SAS Unveils Tool to Measure Gen AI Adoption Readiness
Technology executives today continue to face mounting pressure to deploy generative AI (Gen AI) across their organisations, yet most cannot determine whether their companies are ahead or behind competitors in implementation. This knowledge gap threatens to derail enterprise Gen AI initiatives worth billions as organisations rush to adopt technology they may not be ready to implement.
In response to this market uncertainty, data analytics firm SAS has launched a benchmarking tool that promises to help enterprises understand their position in the global race to adopt Gen AI against global competitors.
The firm’s Gen AI Maturity Assessment provides organisations with a profile based on their current implementation status, categorising them as observers, explorers or leaders.
The assessment draws from research conducted by Coleman Parkes involving 1,600 organisations across nine countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and China.
SAS Viya platform targets enterprise Gen AI integration challenges
The tool launch accompanies SAS's wider push into enterprise AI through its Viya platform – a cloud-based system that connects with large language models and provides infrastructure for data management and governance.
Dr Iain Brown, Head of Data Science at SAS, says: “We are at an important inflection point, where the barrier to entry into the Gen AI market is lowering, making it significantly easier for organisations to adopt and scale Gen AI.”
SAS has moved to address data quality challenges through its acquisition of Hazy, a London-based pioneer in synthetic data generation. Synthetic data - artificially created information designed to mirror real-world data patterns while protecting privacy - represents a growing market as organisations seek to train AI models without exposing sensitive information.
The Hazy acquisition brings synthetic data generation capabilities into SAS's portfolio, enabling customers to create high-quality training data for AI models. This technology helps organisations overcome data scarcity and privacy constraints that often impede AI implementation.
Research reveals enterprise adoption patterns
The benchmarking system segments organisations into three categories. Observers are enterprises in initial stages of AI adoption, explorers represent those with ongoing implementations, while leaders demonstrate advanced deployment of generative AI technologies.
We are at an important inflection point, where the barrier to entry into the GenAI market is lowering, making it significantly easier for organisations to adopt and scale Gen AI
“Many organisations are currently uncertain about how to navigate their Gen AI journey,” Dr Brown says. “We need to help them understand their starting point and the steps required to move forward, ensuring they adopt the technology effectively and responsibly.”
Framework emphasises data quality in Gen AI deployment
The assessment examines multiple aspects of AI readiness through eight questions that evaluate an organisation's current capabilities and challenges. These questions address data management, governance frameworks and integration strategies.
Dr Brown emphasises the need for structured implementation: “Excited to use LLMs? That’s great, but have you considered the data that powers them, the governance required, and how to seamlessly integrate them into your business processes?
“None of the advancements organisations seek with Gen AI are possible without accurate, high-quality data – and nearly every organisation faces data challenges,” he says. “That’s why it's crucial to follow a robust framework, ensuring data is enriched and refined to prevent poor AI performance, bias, and misleading outputs, often referred to as ‘hallucinations.’”
The tool’s methodology spans sectors including banking, government, insurance, life sciences, energy and utilities, manufacturing and telecommunications. Each sector receives customised benchmarking data based on industry-specific implementation patterns.
Market competition drives assessment needs
SAS reports increasing market demand for benchmarking tools as organisations seek to understand their position in the Gen AI landscape. The assessment aims to provide comparative data against industry peers and regional competitors.
Roderick Crawford, Senior Vice President at SAS Northern Europe, says: “Businesses are investing a lot of money in GenAI projects and have large budgets set aside, so they need to fully understand how to spend it to get the most value from their adoption.”
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