Pluralsight research finds more than half of organizations don't have comprehensive AI strategies

More than half of U.S. companies have yet to form comprehensive AI strategies and 67 percent have short-term plans of a year or less, according to a new survey from Pluralsight, a Salt Lake City-based technology workforce development company.

Pluralsight surveyed 600 technology decision-makers about the state of their AI strategies, investments and skills for the report. The data was used to create a benchmark for Pluralsight’s AI Readiness Index, a tool that allows companies to gauge where their AI strategies stack up against other organizations in their industry.

The poll also found that more than half (56 percent) of those surveyed have data systems that are not up-to-date enough to handle AI’s technical and operational demands.

“There is a critical gap between organizational ambition and actual readiness when it comes to AI adoption,” said Chris McClellen, chief product and technology officer at Pluralsight. “While many companies recognize the importance of AI, the lack of long-term strategies, mature systems and comprehensive workforce upskilling to support the demands of AI leaves them unable to capitalize on its potential. To successfully leverage AI technologies, companies must shift from tactical investments to strategic, actionable AI goals that span further than one year, and include the infrastructure and skilled workforce needed to scale effectively.”

The findings uncovered several key insights about the AI skills gap that is preventing organizations from implementing AI effectively:

• Seventy-five percent of companies have experienced delays or pauses in at least one or more AI projects due to a lack of employee AI expertise.
• More than one-third (35 percent) of respondents said half or less of its employees have well-developed AI skills.
• Thirty-eight percent of respondents said half or less of its departments have adopted AI skills as part of training programs and day-to-day use.

In the research, Pluralsight found that organizations with less revenue (61 percent) lack actionable AI goals. However, even among organizations with larger revenue, there is still minimal spend on AI initiatives. More than half (58 percent) of organizations with over $50 million in annual revenue are spending less than $500,000 on their AI investments, or about 1 percent of their total revenue.

This data shows that many organizations still have significant progress to make against their AI goals, including closing skills gaps, creating long-term AI strategies and investing more deeply into AI initiatives, the Pluralsight research authors concluded.