AI innovation is vital for UK businesses, but barriers threaten progress

Most UK IT leaders (91%) recognise that AI is a key opportunity to transform their organisation, and while almost all plan to adopt it, almost all (88%) predict that AI-generated data will soon outstrip their current data centres and 78% fear their infrastructure cannot keep up with AI.

These are some of the key findings of a survey conducted for Pure Storage among 1,500 senior executives around the world.

Main findings of the report, entitled The Race to Innovation: Reducing Risk and Crossing AI Frontiers for Future Success They also confirm that AI is emerging as an avenue for innovation for the UK, but that the need for increased infrastructure modernisation and capacity, as well as rising energy costs, skills shortages and the daily struggle to fight fires, are hampering progress.

In fact, the study also found that many see spending on cyber defense as a significant barrier to innovation and that budgets spent on protecting their business could be better spent elsewhere.

Among UK businesses, most are already planning or adopting AI, while 42% have developed an AI-first strategy in which AI is considered for every new use case.

According to respondents, the main benefits of AI are the ability to improve efficiency and automate repetitive tasks (53%). Then, its main benefits are the personalization of the customer experience (49%) and decision-making through the use of customer data (45%).

To that end, nearly half of IT budgets and 53% of IT time are expected to be dedicated to AI efforts over the next year, but nearly nine in ten business leaders surveyed (88%) predict that AI-generated data will soon outgrow their organization’s data centers, and 78% are concerned that their infrastructure cannot meet AI’s infrastructure needs.

But while there is pressure to invest and innovate in AI, data centers are under enormous pressure from rising energy costs and cyber threats.

The survey found that a third of UK businesses see rising energy costs as a threat to their innovation capability. At the same time, UK IT teams are struggling to meet innovation needs, with 56% having to focus on keeping the lights on and fighting fires. This is the highest rate of any country in the global report. In addition, UK businesses are struggling to recruit, with 37% saying this is one of the biggest risks to their innovation capability.

Respondents also identified cyber attacks as a major concern and in particular as a barrier to innovation. For example, among UK respondents, 49% consider cyber attacks to be the biggest threat to innovation, while 87% believe that the budget and time spent on preventing and managing cyber attacks would be better spent on innovation.

“UK IT leaders are concerned about losing the innovation race,” said Wes van den Berg, regional vice president, UK & Ireland, Pure Storage. “This research aims to help them understand the full range of risks their organization faces beyond the obvious cyber threats, enabling them to prioritize and balance security with innovation. Addressing rising energy costs and assessing AI readiness with a hybrid infrastructure approach can significantly benefit their efforts to leverage AI for future success.”