UK IT leaders struggling to keep up with AI due to talent shortage

The ongoing skills shortage is causing problems for IT leaders when it comes to implementing AI. New research from SambaNova Systems finds that for 80 percent of UK IT leaders, it's a challenge to keep up with the speed of model and data growth.

The top challenges when deploying enterprise AI include, finding or customising models and algorithms at 67 percent, setting up infrastructure (43 percent) and preparing data (38 percent).

For business leaders, AI is seen as a driver of business value, and more than half (54 percent) say that AI’s business impact will be 'transformational' or 'significantly improve the business' over the next 12-24 months. Only 19 percent say it will have 'no impact at all'.

Marshall Choy, SVP product at SambaNova says, "Our research shows that enterprise business leaders understand the value they can derive from AI today. But the technology teams tasked with delivering on their goals are struggling to keep up -- both from a technology and a resourcing point of view."

Skills shortages remain a big hurdle. Even though 59 percent of IT managers report having the budget to hire additional resources, 82 percent claim that hiring these skilled staff members is challenging. The issue is worsened by high staff turnover, with 53 percent reporting that retention is difficult.

Chris Kenny, general manager, EMEA at SambaNova says:

You'd be hard-pressed to find an area of technology that is being developed more intensely than AI, especially around large language models such as GPT. The opportunity these models deliver is there for the taking, although technology teams often don’t have the resources or expertise to take advantage of the opportunity.

For enterprises struggling to deliver on business leaders' demands, deploying AI as a service is a fast track, a scalable way to avoid falling behind their competitors. AI is already here at most organizations.

You can see a summary of the survey results in the infographic below.

Photo Credit: NicoElNino/Shutterstock