Lack of skills and outdated infrastructure hinder the use of AI

Key points:

While a large majority of companies are adopting ai to some extent (88 percent), many still lack the data infrastructure and employee skills needed to truly benefit from it, according to a new survey by Nubeeraa hybrid platform for data, analytics and artificial intelligence.

ai-and-modern-data-architecture.html?utm_medium=3rd-party&utm_source=press-release&keyplay=cross&utm_campaign=Thought-Leadership-Reports—FY25-Q2-GLOBAL-ME-Sponsored-GenAI-MDA-Survey-PR%20&cid=701Hr000001ffvDIAQ” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>The State of Enterprise ai and Modern Data Architecture It is based on a survey of 600 IT leaders located in the US, EMEA and APAC regions and explores the challenges and barriers to enterprise ai adoption in global enterprises and current applications. It also discusses plans for ai adoption, the state of data infrastructure and the benefits of hybrid data management in relation to enterprise ai adoption.

In recent years, ai has become a global phenomenon, primarily due to its ability to boost business operations, enable informed decision-making, accelerate innovation, and improve both employee and customer experiences.

However, not all organizations have been able to reap the benefits. The survey found that the top barriers to adopting ai were concerns about the security and compliance risks it presents (74%), not having the right training or talent to manage ai tools (38%), and ai tools being too expensive (26%). These findings indicate that despite the rapid adoption of ai, many pillars of a resilient ai strategy are being neglected or forgotten.

As ai tools become more important across industries, K-12 and higher education face the major challenge of producing graduates who have the ai ​​skills needed to compete in the workforce.

As ai evolves and cements its place in the global economy, educators and stakeholders recognize that in addition to using ai in learning, students will need to develop ai skills and knowledge to succeed in the workforce, and efforts are underway to do just that.

A new commission comprised of policymakers, education leaders, business leaders, and education stakeholders from 16 states is addressing the role of ai in education from kindergarten through postsecondary programs, focusing on ai skills preparation and policy development.

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Commission on artificial intelligence in Education is chaired by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and co-chaired by Brad D. Smith, president of Marshall University (WV) and former CEO of Intuit.

The commission will review industry research and data and hear from education experts as it develops recommendations for Southern states on using ai in teaching and learning, developing ai-related policies, and preparing students for careers in ai.

Survey results

A key finding from the survey is that all ai initiatives are ultimately tied to trusted data. While 94 percent of respondents said they trust their data, 55 percent also said they would rather get a root canal than try to access all of their company’s data. This frustration stems from challenges such as conflicting data sets (49 percent), the inability to manage data across platforms (36 percent), and data bloat (35 percent). These areas of frustration indicate that many companies may lack a modern data architecture that enables data to be accessed across the organization, wherever it resides, in a way that is secure, accessible, and trusted.

From automating and streamlining IT processes to creating chatbots that can meet frontline customer needs quickly and effectively, to leveraging analytics to drive better decision-making, the survey found that top ai use cases included improving customer experiences (60 percent), increasing operational efficiency (57 percent) and accelerating analytics (51 percent).

• Improving customer experience:Companies are applying ai technology to improve security and fraud detection (59 percent), automate aspects of customer service (58 percent), leverage predictive customer service (57 percent), and empower chatbots (55 percent)—all with the goal of providing customers with a safer, simpler, and more intuitive experience.
• Increase operational efficiency:ai is being integrated into nearly every facet of business. The survey found that IT departments aren’t the only ones using ai: 52 percent of respondents said they use it for customer service, such as better-informed chatbots, and 45 percent said it’s used for marketing, such as analyzing call center data to offer more targeted incentives to customers.
• Streamlining analysis:Faster, easier, and more reliable access to analytics means more informed decision-making, giving companies leveraging ai a clear competitive advantage. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said it is “completely” or “very” true that their company is using all the data at its disposal to make smarter business decisions. This data provides mission-critical insights, so access to all of an organization’s data is critical.

“For most enterprises, the quality of their data is not very good, it is spread across multiple infrastructures and not documented efficiently, and we are seeing the consequences of this in the challenges identified by the survey,” said Abhas Ricky, chief strategy officer at Cloudera. “Managing data where it resides is the most important thing when it comes to adopting ai – being able to cost-effectively run models where that data already resides. Rather than bringing data to models, enterprises are starting to realize the benefits of bringing ai models to their data.”

This press release ai-but-outdated-infrastructure-and-employee-skills-gap-hinder-full-benefits.html” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Originally appeared online.

Laura Ascione is the editorial director of eSchool Media. She holds a degree from the prestigious Philip Merrill School of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

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