ASEAN organisations lack mature AI strategy

Less than one in five ASEAN organisations has a well-defined artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, despite most recognising the technology’s business value, according to a study.

Commissioned by IBM and conducted by technology analyst firm Ecosystm, the research found that while all organisations in ASEAN have embarked on AI journeys, their maturity and readiness vary widely.

“Everyone is doing something around AI and there’s a lot of activity, which is great, but we also see a lot of room for improvement,” said Ullrich Loeffler, CEO and co-founder of Ecosystm, at IBM Think in Singapore this week.

Ecosystm collected data on how prepared organisations are in deploying AI, rating the maturity of their AI strategy on four criteria: culture and leadership, skills and people, data foundation, and governance framework.

The scores were then aggregated to determine which of five stages of AI readiness they fell into – traditional, emerging, consolidating, transformative or AI-first.

A significant gap exists between organisational optimism about AI readiness and the stark reality. For instance, while 39% of organisations perceive themselves as transformative, Ecosystm’s data reveals that only 4% have reached this level of AI maturity.

Most ASEAN organisations (72%) self-assess as “consolidating” in AI maturity, indicating significant room for growth. These organisations, according to Ecosystm, tend to adopt market-driven AI technology approaches and have centralised data teams with limited AI expertise.

In terms of AI use cases, Loeffler said ASEAN organisations primarily focus on productivity gains in operations, finance, marketing, and HR through AI applications. Examples include intelligent document processing (63%) in operations, support and helpdesk applications (60%) in IT, and content strategy and creation (55%) in sales and marketing.

However, realising AI’s transformative potential requires addressing persistent challenges in talent, data, and governance.

According to Ecosystm, only 17% of ASEAN organisations boast extensive expertise and dedicated data science teams, with most lacking specialists or possessing basic AI skills. While some leverage AI capabilities embedded in existing applications, maximising AI’s potential demands strong internal expertise. Upskilling AI talent and partnering with technology providers can bridge this expertise gap.

As for data, while 96% of organisations use data for some business decisions, only 15% leverage it for core strategies and business models. Over 80% of organisations also acknowledged the need to improve their data.

Establishing clear AI governance frameworks is crucial for responsible and ethical deployment. This involves defining ownership, security, and compliance measures for AI models and data. Across ASEAN, just 18% of organisations have a dedicated AI and data governance role, Loeffler noted, emphasising the importance of governance for scaling AI beyond the proof-of-concept stage.