CIOs to leverage AI for real RoI: Ankit Bose, Nasscom AI

Expertise shortfall despite abundance of skilled AI workforce – as companies consistently flag shortage of tech+domain experience of AI workforce  and expertise in strategic thinking and building advanced AI solutions To overcome these challenges, enterprises will benefit from thinking of a leap strategy, becoming an AI-first company and prioritizing data discipline as the new company value.

Q. What are the key parameters for CIOs to build an IT teams for the AI-enabled organization?

Ankit: Indian enterprises need to invest much more in building “right-sized” operating models for their AI initiatives, combining both internal and external talent sources with consistent leadership oversight and centers of excellence (AI CoEs) to streamline and scale-up disparate AI programs across the organization. As per our AI Adoption Index 2.0, 75% enterprises prefer starting AI foray as-a-service, since inhouse talent building can be a challenging route. Additionally, 50% companies find at least two of these three – hiring, retention, and best-fit reskilling, as major challenges in building the right AI skills.

Companies also struggle with hiring dedicated AI leadership and rely on IT heads to own AI initiatives, with ad-hoc execution team. Only 8% companies have designated a dedicated AI leader, majority of which are mature adopter organizations. AI leaders are known to be able to envision and drive enterprise-scale AI initiatives more effectively. And only 13% enterprises have dedicated AI teams, reflecting the limited availability of specialist AI talent.