Few Firms Are Truly AI Ready, Cisco Says
Only 13% qualify as Pacesetters with faster pilot to production cycles while most grapple with infrastructure debt and thin networks.
News
- Few Firms Are Truly AI Ready, Cisco Says
- Training AI Models Is a Bigger Prize Than Building Them, Oracle’s Ellison Says
- Google‑Yale Gemma AI Flags Drug Pairing That Could Aid Cancer Detection
- Instagram Tightens Teen Controls Amid Safety Scrutiny
- Anthropic May Store User Data in India as Local Claude Usage Surges
- Intel Plans Crescent Island User Trials by Second Half of 2026
Only about one in eight companies worldwide sits in the “most-ready” bracket for AI, and they are widening the gap on value creation, Cisco’s 2025 AI Readiness Index showed.
The report identified a cohort of “Pacesetters” at roughly 13% globally and about 17% in India, saying they are far more likely to move pilots into production, report measurable gains, and push early deployments of agentic systems.
Cisco also warned that “AI infrastructure debt” such as rising costs, GPU bottlenecks, legacy stacks and security gaps could blunt returns for firms that scale before they are ready.
The findings draw on a survey of more than 8,000 leaders across 30 markets and 26 industries.
Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s president and chief product officer, said companies are moving beyond chatbots toward task-executing agents.
“Over 80% of companies are prioritizing agentic solutions, with two out of three reporting that these systems are already meeting or exceeding their performance goals,” he said, arguing that firms further along are seeing “dramatically stronger returns.”
Cisco’s data also showed why “Pacesetters” are pulling away.
They are four times more likely to move pilots into production, with 77% having finalized use cases versus 18% overall, and 90% reporting gains in profitability, productivity and innovation compared with roughly 60% of other organizations.
Nearly all track impact, and most have funding strategies that match intent.
Agentic AI is the near-term push. Globally, 83% of organizations plan to deploy AI agents and nearly 40% expect them to work alongside employees within a year, even though only about 15% said their networks are flexible enough to handle the load.
In India, 91% plan to deploy AI agents and 41% expect them to work alongside employees within a year.
Cisco’s bottom line is that value follows readiness. Nearly half of “Pacesetters” expect 50–100% ROI by 2026, versus about 30% of companies overall, and Cisco said those furthest along pair strategy with data, infrastructure, governance, and change management to move faster from pilot to production.
