According to the IDC Data and AI Pulse: Asia Pacific 2024 study commissioned by SAS, only 23% of Southeast Asian organisations are transformative in their AI adoption. Transformative AI adoption refers to having a longer-term investment plan and using AI to transform markets and customers by creating new business models and product and service experiences.
Chris Marshall, vice president of Data, Analytics, AI, Sustainability, and Industry Research at IDC Asia/Pacific, said. "These insights give us the opportunity to unpack the barriers to successful AI implementation, allowing businesses to make wiser investments into these new and emerging technologies without being caught up in the gold rush."
AI failure
The report showed that untrustworthy or poor-quality data (40%), privacy concerns or compliance limitations (38%), and the inability to access data due to business restrictions (36%) were the top reasons for AI failure.
Organisations are grappling with a lack of specialised skilled personnel (41%), highlighting the need for investment in human resources to fully harness AI's potential. Managing costs associated with AI development and deployment (30%) and a lack of clear evaluation criteria for AI solutions (29%) are also significant challenges.
Data foundation
Amir Sohrabi, regional vice president and head of Digital Transformation for the Korean and ASEAN region, said Singapore stands out as a regional leader in AI adoption, while organisations in Thailand and Malaysia are still in the early to mid stages of adoption.
“While consumer access to generative tools made AI feel magical, the actual implementation of AI into an enterprise environment requires a strong data foundation and structured process for organisations to reap the benefits of AI in an effective and responsible way," said Sohrabi.
The study, conducted in June 2024, includes 101 enterprises across Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
