Enterprises adopt AI tenfold, but governance lags

Juniper Networks, a provider of secure, AI-powered networks, announced the findings of a global research project demonstrating that an increase in enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) adoption over the last year has yielded tangible benefits to organizations.

However, there is still a shortage of human talent, and governance policies are still immature, both of which are required to responsibly manage AI’s growth when considering privacy issues, regulatory compliance, hacking, and AI terrorism.

“The disparity the data shows between the substantial increase in AI implementation in the enterprise and the immaturity of AI governance and policies is staggering. It will be critical for governance to pick up pace so that the positives of AI deployment overshadow existing fears of whether AI can be effectively controlled. This is a challenge not unique to AI, but all emerging technologies,” said Sharon Mandell, SVP and CIO, Juniper Networks.

Juniper collaborated with Wakefield Research to survey 700 senior IT leaders from around the world who have direct involvement in their organization’s AI and/or machine learning (ML) plans or deployments. The survey gauges public opinion on the value of AI, the perceived maturity of deployments, and where challenges remain.

According to this year’s survey, thanks to pandemic-related digital acceleration and the maturation of AI tools available, enterprises have largely moved beyond proof-of-concepts and limited trials of AI and are now implementing AI across their organizations.

While Juniper’s 2021 report previously found that only 6% of C-level leaders had adopted AI-powered solutions across their organizations (citing technological, skillset, and governance challenges), 63 percent of company leaders polled this year say they are “most of the way” to their planned AI adoption goals.

“AI is ultimately designed to perform tasks on par with humans but at a higher scale via automation.  Many of Juniper’s own customers are leveraging cloud AI in their networks to dramatically cut support tickets, which frees up IT teams from the drudgery of tactical issues, allowing them to focus on improving end users’ experiences. But with all the positives, enterprises need to responsibly manage AI’s growth with proper governance to stay ahead of regulation and minimize potential negative impacts. In Europe, for instance, we are seeing regulators starting to classify certain AI use cases as risky and requiring CE certification. AI regulation is changing quickly and business leaders must make AI governance a strategic priority,” said Bob Friday, Chief AI Officer, Juniper Networks.