UK networks feel the strain under AI pressure

Even though very few businesses around the world are resisting the allure of artificial intelligence (AI), research commissioned by Expereo has revealed a number of major roadblocks to UK AI plans such as poor infrastructure, resistance from employees and unreasonable demands while two-fifths of UK CIOs have warned of unrealistic board expectations of AI.

The Enterprise horizons 2025 study was carried out for the managed network as a service provider by IDC, taking the views of 650 global enterprise technology leaders across Europe, the US and APAC region.

Despite some of the worrying findings revealed, the research is said to have painted a positive picture for the promise of AI, but only if businesses can overcome existing challenges. Amid the volatile economic backdrop, most organisations are placing their bets on AI to drive growth. The research showed that 88% of UK business leaders regarded AI as becoming important to fulfilling business priorities in the next 12 months.

It also revealed that AI has largely met or exceeded expectations to date, with only 14% of UK businesses saying AI has fallen short of expectations. Moreover, a clear majority of UK tech leaders agreed that AI will positively impact business, particularly customer-facing activities (64%) and costs (65%).

Yet among the other key findings from the report was the feeling from a lot of UK technology leaders that expectations within their organisation of what AI can do are growing faster than their ability to meet them.

In addition, half of the leaders feel their network performance is limiting their ability to support large AI projects. 47% of UK organisations noted that their network/connectivity infrastructure was not ready to support new technology initiatives, such as AI while 49% of UK organisations reported that their network performance was preventing or limiting their ability to support large data/AI projects.

Nearly two in five UK technology leaders believe their board has unrealistic expectations or demands on how new technologies like AI will impact business performance. Furthermore, unrealistic board expectations were seen as potentially throwing organisations' AI plans into chaos, as 26% of UK technology executives said expectations within their organisation of what AI can do are growing faster than their ability to meet them. Despite these challenges, 76% of UK technology leaders believe the focus on AI has raised their profile at the board level, up from 60% in 2024.

Just over two-fifths of 41% of UK businesses also highlighted that concerns over AI governance or ethics remained a significant obstacle to implementing AI initiatives in their organisation, followed by resistance from employees regarding their jobs (30%) and keeping up with the pace of change (32%). Meanwhile, 29% of UK businesses stressed that current external technology partners not having the right capabilities remains a significant obstacle to implementing AI initiatives in their organisation.

Assessing the key trends revealed in the study, Expereo CEO Ben Elms said as global businesses embrace AI to transform employee and customer experience, setting realistic goals and aligning expectations will be critical to ensuring that AI delivers long-term value, rather than being viewed as a quick fix.

“While the potential of AI is immense, its successful integration requires careful planning. Technology leaders must recognise the need for robust networks and connectivity infrastructure to support AI at scale, while also ensuring consistent performance across these networks,” he said, “We are at a pivotal moment where strategic investments in technology and IT infrastructure are necessary to meet both current and future demands.”