Hefty investment. SnapLogic research finds UK businesses are setting aside three-quarters of their IT budgets for GenAI
The heavy financial burden being placed on IT departmental budgets by business demand for generative AI systems has been revealed in new research.
A new study of 750 IT decision makers (including 250 in the UK) from integration specialist SnapLogic, has revealed that UK businesses are facing some of the worst technical debt in the world, hampering GenAI adoption efforts which are now costing businesses on average three-quarters of their entire IT budgets.
Indeed, the SnapLogic research discovered that UK businesses are putting aside an average of £1.8m to implement GenAI this year. This representing 73 percent of their total average IT budget, which averages roughly £2.5m a year.
Generative AI
Despite the punishing heavy costs, the SnapLogic data found that nearly two-thirds of UK ITDMs (63 percent) expect integration with GenAI technology to free up more than 25 percent of their existing workloads.
This means it is no surprise that GenAI is a key driving factor for businesses to modernise their tools, the SnapLogic research concluded.
But there are still considerable challenges from legacy technology for IT departments seeking to integrate GenAI. Indeed, the SnapLogic research found that integrating with GenAI systems, 65 percent of UK respondents report that at least half of their legacy systems are unable to connect to or be utilised by AI tools.
This is all the more concerning noted SnapLogic, given 98 percent of current systems, applications and networks are considered, or rely on, legacy technology to at least some extent in the UK.
As a result, UK ITDMs (IT decision makers) are sinking considerable time, and money, into upgrading their legacy systems. In the UK, respondents revealed that they would ideally like over £2.22m to do this.
This was higher than US and German IT decision-makers, who wanted £2.19 and £1.94m respectively to do so.
Likewise, UK ITDMs are spending more time than their US or German counterparts on updating or patching legacy systems in order to successfully integrate with new AI systems and tools.
The SnapLogic data also revealed that 82 percent are spending between five and 25 hours a week on this task, compared to just 68 percent in the US and 78 percent in Germany.
Technical debt
“Evidently, legacy technology is sapping budgets, wasting time, and contributing to significant technical debt in the UK, perhaps more so than anywhere else,” noted Dominic Wellington, Enterprise Architect for SnapLogic. “However, it’s not as simple as just turning off old systems.”
Dominic Wellington, Enterprise Architect for SnapLogic. Image credit SnapLogic
“In most fields, ‘legacy’ is not considered a bad word!” said Wellington. “What is needed is a considered approach to integration that puts older systems on an even footing with newer ones, and abstracts away details so that technology decisions can be taken without fear of disrupting business operations.”
“The good news is that UK technology leaders are conscious that legacy tech must be addressed in order to enter the age of GenAI,” concluded Wellington. “Fortunately many are also taking the appropriate measures to update, patch and address their legacy tech to maintain their cutting edge.”
The SnapLogic reearch found that outdated or legacy technology is not just impacting GenAI ambitions in the UK. It was cited by 40 percent of UK respondents as the biggest contributor to ‘technical debt’ – outdated systems that can impact productivity, product quality or customer satisfaction – in IT.
In contrast, in the US and Germany legacy tech was the second biggest contributor to technical debt, behind ‘evolving requirement’ and ‘inefficient processes’ respectively.
