Over the past half decade, during which we’ve been conducting our global survey, we have seen the “AI winter” turn into an “AI spring.” However, after a period of initial exuberance, we appear to have reached a plateau, a course we’ve observed with other technologies in their early years of adoption. We might be seeing the reality sinking in at some organizations of the level of organizational change it takes to successfully embed this technology.
In our work, we’ve encountered companies that get discouraged because they went into AI thinking it would be a quick exercise, while those taking a longer view have made steady progress by transforming themselves into learning organizations that build their AI muscles over time. These companies gradually incorporate more AI capabilities and stand up increasingly more applications progressively faster and more easily thanks to lessons from past successes as well as failures. They not only invest more, but they also invest more wisely, with the goal of creating a veritable AI factory that enables them to incorporate more AI in more areas of the business, first in adjacent ones where some existing capabilities can be repurposed and then into entirely new ones.
There is, at a high level, an emerging playbook for getting maximum value from AI. Each year that we conduct our research, we see a group of leaders engaging in the types of practices that help execute AI successfully. It’s paying off in the form of actual bottom-line impact at significant levels. We also see it every day as we guide others on their AI journeys. It’s not easy work, but as has been the case with previous technologies, the gains will go to those who stay the course.
Michael Chui
McKinsey commentary
Partner, McKinsey Global Institute
