Momentum of AI adoption strongest in India and China, finds BSI

New BSI model evaluates readiness for AI among businesses globally, as 76% of survey respondents say lack of AI focus will be a competitive disadvantage

India, 30 July 2024: Chinese and Indian businesses have a greater level of readiness to smoothly integrate AI into their operations, prepare employees for resulting changes to work and leverage it as a force for good, while the UK, Japan and the Netherlands have greater progress to make in areas including investment, training, and supplier engagement, according to BSI’s newly published International AI Maturity Model.

BSI’s model assesses and weights a suite of measures including organizational confidence and readiness for AI adoption amongst businesses globally, to come up with a single score. It identifies India as the most AI mature market, scoring 4.58 to China’s 4.25. Based on insights from 932 business leaders across nine countries and seven sectors, metrics include attitude and actions including around investment, training, internal and external communications and safety. Published as part of BSI’s Trust in AI report, the analysis identifies the UK and Japan to be less mature relative to others, potentially influenced by factors including policy direction or media narratives focused on risk rather than opportunity. On all measures, China and India led the way, with the US in third place, followed by Australia.

The research identified gaps between perceptions of what successful AI adoption entails and concrete steps being taken. More than three quarters of global business leaders (76%) think organizations will be at a competitive disadvantage if they do not invest in AI. Yet 30% felt not enough was being invested by their businesses in AI tools. Similarly, while nine in ten felt offering training to ensure safe, ethical and effective use was important (89%), and a similar proportion (87%) felt businesses should train teams to utilize AI tools in order to protect jobs, only a third reported substantive awareness of their company offering such training and only two fifths said their businesses had a specific learning and development programme.

Overall, business engagement with AI is high, yet there are striking variances, with 96% and 94% in China and India saying their business encourages AI use, compared with 40% for Japan and 65% for the UK. A similar picture emerges around confidence in their business’s ability to harness the benefits of AI in Japan (50% to China’s 96%). Larger organizations are more likely than SMEs to say their business encourages AI use (84% to 67%) and are more confident in their business’s ability to harness it (89% compared to 76%).

Theuns Kotze, Managing Director, BSI Group India Private LTD., said: “BSI’s International AI Maturity Model paints a positive but nuanced picture of a world excited about AI’s potential and its promise as a force for good. India is pulling ahead of other countries and sectors, however there is a journey still to go on to build trust and confidence. Investment in standards, training and assurance is key as AI becomes integral to the future of life and work. “Success is not about being first, but about building trust in the data quality and data integrity on which AI is based. BSI is committed to playing a role in shaping the guardrails for the safe and ethical use of AI, which will help businesses globally respond to embrace AI to build a positive future for all.”

Notably, under half of businesses have an AI strategy globally (53% in India) – falling to just 28% in the Netherlands and 21% in Japan. More positively, 93% globally recognize the importance of an ethical approach to AI. BSI recently published the first international AI management system standard (BS ISO/IEC 42001), along with a package of measures designed to enable the safe, secure and responsible use of AI. However, only one in three (29%) globally were aware of significant moves by their business to implement such policies and processes (compared to 81% in India).

BSI also explored where Indian leaders see scope for AI, with 65% saying the key opportunity is around improving productivity and efficiency, including of supply chain management (55%), closely followed by improved customer service (54%). More than half of India business leaders see it as a tool to support the management, measurement and reporting of sustainability goals (52%). 90% expect that manual roles will change because of AI; India has the highest expectation that some knowledge-based roles will change because of AI (94%).