Nearly 60% of firms yet to move AI beyond pilots as deployment remains key challenge: Report

Nearly 60 per cent of organisations surveyed remain in the exploration or pilot stages of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, with only around 40 per cent having moved to production or scaling, highlighting the challenge businesses face in deploying AI across their operations, according to a report by Citi Institute.

The report said the next phase of AI adoption would depend on companies moving beyond trials to wider implementation, where the technology can deliver measurable business value.

The survey found a clear regional gap in adoption. North America is ahead, with 77 per cent of surveyed organisations already using AI in production or scaling it across their businesses. In contrast, Asia Pacific remains more focused on exploring applications, running pilot programmes and building capabilities, while Europe occupies an intermediate position.


"Nearly 60% of organizations surveyed by Citi remain in the exploration or pilot phase," the report said, identifying enterprise-wide deployment as the main challenge facing businesses.

Citi found that business model transformation has emerged as the leading objective for AI investment, cited by 34 per cent of respondents, followed by capability building at 32 per cent. Another 25 per cent said their primary aim was to improve specific business performance indicators.

The report also found that organisations further along in AI adoption were more likely to report significant gains. Among companies in the production and scaling stages, 60 per cent reported transformational value creation of more than 15 per cent through cost reduction, employee productivity or revenue growth.

"AI's biggest opportunity lies in redesigning business models," the report said, pointing to the potential for companies to use the technology to reshape processes, products and revenue streams rather than focus only on automating existing tasks.

Task automation remains the most common AI application across organisations. However, companies allocating larger shares of their technology budgets to AI are increasingly exploring autonomous agents capable of handling more complex workflows.

The report further said the ability to scale AI successfully would depend less on access to models alone and more on proprietary data, expertise and the ability to integrate the technology into core business operations.

It also noted that companies moving towards production and scaling tend to adopt shorter investment horizons, indicating that AI is increasingly being treated as an operational business capability rather than a long-term experiment. (ANI)