AI and its main promoters are not enterprise-ready, says Gartner

The more AI you use, the harder it is to control it or generate return on investment, according to analyst firm Gartner.

That firm delivered that glum view of AI at its annual IT Symposium, the first edition of which takes place in Australia before moving Europe and the USA.

The Australian event saw distinguished VP analysts Daryl Plummer and Kristin Moyer argue that AI and its leading proponents remain immature.

Asked to comment on working with the leading AI labs, Plummer said: “Trust in these vendors is not warranted yet.

They are not enterprise grade.

They don't understand enterprise terms and conditions.

They don't understand enterprise liability.

They don't understand enterprise you know consistency and continuity.” He pointed to AI companies’ practice of frequently altering their models seemingly without thought for how or if those updates might break applications that depend on their output.

“It's an out-of-control pace of innovation, and the sad thing is you can't afford not to follow it,” Plummer said, because AI companies are yet to develop a willingness to support legacy technology even though the lifespan of their models is about six months.

“If you decide to stay with the first version of a model, they're not going to be paying attention to you very much.

That alone says they're not enterprise ready,” he said.

Moyer cited Gartner research that found 86 percent of CIOs see risks created by AI growing faster than the value it creates, in part because early successes with AI create more demand to use the technology than IT departments can safely satisfy.

Some of that demand is what Moyer called “careless consumption” – workers using AI frivolously or when it is not necessary or appropriate.

She cited research that found 40 percent of workers have encountered AI slop and that deciphering such content typically takes two hours – or $9 million worth of work across a year at a 1,000-person organization.