Cisco AI Readiness Index in the UAE: Strategies Outlined Amid Rising Urgency and Investment, Yet Deployment Challenges Persist

Al Bawaba

28-01-2025

Cisco today announced findings from its latest AI Readiness Index, that reveals that 64% of organizations in the UAE have a strategy to deploy AI powered solutions in their organisation. The report highlights that despite increasing urgency in deployment and investment, businesses in the UAE face challenges in adopting, deploying, and fully leveraging AI.
The Index is based on a double-blind survey of 7,985 senior business leaders from organizations with 500 or more employees across 30 markets, including UAE. These leaders are responsible for AI integration and deployment within their organizations. The Index is measured across six pillars: strategy, infrastructure, data, governance, talent, and culture.
Abdelilah Nejjari, Managing Director, Cisco in Gulf and Levant, commented: "Our survey reveals that companies need to prioritize investments in infrastructure and talent to effectively navigate the complexities of AI deployment. Organizations in the region need to prepare their workforce, existing data centres and cloud strategies to meet the AI requirements and harness its full potential.'
Key Findings include:
Acting with Urgency:
AI has become a cornerstone for business strategy, and there is an increasing urgency among companies to adopt and deploy AI technologies. In UAE, nearly all (99%) report an increased urgency to deploy AI, primarily driven by the CEO and leadership team. Nearly all (86%) companies say they only have 18 months to start demonstrating the impact of AI. More than half (64%) give it only 12 months.
Rising Investment:
Businesses in the UAE are accelerating efforts and increasing investments to overcome barriers and embrace AI-driven transformation. Notably, over a third (34%) of organizations plan to allocate more than 40% of their IT budget to AI investments in the next four to five years, a significant increase from 8% of companies who said they are allocating a similar portion of their IT budget to AI currently. Additionally, almost half (47%) of companies indicate that between 10% to 30% of their IT budget is allocated to AI deployments.
AI investments focus on three strategic areas: cybersecurity (45%), IT infrastructure (39%), as well as data management (34%), and data analysis (33%). The top three outcomes they aim to achieve are improving the efficiency of systems, processes, operations, and profitability; the ability to innovate and remain competitive; and growing revenue and market share for the business. However, over 40% of respondents report that the gains from their AI investments have not yet met expectations in augmenting, assisting, or automating current processes and operations.
Infrastructure Preparedness:
Networks are yet to be equipped to meet AI workloads. There are gaps in compute, data centre network performance, and cybersecurity, amongst other areas. Only 14% of organizations have the necessary GPUs to meet current and future AI demands and only a third (31%) have the capabilities to protect data in AI models with end–to–end encryption, security audits, continuous monitoring, and instant threat response. Positive developments are underway as companies acknowledge the necessity of enhancing their readiness to effectively leverage AI. In the UAE, 54% say improving the scalability, flexibility, and manageability of their IT infrastructure are top priorities, showing they are aware of the gaps that need to be addressed.
Addressing Skills and Talent Gaps:
A lack of skilled talent is a top challenge for companies in the UAE, underscoring the critical need for skilled professionals to drive AI initiatives. Only 37% of UAE organizations claim their talent is at a high state of readiness to fully leverage AI, and 27% say their organizations lack in-house talent necessary for successful AI deployment.