Enterprise AI spending is climbing rapidly, with UK boards racing to deploy the technology faster than they can measure whether it works.
According to the latest IDC InfoBrief, commissioned by Expereo, two thirds (66%) of UK organisations are investing in AI motivated by its potential, but they lag in disciplined ROI evaluation, with nearly one in six UK businesses (15%) admitting they are investing aggressively in AI with little evaluation, driven by the fear of being left behind.
The research shows AI has become one of the most prioritised technology investments in the UK. When asked which technologies their organisation will prioritise in terms of effort and/or financial investment over the next 12 months, 55% of UK organisations said AI or ML.
However, returns are failing to keep pace with the hype. Just 15% of UK organisations surveyed say their AI implementations have exceeded expectations, and only 3% report they have significantly exceeded them. The most-cited reasons for underperformance are inadequate or poor-quality training data (48%), higher-than-expected costs or ROI not achieved (45%), and AI not performing as well as expected (42%).
Underpinning many of these challenges is also a network and infrastructure readiness gap. 24% of UK businesses cited inadequate network or connectivity performance as a reason why their AI implementations have failed to meet expectations. Looking ahead, 54% of UK organisations say they need more flexible and scalable networks to thrive in an AI-driven environment, and 57% need greater resilience and reliability to maximise uptime.
Ben Elms, CEO, Expereo, said: “Every UK organisation we speak to is investing in AI, yet the data shows a clear gap opening up between AI ambition and AI outcomes. More often than not, that gap comes down to the network underneath. AI only delivers on its promise when the infrastructure carrying it is built to support it.
Without resilient, scalable, cloud-optimised networks, even the most well-funded AI programmes will struggle to deliver ROI. Getting the network right is no longer an IT decision; it is one of the most important conversations happening in the boardroom today to help fulfil AI ambition.”
Boardrooms are also waking up to the longer-term risks of unchecked AI investment. According to the survey, 56% of UK tech leaders cite the creation of new security risks as a significant potential future threat for their organisation’s use of AI, while 33% are concerned about losing track of AI-related costs and ROI once the technology is embedded across the business.
