Only 21% of organisations in Thailand are fully prepared to deploy and leverage artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technologies, up slightly from 20% last year.
This underscores the challenges they face in adopting, deploying and fully leveraging AI, according to the Cisco 2024 AI Readiness Index.
The index is based on a double-blind survey of 3,660 senior business leaders from organisations with 500 or more employees across 14 markets in Asia-Pacific.
However, when compared with other surveyed countries, full AI readiness in Thailand exceeds the Asia-Pacific average of 15% and global tally of 13%.
Weera Areeratanasak, managing director of Cisco Thailand, said the index indicates that companies need a modern digital infrastructure capable of meeting evolving power needs, supported with the right visibility to achieve their business objectives.
Companies are tackling challenges in infrastructure readiness, with gaps in computing, data centre network performance and cybersecurity, according to the index.
Only 33% of organisations have the necessary graphics processing units to meet current and future AI demands, while 47% have the capabilities to protect data in AI models with end-to-end encryption, security audits, continuous monitoring, and instant threat response.
Mr Weera said that in Thailand he sees enthusiasm for AI investment in education and the financial services industry.
Companies are investing in AI, but gains have fallen short of expectations, noted the survey. Over the past year, AI was a priority expense for organisations in Thailand, with 53% allocating 10-30% of their IT budgets to AI projects.
AI investments have focused on three strategic areas: IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and marketing and sales management.
Despite increased investments, 40% of respondents said they have either seen no gains or the gains have fallen short of their expectations in augmenting, assisting, or automating current processes or operations.
There is mounting pressure and urgency from top leadership to implement AI technologies. Over half (59%) of companies report that the chief executive and the leadership team are driving AI deployment, closely followed by middle management (49%) and the board of directors (44%).
Roughly 23% of organisations plan to allocate more than 40% of their IT budget to AI investments in the next four to five years, a steep climb from 5% of companies who said they are currently allocating a similar portion of their IT budget to AI.
Companies recognise they need to do more to be better prepared to leverage AI effectively. Across Thailand, 57% rated improving scalability, flexibility, and manageability of their IT infrastructure as their top priorities highlighting an awareness of the gaps that must be addressed to improve overall AI readiness.
Firms also highlighted a lack of skilled talent as the top challenge across infrastructure, data and governance, underscoring the critical need for skilled professionals to drive AI initiatives.