A recent study conducted by IDC found that companies in Asia Pacific are investing in artificial intelligence (AI) more aggressively than their global peers.
The study, commissioned by managed network services provider Expereo, however, saw that many are doing so with little evaluation of returns as boards race to avoid being left behind.
The IDC InfoBrief, based on a survey of 800 technology leaders across Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States, found that about 70% of organisations are investing in AI because of its potential or fear of falling behind competitors.
In Asia Pacific, 37% of organisations said they were investing aggressively in AI with little evaluation, nearly double the global average of 20% and higher than the 10% reported in the United States and 13% in Europe.
The pressure was most pronounced in Australia, where 45% of respondents said they were investing with limited evaluation, followed by Vietnam at 44%.
In Singapore, more than one in three organisations said the same.
The findings point to a widening gap between AI ambition and measurable business outcomes, even as AI becomes one of the most prioritised areas of technology spending.
Globally, 51% of organisations plan to prioritise AI or machine learning investment over the next 12 months.
In Asia Pacific, that figure rises to 61%, underscoring the region’s faster adoption of the technology.
But returns have been uneven. Only 19% of global organisations surveyed said their AI implementations had exceeded expectations, while just 5% said results had significantly exceeded expectations.
Asia Pacific fared better, with 40% saying AI implementations had exceeded or significantly exceeded expectations.
Still, the majority of organisations in the region have yet to see outcomes match the pace of investment.
The most common reasons for underperformance globally were inadequate or poor-quality training data, cited by 51% of respondents; higher-than-expected costs or failure to achieve ROI, cited by 47%; and AI not performing as well as expected, cited by 46%.
In Asia Pacific, 49% cited poor-quality training data, while 54% pointed to cost overruns or ROI not being achieved.
In Malaysia, that figure rose to 80%. Another 46% of APAC respondents said AI had not performed as expected.
Expereo said network and infrastructure readiness was also emerging as a major constraint.
Globally, 26% of organisations whose AI implementations failed to meet expectations cited inadequate network or connectivity performance as a contributing factor.
Only 9% of Asia Pacific organisations described their network infrastructure as fully ready to support new AI, cloud and digital initiatives, while 37% said their infrastructure would need upgrading or replacing soon.
In Indonesia, nearly half of respondents said their infrastructure would need upgrading or replacing soon.