BCG shows that only a few “AI Leaders” capture the majority of value — through ambitious target visions, disciplined portfolios, and robust value tracking. What matters most are a clear focus on value, technical excellence, and consistent scaling of prototypes into productive solutions that are sustainably embedded into processes and organizations.
- Adoption rising, impact focused: The share of companies using GenAI regularly is growing significantly, shifting the impact into clearly identifiable business functions. Marketing & Sales (e.g., personalization, conversion lifts), Product Development (faster iterations, co-creation), Service Operations (self-service, case resolution times), and Software Engineering (code assistance, quality improvements) benefit most. Tangible effects appear as combined revenue and efficiency gains rather than isolated pilot successes.
- Rewiring as the strongest value driver: The study compares 25 organizational attributes and finds that systematically redesigning workflows — end-to-end, cross-functional, and data-driven — has the greatest impact on EBIT improvements. This includes standardizing use-case patterns, productized platform components (LLM-Ops/MLOps), robust data pipelines, and portfolio management that prioritizes use cases by business value. This turns PoCs into reusable, scalable AI operating models.
- Leadership, risk & skills in sync: C-level teams are increasingly using GenAI themselves and embedding accountability for target visions, governance, and risk controls. Success depends on clear guardrails for security, IP/copyright, transparency, and quality, complemented by upskilling programs for business and tech teams. Organizations with this “people-plus-governance” approach scale faster because adoption, compliance, and performance management come together.
Source: Boston Consulting Group (October 2024): Where’s the Value in AI? Report. Download and companion page at BCG.
