Bengaluru, Jun 14 (IANS): Only 12 per cent of organisations that use artificial intelligence (AI) are doing it at a maturity level to achieve a strong competitive advantage while the rest are still experimenting with the technology, a new report said on Tuesday.

The research from Accenture puts the median AI maturity of organisations at a moderate score of 36, revealing most companies have significant opportunities to generate greater value with AI.

Tech firms globally already have a high AI maturity score of 54, which will rise moderately to 60 in 2024.

In contrast, carmakers and suppliers will leap from a moderate 39 today to 57 in two years -- betting on a significant surge in sales of AI-powered self-driving vehicles.

Similarly, retail companies will evolve in their AI Maturity from 38 today to 54 in 2024.

The 12 per cent of firms that are using AI to its maximum to outpace their competitors is dubbed "AI Achievers", with a score of 64 on the maturity scale.

"AI adoption rapidly matured during the pandemic, yet to create more value with AI and use it to reinvent the enterprise, companies require a clear leadership vision combined with effective change management and human capital reinvention," said Piyush N Singh, India Business Lead at Accenture.

According to the research, AI maturity is the degree to which organisations outperform their peers in a combination of AI-related foundational and differentiating capabilities.

These capabilities include the technology (data, AI, cloud) as well as organisational strategy, Responsible AI, C-suite sponsorship, talent and culture.

"To successfully scale the use of AI, the companies need to industrialise AI tools and teams and also nurture a culture of responsible AI design. But most importantly, they must invest in talent," said Prithvijit Roy, Managing Director, Applied Intelligence, Accenture in India.

Besides hiring for multidisciplinary AI-related skills, it is imperative to create data and AI fluency across the workforce through skilling and reskilling for a majority of employees.

The report showed that most companies (63 per cent) are 'AI Experimenters', barely scratching the surface of AI's potential with an AI maturity score of 29.

"We believe every part of every business must be transformed by technology, data and AI, in some cases resulting in total enterprise reinvention," said Sanjeev Vohra, global lead for Applied Intelligence at Accenture.