A small but consistent group of companies outperforms peers across every measure of AI value.
These Pacesetters – about 18% of organisations in South Africa, and 13% globally – have been consistently ahead of the pack, according to the third annual Cisco AI Readiness Index that polled more than 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% globally designing their networks for the growth, scale and complexity of AI compared to 57% 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, GM of Cisco South Africa, comments: “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.”
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%) have a defined AI roadmap (versus 59% in South Africa) and 91% (versus 37% in South Africa) have a change-management plan. Budgets match intent, with 79% making AI the top investment priority (versus 23% in South Africa) and 96% with short- and long-term funding strategies (versus 49% in South Africa).
- They build infrastructure that’s ready to grow – Their architect for the always-on AI era. Seventy-one percent of Pacesetters say their networks are fully flexible and can scale instantly for any AI project (versus 18% in South Africa), and 77% are investing in new data-centre capacity within the next 12 months (versus 41% in South Africa).
- They move pilots into production – Sixty-two percent have a mature, repeatable innovation process for generating and scaling AI use cases (versus 16% in South Africa), and three-quarters (77%) have already finalised those use cases (versus 26% in South Africa).
- They measure what matters – 95% track the impact of their AI investments — almost three times higher than others — and 71% are confident their use cases will generate new revenue streams, almost double the local average.
- They turn security into strength – Eighty-seven percent are highly aware of AI-specific threats (versus 59% in South Africa), 62% integrate AI into their security and identity systems (versus 44% in South Africa), and 75% are fully equipped to control and secure AI agents (versus 52% in South Africa). For them, trust is part of the value equation.
Pacesetters achieve more widespread results because of this approach: Ninety percet report gains in profitability, productivity, and innovation, compared with 71% overall in South Africa.
The Index shows 93% of organisations in South Africa plan to deploy AI agents, and nearly 44% 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%) say their networks can’t scale for complexity or data volume and just 18% 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.
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: Forty percent expect workloads to rise by over 30% within three years, 64% struggle to centralise data, only 23% have robust GPU capacity and two out of five can detect or prevent AI-specific threats.
Each of these points to 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.