ServiceNow unpacks the Fortune AIQ list, where the widest gap between AI leaders and laggards is training for humans

Diana David calls herself a “forward-deployed futurist.“ She says CEOs kept asking for “forward-deployed” employees, “people to be out on the edge, to bring us back the insights about what is actually happening in AI in our companies.”

What she is finding is that the companies pulling ahead on AI are not distinguished mainly by their technology. At the Fortune AIQ Summit on Thursday, David, who also serves as ServiceNow’s director of futures, said the widest gaps between the leaders and everyone else are about people.

“Talent investment. That was the biggest gap,” David told moderator Jeremy Kahn, Fortune’s AI editor. In ServiceNow’s Enterprise AI Maturity Index, 57% of “pacesetters” invest in ongoing AI upskilling, versus 4% of other organizations. By the report’s figures, the single widest gap is in attracting, hiring, and retaining AI talent: 68% vs. 10%.

“It’s really operational discipline, right?” David said. “It’s not just technology—operational discipline and transformation.”

Pacesetters are the roughly 21% of surveyed organizations that scored above 60 on the 100-point index, averaging 74 against 45 for the rest. Their edge extends beyond talent. By David’s account, 64% are on a path to unified data, versus 14%. And around 57% have “a clear, strong AI vision,” versus 21%.

Then there........

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