Artificial intelligence in companies: CEOs enthusiastic but unprepared to manage change

How many Chief Executive Officers today are in favour of adopting artificial intelligence technologies in the company? Almost all. And how many are really ready? A tiny minority. Welcome to the AI ballet, one might say, or at any rate to the usual game whereby top management declares itself convinced and enthusiastic about the possibility of injecting innovation into its organisation but at the same time of the totally unprepared or almost unprepared to manage this change. A recent study conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of the American networking giant Cisco confirmed this trend, showing that 97 per cent of the more than 2,500 CEOs (of companies with more than 250 employees) interviewed worldwide plan to integrate AI, but only 1.7 per cent are really ready. Percentages that highlight a 'worrying' dichotomy, somewhat reiterated by the fact that although four out of five leaders recognise the potential of this technology, more than 70 per cent fear that a lack of IT skills or the lack of an adequate network infrastructure could affect strategic decisions and open up the risk of missing out on growth opportunities.

The 'encouraging' news, however, is not lacking, and is reflected in the intention, expressed by most of the surveyed CEOs, to invest in people, infrastructure modernisation, and cybersecurity enhancements, with the stated goal of increasing competitive advantage in a scenario where AI will be pervasive. "In today's dynamic and highly competitive landscape," noted Jeetu Patel, Chief Product Officer at Cisco, "speed is of the essence, and the leaders who act decisively today to build resilient networks for the future will also be the leaders who bring real value to their companies. In the end, only two types of companies will exist: AI companies and irrelevant ones'.

The feeling that failure to act could lead to increased costs is indeed already widespread among top executives. More than half of CEOs (53 per cent to be precise), in fact, fear that a lack of investment in technology is causing a competitive disadvantage, while two-thirds are concerned about missing opportunities for further development by not investing more in digital solutions. And the impact of an overly conservative attitude is far from just hypothetical scenarios: without an adequate technological breakthrough, managers foresee higher operating costs for their companies, a tendency to reduce profits and a drop in productivity that would be reflected in a progressive loss of market share.

A courageous and action-oriented attitude is therefore desirable in relation to the benefits that the adoption of artificial intelligence can generate going beyond simply 'keeping up'. The benefits that CEOs see in AI mainly concern the possibility of increasing efficiency and fostering innovation (just under 70% of the managers interviewed think so) and secondly that of being able to outperform the competition (54% of CEOs think so). In order to achieve these objectives, however, there is no shortage of obstacles to overcome (which are, moreover, well known) and these are once again the lack of skills, outdated IT infrastructures and security risks for data and systems.

The difficulties that several organisations are encountering, as the Cisco report goes on to say, also stem from a question of roles and responsibilities: while Chief Executive Officers focus on the big picture, Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers are faced with operational hurdles, starting with the absence or near absence of convincing business use cases, an aspect that CEOs tend to consider less of a priority. This dynamic, according to experts from the Californian company, reflects the exploratory phase of AI, in which most companies recognise its potential benefits and in which it is necessary to experiment with the technology in the short term to discover its true value in the long term. Those who manage to unlock the potential of artificial intelligence will transform their business, have a better chance of streamlining operations, accelerating the transformation/innovation process and successfully addressing the challenges imposed by digital. By using the right partner (96 per cent say, not surprisingly, that they will rely on trusted providers to make their IT infrastructures AI-ready) because no one, Cisco reiterates, can do it alone.