A small but consistent group of companies — the ‘Pacesetters,’ about 13% of organizations surveyed across APJC, and 13% globally, for the last three years — outperform their peers across every measure of AI value.
This was revealed in Cisco’s global study that covered more than 8,039 AI leaders across 30 markets and 26 industries across the world, including Singapore.
The research was conducted through a double-blind online survey in August 2025 and the analysis carried out by an independent third party, Satori Experience.
Findings show that 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% designing their networks for the growth, scale and complexity of AI compared to 49% across the 30 markets.
“Across the board, we are seeing that AI-ready organizations— the Pacesetters in our research — prove this. They’re four times more likely to move pilots into production and 40% more likely to realize measurable value,” said Ben Dawson, SVP at Cisco. “As organizations now move toward deploying AI agents, their success depends on their readiness, discipline, and action.”
Cisco’s research outlines a consistent pattern among these leaders delivering real returns.
Nearly all Pacesetters have a defined AI roadmap (vs 59% across globally) and 91% (vs 36% across globally) have a change-management plan. Budgets match intent, with 79% making AI the top investment priority (vs 25% across globally) and 96% with short- and long-term funding strategies (vs 45% across globally).
Pacesetters architect for the always-on AI era, with 71% saying their networks are fully flexible and can scale instantly for any AI project (vs 16% across globally), and 77% are investing in new data-center capacity within the next 12 months (vs 44% across globally).
Among Pacesetters, 62% have a mature, repeatable innovation process for generating and scaling AI use cases (vs 14% overall across globally), and three-quarters (77%) have already finalized those use cases (vs 20% across globally).
Also, 95% track the impact of their AI investments — nearly three times higher than others — and 71% are confident their use cases will generate new revenue streams, double the overall average across globally.
Further, 87% are highly aware of AI-specific threats (vs 42% overall across globally), 62% integrate AI into their security and identity systems (vs 29% across globally), and 75% are fully equipped to control and secure AI agents (vs 39% across globally). Trust is part of the Pacesetters’ value equation.
Pacesetters achieve more widespread results than their peers because of this approach — 90% report gains in profitability, productivity, and innovation, compared with 66% overall across the 30 markets.
The study shows that 84% of organizations globally plan to deploy AI agents, and nearly 37% expect them to work alongside employees within a year. But for the majority of these companies, AI agents are exposing weak foundations — systems that can barely handle reactive, task-based AI, let alone AI systems that act autonomously, and learn continuously. Among respondents, 30% say their networks can’t scale for complexity or data volume and just 16% describe their networks as flexible or adaptable.
Pacesetters are again the exception. Their disciplined, system-level approach has already helped lay the foundations they will need to scale.
