Only 17% of organisations across Asia are considered “future-ready”, which includes 16% with an operational AI strategy (“Integrators”) and 1% with AI fully embedded in their business (“Leaders”).
According to “Mind the Gap: Bridging the AI Infrastructure Readiness Divide,” by STTelemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) with research partner Ecosystm, the majority (71%) of organisations in Asia are caught between proofs of concept and production value.
AI-readiness
The report found that most organisations across Asia lack AI-ready infrastructure, and traditional data centres across Asia cannot provide it.
Key infrastructure deficits include insufficient compute and storage capacity, networking limitations and location readiness.
Moreover, organisations need to address insufficient budget for exponential growth, outdated infrastructure, and a lack of operational expertise.
Becoming future-ready
The report listed five strategies that organisations across Asia can adopt to join the 17% of future-ready organisations:
- Partner instead of building: Collaborate with specialised partners to access scarce infrastructure and expertise while reducing time-to-deployment
- Leverage distribution instead of centralisation: distribute AI workloads geographically across the region’s data centres
- Design for sustainability instead of retrofitting
- Measure holistically to justify infrastructure investment even before traditional ROI materialises.
- Moved beyond transactional thinking into strategy
“By immediately embracing specialisation through partnership, Asian organisations can close the gap between ambitious AI vision and challenging infrastructure reality. The present moment will determine winners and losers in Asia’s AI race. The time for action is now,” the report noted.
