The report shows an 18-point gap between AI strategy and performance in EMEA.
Despite massive artificial intelligence spending, European businesses are struggling to turn their investments into measurable results, a new ServiceNow index has found.
Organizations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) scored 51 out of 100 for overall AI maturity – up 34pc from last year, but managed to score 40 when it came to AI-enabled workflow.
Leadership, vision and strategy scores reached 58, according to the report, which surveyed more than 4,700 senior executives in 16 countries. 1,700 were based across EMEA.
Businesses are paying for AI capabilities they haven’t yet unlocked, the report said, and only 16 percent of those surveyed said they’re replacing disparate legacy systems with an integrated platform.
And 59pc of surveyed professionals say their organizations have moved beyond testing agent AI, but only 9pc say they’ve made “significant progress” in building autonomous, multi-step workflows, the report found.
This comes as global corporate AI spending is set to reach $581bn by 2025, with predictions that AI will represent more than 20 per cent of corporate IT budgets by 2027. Government AI spend, meanwhile, rose 140pc year-on-year, more than any other industry surveyed.
ServiceNow identified data quality, governance and workflow infrastructure as a “significant barrier[s]” to scale AI across the business spectrum.
It also found that Irish-based businesses already working against rising costs and tighter restrictions, are facing further pressure.
This comes as Ireland makes efforts to develop workers in AI, support businesses in adopting the technology and introduce new policies to attract data centers.
“Irish organizations are among the most ambitious for AI in Europe. The challenge is not commitment. It is combining that commitment with the operational infrastructure that makes AI work across the business and, more importantly, making it live with the right monitors and management,” explained Paul Turley, executive director of ServiceNow Ireland.
“Organizations that have closed that gap are already seeing significant returns. The difference is clear – those closing the gap aren’t just using AI, they’re using it differently, using autonomous, multi-step workflows at about eighteen times the rate of the rest of the market.”
A ServiceNow survey found data to be the biggest barrier to AI implementation, with 73pc of EMEA executives citing insufficient data accuracy, access, and management as the biggest obstacle.
Only 57pc of organizations in the region are using agent AI, of which only 9pc are using the technology to create automated workflows, meaning that AI is simply assisting employees without major changes to the way the organization operates.
Meanwhile, only 19pc of EMEA organizations say they use AI testing, auditing and risk processes, despite the bloc’s stricter rules.
ServiceNow finds management maturity to be the defining factor between organizations succeeding in the AI race and those lagging behind.
These organizations include strong data management, risk assessment and management and integrated workflows, which enable them to scale AI with confidence, according to the report, and as a result, they were able to deliver a 164pc return on investment and expect a 199pc ROI expected within two years.
“Mature governance enables these organizations to grow with confidence and move faster than their peers. For Irish businesses, the EU AI Act makes governance inevitable, but the Index shows that it should be embraced rather than resisted,” ServiceNow said.
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