Much of Indian enterprise, still in early stages of AI adoption, finds IDC

21st July 2021
Much of Indian enterprise, still in early stages of AI adoption, finds IDC

New Delhi, July 21, 2021: Only 8.4% of the Indian organizations are in the latter stages of AI maturity highlighting the need for an enterprise-wide AI strategy aligned with business goals, finds a new report from  International Data Corporation:  IDC Maturity Benchmark: Artificial Intelligence in India, 2021. 
The India AI MaturityScape study finds that around two-thirds of the organizations are in the first two maturity stages, i.e., ad hoc and opportunistic, compared with a quarter of organizations in repeatable stage.
With digital transformation (DX) being a key objective, many organizations in every industry are exploring AI technologies to enhance customer experience, improve operations, and enhance decision-making.
Says Rishu Sharma,  Associate Research Director, Cloud and AI at IDC India: "Most organizations are yet to reach the highest levels of maturity, most notably in the areas of people and technology." 
Some key findings of the study:
-Few (11.6%) organizations are still at the ad hoc stage, but more than half of the organizations are still in the opportunistic stage of AI adoption in India.
-Around 25% of organizations are in the repeatable stage (AI practitioner). Such practitioners are beginning to develop and align their AI strategy and goals with the enterprise strategy.
-Across all five AI maturity dimensions, survivors cluster around the ad hoc and opportunistic stages. In contrast, thrivers made significant moves toward the repeatable, managed, and optimized stages.
Adds Swapnil Shende, Senior Market Analyst, Artificial Intelligence at IDC India:"Organizations have started increasing their AI spend because of the digitization wave and the pause created by the COVID-19 storm. The pandemic has suppressed any persistent doubts about the need of adopting AI in the pre-COVID era. Organizations have started utilizing AI capabilities to extract timely insights from the organizational data, improve internal operations, and achieve strategic goals; and have reached different maturity levels in their AI adoption journey."