Cisco AI Research: The most AI-ready companies outpace peers in the race to value

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:

• AI Agents, which can independently execute tasks and demand ...