Ciscoit’s new Global AI Partner Studytitled Closing the Customer AI Readiness Gap: The Opportunities Ahead for Partners, revealed that 44% of IT partners in the Asia Pacific region believe the demand for AI technology investments will increase by more than 75% over the next four to five years. IT partners believe that infrastructure (31%), cybersecurity (17%), and customer experience (9%) will drive demand for AI technology in the coming years.
“The potential for AI to transform business operations is immense, and achieving this requires a concerted effort to strengthen the practical deployment capabilities of our partners,” said Alex PujolsVice President of Global Partner Engineering at Cisco. “This study highlights the significant revenue opportunities for IT partners leading the deployment of AI. By focusing on AI readiness, Cisco and its valuable partner ecosystem are well-positioned to drive transformative results for our customers and take advantage of the opportunities of the AI era.
Trust and investments
The results indicate that partners in the Asia-Pacific region demonstrate high confidence in their knowledge and understanding of the deployment of AI technologies. However, they also understand the challenges they face, such as inexperience in deploying new technologies (64%), lack of knowledge of systems and processes (54%), and lack of available technologies (52 %).
The study found that 80% of partners in the Asia Pacific region are already conducting internal training or inviting external vendors to provide specialized training on AI skills.
“Cisco reaffirms the critical importance of capitalizing on the power of AI alongside resilient solutions. cybersecurityparticularly in light of the Hong Kong government’s commitment to developing a digital government and smart city through the use of AI, as outlined in the recent policy speech,” said Iris FengManaging Director of Cisco Hong Kong, Macau and South China.
