Three in four enterprise leaders globally now treat artificial intelligence as a board-level priority, yet 65 per cent of organisations continue to operate on legacy or developing infrastructure that was not designed to carry AI workloads at scale. The finding is drawn from Building Durable AI Advantage, a new study commissioned by Tata Communications and produced in partnership with Bloomberg Media Studios, based on a survey of 501 senior executives across Asia, North America and Europe at enterprises with revenues above US$500 million.

The AI Scaling Gap

The research identifies a structural tension at the heart of enterprise AI investment: decision-making is accelerating faster than the organisational infrastructure required to execute and measure it. Only 29 per cent of respondents said their infrastructure can scale with evolving business demands — a critical gap given that AI workloads do not grow linearly, but surge and shift across environments, placing pressure on the weakest parts of the system.

The report frames this challenge through five reinforcing loops — Foundation, Integration, Skills, Governance and ROI — that collectively determine whether AI investment compounds in value or plateaus. Key pressure points identified include: fewer than half of enterprises reporting fully modernised network connectivity or data architecture; 28 per cent citing difficulty integrating AI with legacy systems as a primary roadblock; 30 per cent flagging talent shortages; and 42 per cent identifying security and compliance reviews as the largest source of approval delays.

Singapore and Asia in Focus

The study surveyed executives across Asia including Singapore, China, Hong Kong and India. The report’s authors note that the tensions identified are already visible in Singapore’s AI trajectory, set against a backdrop of rising governance activity — including the development of a registry of AI agents for public sector officers, the establishment of the Singapore Artificial Intelligence Association, and the upcoming ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement.

“AI has become one of the defining business priorities of our time, but the real differentiator is no longer AI itself — it is the infrastructure and integration that enable AI to deliver value at scale. The organisations that will lead in the years ahead are those investing in the foundations that connect people, systems, data and intelligence across the enterprise.” — Sumeet Walia, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Tata Communications

ROI Visibility Remains Elusive

Nine in ten enterprises surveyed reported some value from modernisation initiatives, yet more than 60 per cent said they had not reached optimal outcomes. The report attributes this partly to fragmented tracking — when AI, infrastructure and security are each measured in isolation, the broader business impact stays hidden, and reinvestment follows that narrower signal rather than the aggregate opportunity.