The Cisco 2024 AI Readiness Index reveals that only 9% of organisations in Hong Kong are fully prepared to deploy and leverage AI-powered technologies. Declining from 25% in 2023, the steep surge highlights companies' challenges in adopting, deploying, and fully leveraging AI.
AI ambition and readiness
The study found that in Hong Kong, most organisations (97%) report an increased urgency to deploy AI in the past year. Moreover, almost half (48%) report that as much as 10% to 30% of their IT budget is allocated to AI deployments.
However, the report revealed that many companies do not meet their ROI expectations.
"As companies accelerate their AI journeys, they must adopt a comprehensive approach to implementation and connect the dots to link AI ambition with readiness," said Dave West, president of Cisco Asia Pacific, Japan, and Greater China.
Leveraging AI's potential
"This year's AI Readiness Index reveals that to fully leverage AI's potential, companies need a modern digital infrastructure capable of meeting evolving power needs and network latency requirements from growing AI workloads. This must be supported with visibility to achieve their business objectives," West added.
The Index is based on a double-blind survey of 3,660 senior business leaders from organisations with 500 or more employees across 14 markets in Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China, including 200 respondents in Hong Kong.