Building the AI-enabled enterprise of the future

"This is one of those inflection points where I don't think anybody really has a full view of the significance of the change this is going to have on not just companies but society as a whole," says Patrick Milligan, chief information security officer at Ford, which is making AI an important part of its transformation efforts and expanding its use across company operations. Given its game-changing potential--and the breakneck speed with which it is evolving--it is perhaps not surprising that companies are feeling the pressure to deploy AI as soon as possible: 98% say they feel an increased sense of urgency in the last year. And 85% believe they have less than 18 months to deploy an AI strategy or they will see negative business effects. Companies that take a "wait and see" approach will fall behind, says Jeetu Patel, president and chief product officer at Cisco. "If you wait for too long, you risk becoming irrelevant," he says.