Building AI capabilities is complex, and most companies struggle to unlock its value. According to our recent BCG report, “Where’s the Value in AI?”, only 4% of companies worldwide have developed advanced AI capabilities across functions that consistently drive substantial value.
Despite heavy investment, hiring, and pilot projects, AI has only moved beyond the proof-of-concept stage at 22% of companies, with just a small fraction—4%—achieving significant impact.
The leaders that get it right are doing a few things differently and hence standout:
- Focus on Core Functions: They target core business processes and support functions to drive productivity, reshape operations, and explore new revenue models.
- Ambitious Goals: Setting substantial targets (e.g., $1 billion in productivity or combined cost and revenue improvements), they back these ambitions with strategic AI investments.
- Prioritisation: They concentrate on a few high-impact opportunities to scale AI’s value.
- Balanced Focus: AI is integrated across cost-cutting and revenue-generating initiatives.
- People and Processes First: Leaders prioritise developing their workforce and optimising processes over technology and algorithms alone.
- Focus: Rapidly leveraging generative AI, they explore new possibilities in content creation, qualitative reasoning, and platform integration.
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We are still in the very early stages of the Gen AI journey and expect to see huge advancements in both technology and infrastructure. Hence organisations should understand the value of this new technology for their people and processes and be ready to embrace it as a competitive advantage. Also, responsible Gen AI frameworks and governance will need to be put in place to ensure the technology is used in the right way by employees and the overall ecosystem.
Views expressed by Sreyssha George, Managing Director and Partner, Bangalore, Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
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