Juniper Networks Research Finds Artificial Intelligence Adoption Expands Tenfold Across Enterprises While Governance Lags

Juniper Networks, a leader in secure, AI-driven networks, today announced the findings of a global research project that shows an increase in enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) adoption over the last 12 months is yielding tangible benefits to organizations. However, a shortage of human talent still exists and governance policies continue to lack in maturity – both of which are needed to responsibly manage AI’s growth when considering privacy issues, regulation compliance, hacking and AI terrorism.

Juniper partnered with Wakefield Research to conduct a survey of 700 senior IT leaders around the world with direct involvement in their organization’s AI and/or machine learning (ML) plans or deployments. The survey gauges sentiment around the value of AI, the perceived maturity of deployments and where challenges still exist.

This year’s survey found that enterprises have largely moved past proof-of-concepts and limited trials of AI and are now implementing AI across their organizations, thanks to pandemic-related digital acceleration and the maturation of AI tools available. While Juniper’s 2021 report previously showed only 6% of C-level leaders had adopted AI-powered solutions across their organizations (citing technological, skillset and governance challenges), this year, 63% of company leaders surveyed say they are at least “most of the way” to their planned AI adoption goals.

Still, only 9% of IT leaders consider their AI governance and policies, such as establishing a company-wide AI leader or responsible AI standards and processes, to be “fully mature.” At the same time, more leaders see governance as a priority: 95% agree having proper AI governance in place is important to stay ahead of future legislation, up from 87% in 2021. Despite leadership recognizing the importance of AI governance and having policies in place to manage, govern and maintain, almost half of respondents (48%) think more needs to be done to effectively govern AI.

“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.”