ONLY 22% of organizations in the Philippines are fully ready to utilize artificial intelligence (AI), but many are eager to increase AI investments in the next five years, according to Cisco Philippines.
The Philippines saw a slight increase from 17% last year, highlighting the challenges Philippine organizations face in adopting and leveraging AI, according to Cisco Philippines, citing its 2024 AI Readiness Index.
According to the study, 98% of Filipino organizations reported increased urgency to deploy AI over the past year.
The AI readiness index is based on six pillars: strategy, infrastructure, data, governance, talent, and culture.
According to Cisco, 65% of them allocated 10-30% of their information technology (IT) budgets to AI deployment.
Filipino organization’s top AI investment goals are improving efficiency and profitability, fostering innovation and competitiveness, and growing revenue and market share.
Despite significant AI investments in cybersecurity, many organizations said their expectations were not met.
They must adopt a comprehensive approach to ensure AI readiness, said Cisco Philippines Managing Director Zaza Soriano-Nicart.
“This year’s AI Readiness Index reveals that to fully leverage the potential of AI, 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 the right visibility to achieve their business objectives.”
The study also revealed that only 22% of organizations have the necessary graphics processing units needed to meet current and future AI demands.
Further, only 45% have the capability to protect data in AI models with end-to-end encryption, security audits, continuous monitoring, and instant threat response.
As demand for AI increases, nearly half (48%) of organizations plan to earmark more than 40% of their IT budgets to AI investments in the next four to five years.
The Cisco AI Readiness Index was based on a double-blind survey of 3,600 senior business leaders with over 500 employees across 14 markets in the Asia-Pacific, Japan, and China. — B.M.D. Cruz
