Even if most companies are bragging that they are adopting artificial intelligence (AI), a new IBM study finds that 11 percent of companies in the Asia Pacific Region are indeed AI-ready, while 85 percent are merely pretending to have such a capability.

The IBM study, titled “APAC AI-Driven Industry 4:0: Building Tomorrow’s Industries,” further revealed that while APAC organizations are increasing investment in AI and Industry 4.0 capabilities, many overestimate their actual maturity and struggle with fundamental challenges in holistic adoption.

The report assessed the readiness of large enterprises in the Manufacturing and Energy & Utilities sectors across APAC.

IBM said the report showed that many have invested early in digital tools, especially in areas such as design and supply chain. However, to unlock true value, they now need end-to-end visibility, stronger coordination, and a more AI-driven digital backbone.

Although 85 percent of respondents rated themselves as “Data-Driven” or “AI-First,” the study’s objective assessment found only 11 percent were in higher-maturity stages (9 percent Data-Driven; 2 percent AI-First).

Misaligned strategic investments

This gap suggests that strategic investments could be misaligned if leaders overestimate their level of maturity, potentially leading to missed bottlenecks and stalled progress in their transformation efforts.

Key barriers include strategic misalignment; people and adoption blind spot; siloed execution, slow core modernization; and limited AI integration.

Looking ahead, moving from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 — where human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience become core — remains a major hurdle, as only 23 percent of organizations have customer feedback loops that inform strategic decisions in functions like Product Design and Operations.

Also, one of the barriers is that 28 percent of companies in the region have invested in real-time sustainability tracking and only a quarter of those can measure and report progress effectively.