13 June 2024

The report found that despite a near-unanimous desire to adopt AI technology, very few respondents have confidence in their organisation’s readiness to integrate AI, pointing to limitations in data and infrastructure and security concerns.

The report found that while IT pros have a growing interest in embracing AI technology, with nine out of ten already using or planning to use AI, concerns remain about data quality, database infrastructure readiness, and — above all else — security and privacy.

“While talk of AI has dominated the industry, IT leaders and teams recognise the outsize risks of the still-developing technology, heightened by the rush to build AI quickly rather than smartly,” said Krishna Sai, SVP, technology and engineering at SolarWinds. “With the proper internal systems in place and by prioritising security, fairness, and transparency while building AI, these technologies can serve as a valuable advisor and coworker to overworked teams, but this survey shows that IT pros need to be consulted as their companies invest in AI.”

Overall, the industry’s sentiment reflects cautious optimism about AI despite the obstacles. Almost half of IT professionals (46%) want their company to move faster in implementing AI despite costs, challenges, and concerns, but only 43% are confident that their company’s databases can meet the increased needs of AI. Moreover, even fewer (38%) trust the quality of data or training used in developing AI technologies.

To ensure successful and secure AI adoption, IT pros recognise that organisations must develop thorough policies on ethics, data privacy, and compliance, pointing to ethical considerations and concerns about job displacement as other significant barriers to AI adoption. The SolarWinds report found that more than a third of organisations (35.6%) still don’t have these policies in place to guide proper AI implementation.