Vultr report reveals AI maturity drives business performance

Vultr, a prominent player in the cloud computing sector, has released a comprehensive report detailing current trends in artificial intelligence (AI) adoption among enterprises.

The report, titled "The New Battleground: Unlocking the Power of AI Maturity with Multi-Model AI," reveals a strong link between an organisation's AI maturity and its overall business performance.

The study, commissioned by Vultr and conducted by S&P Global Market Intelligence, surveyed over 1,000 IT and digital transformation decision-makers across various industries including healthcare, life sciences, government, retail, manufacturing, and financial services. The research highlights that nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents are at advanced stages of AI usage. Kevin Cochrane, Chief Marketing Officer of Constant, Vultr's parent company, stated, "As organisations worldwide capitalise on strategic investments in AI, we wanted to look at the state of AI maturity. What we've found is that transformational organisations are winning the hearts, minds, and share of wallets while also improving their operating margins."

The data indicates that high levels of AI maturity correlate with superior business metrics such as revenue growth, market share, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency. For example, 50% of companies identified as having transformational AI practices report significantly better performance compared to their industry peers. These organisations also reported year-over-year improvements in several key areas: customer satisfaction (90%), revenue (91%), cost reduction/margin expansion (88%), risk management (87%), marketing (89%), and market share (89%).

An average of 158 distinct AI models are currently operational within surveyed organisations, and this number is projected to rise by 11%, reaching 176 models within the next year. This growth underscores an accelerated adoption of AI technologies across industries. Cochrane noted, "AI's transformative impact is undeniable—it's devouring industries and is becoming ubiquitous in every facet of business operations. This necessitates a new era of technology, underpinned by a composable stack and platform engineering to effectively scale these innovations."

The study also sheds light on AI infrastructure preferences. For cloud-native applications, two-thirds of organisations are either custom-building their models or utilising open-source models. The report suggests a hybrid approach will dominate the AI infrastructure stack by 2025, with 35% of AI processing occurring on-premises and 38% taking place in the cloud or across multiple clouds. Additionally, 47% of enterprises are partnering with experts to help with AI strategy and deployment, partly due to a shortage of skilled personnel. Only 15% are utilising traditional hyperscalers like AWS, GCP, or Azure for these tasks.

Challenges to further AI adoption were also identified in the report. Budget constraints, acquiring or developing AI algorithms, lack of skilled professionals, and data quality issues were cited as significant hurdles. Governance issues are more pronounced for organisations at a higher level of AI maturity, while company culture poses a larger concern for those still in the early stages of AI implementation.

The research highlights the importance of AI as a competitive differentiator. Cochrane added, "For years the hyperscalers have dominated the infrastructure market, but that is all about to change. Over the next decade, everything will be rebuilt with AI at the core, with organisations integrating the principles of cloud engineering into their operations. As a result, we will see the rise of AI specialists and independents as they empower organisations to do transformative work and gain a competitive edge."

The findings suggest that AI spending will outpace IT spending, with 88% of surveyed enterprises planning to increase their AI investments in 2025. Nearly half anticipate moderate to significant increases in their AI budgets, indicating a strong commitment to advancing their AI capabilities.