Three years ago, the biggest question surrounding AI was whether organizations would adopt it. We have that answer.
Today, 77% of AI decision-makers report using agentic AI in production. AI is no longer an experiment. It has become part of how organizations work, innovate, and compete. Yet many leaders are confronting a new challenge: proving that AI investments deliver meaningful business value. Trust remains low, and many organizations still justify AI initiatives primarily through a productivity lens. Without a clear connection to outcomes, AI adoption can become expensive very quickly.
The problem isn’t lack of activity. The problem is that many organizations are looking down and inward. They are consumed by use cases, models, governance requirements, costs, and implementation challenges. They are focused on the next deployment, the next pilot, the next efficiency gain. Those efforts matter, but they can also distract from a more important question, one that should make you pause and look up and out to your customers – because they deserve it. What customer value are we trying to create?
Organizations are moving quickly to embed AI into products, services, and operations. At the same time, customers and business buyers continue to scrutinize AI-generated outputs and expect clear evidence of value, reliability, and trustworthiness.
What Sets High AI Adopters Apart?
In our report that we published earlier this year, Accelerate Your AI Voyage we found that organizations generating the most momentum with AI understand the difference between adoption and value. They orient their AI strategies around customers rather than technology. Four traits consistently set them apart:
Strong customer focus. They begin with customer needs and desired outcomes, then identify how AI can improve experiences, decisions, and results.
CEO-driven AI vision and execution. CEOs actively champion AI initiatives and they align investments to strategic business goals.
Investment in AI-ready data and platforms. They build the data, governance, context, and technology foundations to scale AI effectively.
High AIQ talent and skill development. They develop the skills, culture, and expertise required to work confidently with AI across the organization.
Consider DBS Bank, which uses AI-powered recommendations to help customers make better financial decisions. Or Kraft Heinz, which applies generative AI to create more relevant customer experiences while maintaining trust in its brand. These organizations aren’t using AI simply because they can. They’re using it to create value that their customers value.
As AI continues to evolve, organizations will continue to be bombarded with new models, new agentic capabilities, new governance requirements, and rising customer expectations. When organizations reconnect AI efforts to customer value, trust, and outcomes, they gain a reliable compass for navigating the complexity ahead. They stop measuring success by activity and start measuring success by impact.
The companies that win with AI won’t necessarily be the ones deploying the most AI. They’ll be the ones that never lose sight of who the journey is for and constantly look up.
Read Accelerate Your AI Voyage to learn how leading organizations are building customer-led, outcome-focused AI strategies that create value, build trust, and drive measurable business results. Join us at our AI Forums in Singapore and Sydney this August and at our Technology Forums this Fall as we explore how to close the gap from AI aspiration to AI advantage.
(Blog post co-written with Anthony Andino, Research Associate)
