Digital immaturity is holding back growth in the UK

A lack of digital maturity is holding UK businesses back, hampering growth, and slowing down AI adoption, according to a report from SAP.

Businesses face a range of issues when it comes to the maturity of their tech portfolios, with 27% of surveyed firms citing the burden of legacy technology as a key barrier to scale.

This highlights the difficulty of integrating advanced technologies into dated systems, SAP said.

Data and management infrastructure are also an issue, with over a third (34%) of organizations stating that either a lack of quality data or a lack of quality tools for planning are among the top three challenges affecting business growth.

As many as a third of firms indicated that insufficient datasets are hindering AI model training and affecting accuracy, while 32% are struggling with inaccuracies generated by AI systems.

“Addressing barriers to growth, like digital immaturity, must be a priority for the UK’s high-growth organizations if they wish to reach their potential,” Wesley Doyle, Head of new business at SAP UKI, said.

Similarly, businesses are contending with a significant shortage of skilled talent in the technology sector.

More than a third (34%) face difficulties in attracting and retaining employees with the necessary expertise to properly adopt AI. Little wonder, then, that 40% of firms are prioritizing skills development in their growth strategies.

Businesses struggle with AI adoption

Despite feverish enthusiasm for AI, businesses have been contending with many of the problems highlighted here for a while as adoption projects ramp up in size and volume.

Data, for example, has been a continuous thorn in the side of many firms, with a recent report finding that 26% lack a formal data strategy and 39% report little to no data governance despite a keen focus on AI use.

An earlier study from Red Hat found similar concerns around skills and training, with 80% of IT managers pointing to an urgent skills gap and 40% suggesting their own firms lack the necessary skills to fully harness AI.

Other concerns include the quality of the technology itself. A KPMG report from last summer found that 60% of tech leaders consider result accuracy and the potential for hallucination as their biggest concern.

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