Cisco has released findings from its third annual Cisco AI Readiness Index, revealing that a small but consistent group of “Pacesetters” are pulling ahead in the AI race — converting pilots into production 3x faster and realizing 72% more measurable value than their peers.
The study — encompassing over 8,000 AI leaders across 30 markets and 26 industries — finds that these Pacesetters represent about 17% of organizations in India (13% globally), and consistently outperform across every metric of AI maturity and value creation.
Architecting for the AI Era
Cisco’s analysis highlights that Pacesetters demonstrate a system-level discipline — aligning strategy, data, and infrastructure to keep pace with AI’s accelerating evolution. Nearly 98% are already designing their networks for AI growth and scale, compared to just 59% in India.
This foresight is critical as two forces reshape enterprise AI:
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AI Agents, which can independently execute tasks and demand higher standards of scale, security, and governance.
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AI Infrastructure Debt, the growing accumulation of technical constraints that erode long-term AI value.
“We’re moving past the era of question-answering chatbots and stepping into the next phase of AI — agents that execute tasks independently,” said Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s President and Chief Product Officer. “Over 80% of companies are prioritizing agentic solutions, and those further along are already seeing dramatically stronger returns.”
The Pacesetter Playbook: Readiness as a Competitive Edge
1. AI is core to the business.
Nearly all Pacesetters (99%) have a defined AI roadmap and 91% a change-management plan. 79% make AI their top investment priority, supported by both short- and long-term funding strategies (96%).
2. Scalable infrastructure.
71% report fully flexible networks that scale for any AI workload (vs 20% in India), and 77% plan to expand data-center capacity within a year.
3. Execution discipline.
62% have mature, repeatable processes to scale AI use cases (vs 16% overall in India), with 77% already finalizing their projects.
4. Measurable impact.
95% of Pacesetters track AI outcomes — twice as high as the Indian average — and 71% expect new revenue streams from AI initiatives.
5. Security and trust.
87% are highly aware of AI-specific threats, and 75% are equipped to control and secure AI agents, far above India’s overall 45%.
As a result, 90% of Pacesetters report gains in profitability, productivity, and innovation, compared to 71% overall in India.
Agentic AI: Ambition Outpacing Readiness
The study shows that 91% of Indian organizations plan to deploy AI agents, with 41% expecting them to work alongside employees within a year. Yet, most lack the infrastructure to sustain it — only 20% describe their networks as adaptable, and one in four admit they cannot scale for complexity or data volume.
AI Infrastructure Debt: The Hidden Drag on Value
Cisco introduces the concept of AI Infrastructure Debt — the modern evolution of technical debt — as enterprises struggle to match ambition with readiness.
Early warning signs include:
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41% expecting workloads to rise over 30% within three years.
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64% struggling with data centralization.
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Only 26% with robust GPU capacity.
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Just one in three able to detect or prevent AI-specific threats.
While Pacesetters aren’t immune, their governance discipline and proactive investment allow them to prevent these bottlenecks from compounding into long-term risk.
Cisco’s 2025 AI Readiness Index underscores that AI success isn’t about early experimentation but sustained readiness — balancing innovation with infrastructure, governance, and security. The Pacesetters’ disciplined, system-wide approach is setting the blueprint for organizations aiming to unlock the next wave of AI value.