KUALA LUMPUR (July 17): Some of Malaysia’s big firms are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence (AI), but many are doing so without fully evaluating its return on investment (ROI), according to an IDC InfoBrief survey commissioned by managed Network-as-a-Service provider Expereo.
The global survey interviewed 800 companies with annual revenues of more than US$500 million (RM2.04 billion) and at least 500 employees between November 2025 and January 2026.
While the research focused primarily on the US and UK, Malaysia was one of eight Asia-Pacific and European markets where 50 organisations were surveyed through telephone interviews with senior IT, telecommunications and networking decision-makers.
IDC InfoBrief found that about 23 organisations surveyed see potential in AI and are investing in it, sometimes without careful evaluation or ROI analysis.
Nine organisations admitted they are investing aggressively with little evaluation, driven by a fear of being left behind.
Many are still grappling with challenges related to ROI, cost visibility, network readiness, and security.
Sixteen companies said their AI implementations exceeded expectations in delivering ROI, while 14 said they broadly met expectations. Another 10 said AI implementations only partially met expectations because costs were higher than expected, AI did not perform as anticipated, or network and connectivity performance was inadequate.
The 16 companies whose AI implementations exceeded expectations attributed their success to strong in-house skills, well-performing networks, high-quality and well-prepared training data, and effective internal project planning and management.
A majority of respondents said AI had improved productivity, the quality of work, employee satisfaction, cost efficiency, and hiring rates.
More than half of the 10 companies that have not yet adopted AI or are only beginning to do so cited a lack of in-house skills and high costs as the main barriers.
More than half of the 50 respondents said they are concerned about losing oversight of AI costs and ROI, creating new cybersecurity risks, and the potential for reputational, financial, or legal harm resulting from unexpected AI behaviour.
Summarising the findings, IDC InfoBrief noted that widespread adoption does not necessarily translate into AI maturity.
"AI adoption is widespread, but maturity remains limited. While 70% of organisations are investing in AI, ROI ultimately depends on strong model performance, high-quality training data, skilled in-house talent, and robust network and connectivity," the report said, adding that organisations with stronger AI foundations consistently achieve better returns.
The findings suggest that while Malaysian companies remain optimistic about AI's potential to improve productivity and drive innovation, long-term success will depend less on how quickly organisations adopt the technology and more on whether they build the capabilities and infrastructure needed to support it.