The report on AI highlights the significant expansion of AI technology’s use since the organisation first began tracking it five years ago. Adoption has more than doubled since 2017, while the proportion of organisations using AI has plateaued between 50 and 60 percent for the past few years. The report also shows the set of companies seeing the highest financial returns from AI continue to pull ahead of competitors. These leaders are making more significant investments in AI by engaging in increasingly advanced practices known to enable scale and faster AI development than the rest.

AI use and sustainability efforts

The survey findings suggest that many organisations that have adopted AI are integrating AI capabilities into their sustainability efforts and actively seeking ways to reduce the environmental impact of their AI use. Respondents in North America are least likely to report them, while organisations based in Greater China, Asia-Pacific, and developing markets show higher rates of AI-enabled sustainability initiatives. Respondents most often mention initiatives to improve environmental impact, such as optimising energy efficiency or waste reduction. However, AI use is less common in companies’ efforts to improve social impact, such as ethical product sourcing.

Mind the gap: AI leaders pulling ahead

Over the past five years, McKinsey has tracked leaders in AI referred to as AI high performers and examined what they do differently. We see more indications that these leaders are expanding their competitive advantage than evidence that others are catching up. High performers might also have a head start on managing potential AI-related risks, such as personal privacy and equity and fairness, that other organisations have not addressed yet. These leaders showed evidence of making early investments in developing core AI capabilities that underpin their broader AI vision and strategy. They also take a full life cycle approach to developing and deploying AI models.

Organisations seeing the highest returns from AI

The report shows that the organisations seeing the highest returns from AI are more likely to follow strategy, data, models, tools, technology, and talent best practices. In contrast, all other respondents lagged significantly. High performers’ responses showed they have a modular enough data architecture and deliver AI tools rapidly to accommodate the needs to develop new AI use cases. High performers have well-defined capability-building programs that develop technology personnel’s AI skills. These leaders systematically track a comprehensive set of well-defined key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the incremental impact of AI initiatives.

Recommendations

• Organisations that haven’t already should consider expanding their use of AI to remain competitive. This includes investing in advanced practices, overcoming talent management hurdles, and making sure AI and data governance are in place.
• Enterprises need to take a full-lifecycle approach to deploying AI and offer capability-building programs to help develop the skills of their workforces.
• Companies should strive to improve their sustainability efforts and seek ways to minimise the environmental impact of their AI use.
• Organisations should aim to enhance their AI capabilities and seek to increase their investments in AI, especially in the areas where higher financial returns are seen.
• Companies should work to mitigate the potential AI-related risks, such as personal privacy and equity and fairness, inadequately addressed risks that could harm the organisation in the long run.