Most organisations are fully invested in AI but more than half don’t have the required in-house skilled talent to execute their strategy, according to new research from SnapLogic.
The study found that 93% of US and UK organisations consider AI to be a business priority and have projects planned or already in production. However, more than half of them (51%) acknowledge that they don’t have the right mix of skilled AI talent in-house to bring their strategies to life. Indeed, a lack of skilled talent was cited as the number one barrier to progressing their AI initiatives, followed by, in order, lack of budget, lack of access to the right technology and tools, and lack of access to useful data.
The new research, conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of SnapLogic, studied the views and perspectives of IT decision makers (ITDMs) across several industries, asking key questions such as: where is your organisation in its AI/ML journey, what are the top barriers your organisation is facing when executing your AI initiatives, does your organisation have employees in-house with the required skill set to execute your strategy, and what are the top skills and attributes you are looking for in your AI team?
Where are organisations in their AI/ML journey?
When asked where organisations are in their AI/ML journey, most (93%) ITDMs claim to be fully invested in AI. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of organisations in the US and UK have initiated an AI project during the past three years, with the US leading the UK at 78% compared to 66% uptake.
Looking at specific industry sectors, the financial services industry is most progressive with 80% having current AI projects in place, followed closely by the retail, distribution and transport sector (76%) and the business and professional services sector (72%). Surprisingly, the IT industry was found to be among the least progressive in AI uptake with 70% having projects actively in place.
Monique Melis, Managing Director, Duff & Phelps, told TFT:
“AI is completely transforming the operational landscape of the financial services industry. Inevitably, this brings certain challenges to the fore, especially for firms who still use traditional methods of risk-related data analysis.
Equipping the business with the skills it needs to get the most out of AI can be a challenging prospect. However, AI has proven time and again to be more effective than human decision making when dealing with high amounts of data and pattern-spotting. The greatest difficulty, therefore, is investing the time and resources that are needed to re-skill the workforce and make it clear that AI will enhance, rather than replace human workers.”
