AI-Ready Companies Are Turning Pilots Into Profit

Only 18 per cent of organisations in South Africa are fully prepared for AI – they’re 4x more likely to move pilots into production and 50 per cent more likely to see measurable value.

93 per cent in South Africa plan to deploy AI agents, and 44 per cent expect them to work alongside employees within a year — but few have the secure infrastructure to sustain it.

The report includes early signs of disruption to value — rising workloads, insufficient GPU capacity, and a lack of centralised data, among others.

Cisco released the South African results from the third annual Cisco AI Readiness Index ahead of Cisco Connect, a premier event scheduled for October 23rd. This platform will bring together Cisco customers, partners, and industry leaders to discuss how organisations can prepare for the future of AI.

A small but consistent group of companies — the Pacesetters, about 18 per cent of organisations in South Africa, and 13 per cent globally, for the last three years — outperform their peers across every measure of AI value, captured for the first time in Cisco’s global study of over 8,000 AI leaders across 30 markets and 26 industries.

The Pacesetters’ sustained advantage indicates a new form of resilience: a disciplined, system-level approach that balances strategic drivers with the data and infrastructure needed to keep pace with AI’s accelerating evolution. They’re already architecting for the future with 98 per cent globally designing their networks for the growth, scale and complexity of AI compared to 57 per cent in South Africa.

The combination of foresight and foundation is delivering real, tangible results at a time when two major forces are reshaping the landscape: AI agents, which raise the bar for scale, security, and governance; and AI Infrastructure Debt, the early warning signs of hidden bottlenecks that threaten to erode long-term value.

Smangele Nkosi, General Manager of Cisco South Africa, says, “AI is accelerating change, no matter the industry or how advanced the market is. Organisations everywhere want to embrace AI to boost efficiency, spark innovation, and create new ways of doing business. The alignment of AI with strategy, data, and infrastructure helps companies extract real value from its deployment, enabling a sustained competitive edge. AI value doesn’t come from experimentation alone; it comes from execution.”

The Pacesetter Profile: Readiness As Competitive Advantage

Cisco’s research outlines a consistent pattern among these leaders delivering real returns.

They make AI part of the business, not a side project.

Nearly all Pacesetters (99 per cent) have a defined AI roadmap (vs 59 per cent in South Africa), and 91 per cent (vs 37 per cent in South Africa) have a change-management plan. Budgets match intent, with 79 per cent making AI the top investment priority (vs 23 per cent in South Africa) and 96 per cent with short- and long-term funding strategies (vs 49 per cent in South Africa).

They build infrastructure that’s ready to grow.

Their architect for the always-on AI era. 71 per cent of Pacesetters say their networks are fully flexible and can scale instantly for any AI project (vs 18 per cent in South Africa), and 77 per cent are investing in new data centre capacity within the next 12 months (vs 41 per cent in South Africa).

They move pilots into production.

62 per cent have a mature, repeatable innovation process for generating and scaling AI use cases (vs 16 per cent in South Africa), and three-quarters (77 per cent) have already finalised those use cases (vs 26 per cent in South Africa).

They measure what matters.

95 per cent track the impact of their AI investments — almost three times higher than others — and 71 per cent are confident their use cases will generate new revenue streams, almost double the local average.

They turn security into strength.

87 per cent are highly aware of AI-specific threats (vs 59 per cent in South Africa), 62 per cent integrate AI into their security and identity systems (vs 44 per cent in South Africa), and 75 per cent are fully equipped to control and secure AI agents (vs 52 per cent in South Africa). For them, trust is part of the value equation.

Pacesetters achieve more widespread results because of this approach: 90 per cent report gains in profitability, productivity, and innovation, compared with 71 per cent overall in South Africa.

AI Agents: Ambition Outpacing Readiness

The Index shows 93 per cent of organisations in South Africa plan to deploy AI agents, and nearly 44 per cent expect them to work alongside employees within a year. But for the vast majority of companies, AI agents are exposing weak foundations — systems that can barely handle reactive, task-based AI, let alone the autonomous systems that think, act, and learn continuously. More than a third (31 per cent) say their networks can’t scale for complexity or data volume, and just 18 per cent describe their networks as flexible or adaptable.

Pacesetters are again the exception. Their disciplined, system-level approach has already laid the foundations they will need to scale.

AI Infrastructure Debt: The Emerging Drag On Value

The report introduces a new concept — AI Infrastructure Debt — the modern evolution of technical and digital debt that once held back digital transformation.

It’s the silent accumulation of compromises, deferred upgrades, and underfunded architecture that erodes the value of AI over time. Some early warning signs are already visible: 40 per cent expect workloads to rise by over 30 per cent within three years, 64 per cent struggle to centralise data, only 23 per cent have robust GPU capacity, and two out of five can detect or prevent AI-specific threats.

Each of these points highlights the gap between AI ambition and operational readiness. But when the systems that power AI aren’t secure, the debt becomes dangerous. Pacesetters aren’t immune, but their foresight, governance, and investment discipline position them better to avoid problems compounding into more costly risks.

Download The Cisco AI Readiness Index 2025 Report