Business heads are struggling to trust AI, but hope it will be a major source of revenue

New research from Qlik has revealed that, despite leaders acknowledging the significant potential of artificial intelligence for driving profits and achieving strategic goals, many projects are still stuck in the planning phases.

Qlik says this is due to mistrust, governance issues and regulatory challenges, each contributing to delays in the full and successful deployment of AI.

Consequentially, more than one in 10 (11%) UK businesses now have between 50 and 100 AI projects stuck in the planning stage.

AI projects aren’t hitting the ground running

The report also reveals that one-fifth of British companies have had to cancel up to 50 AI projects as the struggle to move AI initiatives from concept to deployment becomes a challenge.

According to the report, more than three-quarters (79%) of decision-makers are now turning to ‘ready-made’ AI solutions to streamline deployment and reduce risks, but at the risk of a lack of personalization and customization to the company’s specific needs.

Data governance (28%), regulatory issues (22%) and a lack of clear ownership over AI projects within businesses (20%) were all highlighted as obstacles, but the most significant was a lack of trust, with 41% of decision-makers reporting that senior managers are still sceptical of AI. Furthermore, 17% acknowledged a lack of trust on the part of customers.

Qlik Chief Strategy Officer James Fisher commented: “Understanding the value of sharing insights and benefits of AI across the business and senior management team, will help to limit the number of AI projects getting stuck in planning or being forced to cancel.”

However, all is not lost. Another report by Cisco, also focused on the long-term potential of AI, found that nearly one-fifth (19%) of UK partners predict that 76-100% of their revenue will come from AI within the next 4-5 years.

It, too, revealed that businesses are being faced with major hurdles in their AI adoption plans, with infrastructure (33%) and cybersecurity (32%) emerging as the key obstacles, far ahead of customer experience (6%) in third place.

Cisco VP of Global Partner Engineering Alex Pujols added: “The potential for AI to transform business operations is immense and realising this requires a concerted effort to strengthen our partners’ practical deployment capabilities.”