The adoption of artificial intelligence is inescapable, but research from Hitachi Vantara’s State of Data Infrastructure Global Report 2024, indicates that IT leaders struggle to implement it effectively.
To ensure a successful AI implementation, all but one of the 1,200 global leaders surveyed are turning to third-party expertise for assistance. These leaders realize that combining efforts will lead to a stronger AI solution. Research shows they capitalize on the knowledge and capabilities within the organization to build out specific areas, and “buy, build or borrow” the expertise they need to fill in the rest. That’s a huge opportunity for IT solution providers who are well-versed in AI and infrastructure.
Identifying the gaps in skills, staff, and infrastructure is critical to determining how to bolster their AI needs. Nearly a third of IT leaders admit they need help to build AI models/large language models (LLMs) (32%) and to train IT staff (31%). Slightly fewer (28%) need help with redundant, obsolete, or trivial (ROT) data storage and with data preparation, and 27% want help with data processing.
More than a quarter want to work with partners to create secure implementations (27%), ensure sustainable implementations (27%), and provide scalable solutions (26%). That includes building secure, highly available hardware solutions to meet demand and support efficiency and sustainability goals.
Mind the Gap: Making Sense of AI
Making sense of AI has led some scrappy IT teams to learn the skills through experimentation (48%) and another 35% are self-taught. Far more of these global leaders have bridged the knowledge gap by buying the help they need, hiring staff with AI skills (64%) and consulting with external AI experts (61%).
Organizations also are buying the tools they need: 56% have purchased an AI/LLM from another company, and 59% have rented one. The U.K. has the greatest number of organizations renting models at 81%, and 65% of those companies are highly successful using those models. In fact, using publicly available LLMs is more common in Europe and Asia (75% and 71%, respectively) compared to the Americas, where only 61% utilize them.
Building AI skills in-house is gaining popularity: 39% of organizations are investing in staff training. Of those, 60% are building their own AI/LLM models, though nearly two-thirds (63%) seek help from global systems integrators to do so, and 61% are consulting with external AI experts to strengthen their skills.
More than two-thirds (68%) of the organizations surveyed are borrowing expertise by working with external partners. In 46% of cases, the external partner is managing specific AI implementations, and 37% are outsourcing to third parties. Of those who work with third-party partners to implement AI, the key advantages include building an infrastructure that works across hardware, software, and AI strategy and being able to future-proof structures and frameworks.
Stronger Together: How Partnerships Power AI Innovation
Developing the right partnership is no fool’s errand. The most effective relationships are with partners that use technology to create efficiencies, mitigate risk, and support business growth. Hitachi Vantara’s flexible, reliable data storage solutions support these goals. Using automation to simplify operations, companies gain better insights into their data and can more easily determine which data is essential to their success.
Hitachi Vantara also offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), which relies on outcome-based models and service level agreements to ensure products and services perform as expected, while providing scalability, reducing risk, and stabilizing costs.
The most successful third-party partnerships are built on more than providing technical expertise. Possessing strong industry knowledge, the ability to anticipate and alleviate potential problems, and the capability to create result-driven solutions are vital as companies implement AI-based solutions that help them effectively uncover and use one of their most critical and abundant assets: data.
Download the full State of Data Infrastructure Global Report from Hitachi Vantara.
Image Credits: Hitachi Vantara State of Data Infrastructure Global Report