Report: U.S. loses AI leadership to India despite a 6-year head start

Peak’s inaugural Decision Intelligence (DI) Maturity Index found that while the U.S. was an early leader in artificial intelligence (AI), India is now the more mature market when it comes to readying their business to adopt AI.

While the U.S. was an early leader in AI, with 28% of U.S. businesses adopting the technology over six years ago – compared to 25% in India and 20% in the U.K. – India is the more mature market when it comes to leveraging AI, scoring 64 (out of 100) on Peak’s DI maturity scale, while the U.S. charted 52 and the U.K. just 44.

How India does AI differently

What’s setting Indian businesses apart is internal communication and education about AI to ensure broad support – 18% of U.S. workers weren’t sure if their business used AI, compared to only 2% of Indian workers. Further, 78% of junior staff in India expect AI to have a positive impact on worker well-being over the next five years, compared to 47% of those in the U.S.

The report also found that the way businesses structure data teams is crucial to successful AI adoption, with the majority of Indian businesses having data practitioners embedded in commercial teams to support analysis – by contrast most U.S. businesses have a central data team.

AI leadership in the US

Moreover, while California is historically seen as the mecca of tech innovation, New York is ahead in AI leadership as it scored an average of 61 out of 100, compared to California, which charted at 58.  This is because New York is the top financial services center in the U.S. – an industry that is the second most-mature industry behind IT, computing and technology with a mean maturity score of 56 across all three markets (U.S., U.K. and India). This can be attributed to historical investments in data infrastructure and tech, and the fintech boom. 

Methodology

Drawing on insights from a survey of 3,000 decision-makers from businesses with at least 100 employees across the U.S., U.K. and India, Peak’s Decision Intelligence Maturity Index defines a number of key indicators for commercial AI readiness across five pillars: decision-making, strategy, data and technology, people and process, and value. Each of the pillars within the framework is weighted, and contributes to an overall index score of 0 (least) to 100 (most mature), an indicator of a business’s ability to effectively adopt, deploy and leverage DI.

Read the full report from Peak.