give it only 12 months
- Rising investment: Businesses in the UAE are accelerating efforts and increasing investments to overcome barriers and embrace AI-driven transformation. Notably, more than a third (34 per cent) of organisations plan to allocate more than 40 per cent of their IT budget to AI investments in the next four to five years, a significant increase from 8 per cent of companies who said they are allocating a similar portion of their IT budget to AI currently. Additionally, almost half (47 per cent) of companies indicate that between 10 per cent to 30 per cent of their IT budget is allocated to AI deployments
- AI investments focus on three strategic areas: Cybersecurity (45 per cent), IT infrastructure (39 per cent), as well as data management (34 per cent), and data analysis (33 per cent). The top three outcomes they aim to achieve are improving the efficiency of systems, processes, operations, and profitability; the ability to innovate and remain competitive; and growing revenue and market share for the business. However, more than 40 per cent of respondents report that the gains from their AI investments have not yet met expectations in augmenting, assisting, or automating current processes and operations
- Infrastructure preparedness: Networks are yet to be equipped to meet AI workloads. There are gaps in compute, data centre network performance, and cybersecurity, among other areas. Only 14 per cent of organisations have the necessary GPUs to meet current and future AI demands and only a third (31 per cent) have the capabilities to protect data in AI models with end–to–end encryption, security audits, continuous monitoring, and instant threat response. Positive developments are underway as companies acknowledge the necessity of enhancing their readiness to effectively leverage AI. In the UAE, 54 per cent say improving the scalability, flexibility, and manageability of their IT infrastructure are top priorities, showing they are aware of the gaps that need to be addressed
- Addressing skills and talent gaps: A lack of skilled talent is a top challenge for companies in the UAE, underscoring the critical need for skilled professionals to drive AI initiatives. Only 37 per cent of UAE organisations claim their talent is at a high state of readiness to fully leverage AI, and 27 per cent say their organisations lack in-house talent necessary for successful AI deployment
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