January 21, 2025 — World administration consulting partnership Kearney, and Futurum, a analysis, intelligence and advisory agency, right now collectively introduced the discharge of the 2025 CEO AI Administration research.The research examined management’s stance and standing of organizational AI adoption, implementation and roadmaps – revealing alarming backlash results that CEOs might already expertise.
The research is predicated on surveys and sit-down interview classes with CEOs of firms with annual income over $1 billion around the globe. The findings deal with CEO readiness in notion vs actuality, CEOs’ views on the potential of AI, the administration dynamics over domain-level experience and insightful conclusions on administration of AI roadmaps and decision-making processes.
Heading into 2025, collaborating CEOs agreed to handle presently debated points like AI governance and moral issues, the arrival of Agentic AI, change administration and workforce dilemmas pertaining to AI adoption.
Not like any earlier technological innovation, AI units cross-industry challenges that transcend the technological customary integration journey. The research discovered that profitable firms adopting AI discovered it essential to launch important change-management plans and initiatives. In response to the research, firms level to constructing cross-functional alignment (62%) and adjusting workflows and processes (63%) as their main hurdles when integrating AI into each day operations. Past cultural resistance, sensible challenges like integrating with present tech stacks (32%) or navigating IP and licensing complexities (24%) usually delay or derail promising initiatives.
Moreover, distinct variations between older established firms and youthful digital native firms have been unearthed within the research. Digital native firm CEOs usually describe a fast-follower mindset—operating light-weight pilots to validate AI options and investing closely in analytics-savvy hires. Against this, established organizations usually tend to emphasize “sustained viability” (45% vs. 27% for digital native companies) and stronger inner alignment (38% vs. 25%), reflecting a longer-term lens that features TCO issues and historic information migrations.
One of the telling insights was the early shortcomings of AI implementation amongst firms, the place the efforts have been particularly spearheaded by the C suite. Knowledge exhibits that 92% of CEOs not seeing tangible AI outcomes insist on main AI technique themselves, in comparison with solely 59% in organizations attaining measurable success. This hole means that centralized, top-down management can hamper domain-level experience and hinder cross-functional collaboration—each crucial enablers of sustainable AI. Interviews additional reveal that when the CEO stays a strategic information slightly than a hands-on supervisor, useful resource allocation and ROI measurement (49% vs. 17% amongst unsuccessful friends) turn into extra successfully embedded in on a regular basis enterprise practices.
In conclusion and based mostly on the wealthy insights disclosed by way of the CEO responses and participation, Futurum and Kearney managed to develop a considerable CEO playbook for AI which options 5 factors that result in breakthroughs in AI outcomes.
Some key findings from the research:
- CEOs are overconfident and masks organizational under-confidence: Though 78% of CEOs strongly imagine of their means to information AI, solely 28% of mid-level managers share this optimism about their agency’s general readiness. This mismatch factors to a hidden cultural hurdle: Prime-down enthusiasm for AI can overlook lingering anxieties about job safety, talent gaps, or inadequate governance on the operational degree.
- Established organizations see marathon, not dash in AI: In comparison with the digital native companies, established enterprises place heavier emphasis on bettering buyer satisfaction (76%) and shoring up provide chain resilience (42%) when deploying AI. As well as, 71% weigh complete price of possession over mere upfront spend—underscoring a multi-year view of AI investments.
- The rising vs established divide: Digital native firm CEOs usually described a fast-follower mindset—operating light-weight pilots to validate AI options and investing closely in analytics-savvy hires. Against this, established organizations usually tend to emphasize “sustained viability” (45% vs. 27% for digital native companies) and stronger inner alignment (38% vs. 25%), reflecting a longer-term lens that features TCO issues and historic information migrations.
- AI “patch paradox”: solely 19% of CEOs say they actively place AI for transformative development slightly than near-term positive aspects. Whereas most leaders see AI as a game-changer for operational efficiencies or price discount, few have absolutely mapped out learn how to leverage superior capabilities for higher-impact use instances. That hole partially explains why industries like Vitality, Manufacturing, and Know-how report the very best charges of AI success—every nearing or exceeding 60%—as they combine AI into complicated workflows extra readily resembling predictive upkeep and automatic high quality checks.
- Smooth demand by clients: Many CEOs report minimal direct stress from clients to undertake AI—solely 24% cite specific consumer requests for AI-based options—but over half acknowledge feeling a robust inner crucial to organize for AI-driven disruption. Leaders careworn that ready for exterior calls for may depart their organizations behind the curve as soon as shopper expectations shift, which they broadly anticipated them to do quickly. Consequently, regardless of buyer silence, 59% of companies say they’re actively investing in “foundational” AI pilots to construct up information readiness and upskill groups, aiming to be ready when market pressures inevitably rise.
- Strategic alignment: A placing 64% of leaders with no formal AI roadmap report minimal returns from their preliminary pilots, underscoring the necessity to tightly anchor AI efforts to core enterprise goals.
- Knowledge readiness and integration: Practically two-thirds of CEOs cite disconnected or low-quality information as the primary barrier stopping AI options from scaling past pilot phases, underscoring how crucial sturdy information readiness is to any AI initiative. Siloed infrastructures, fragmented expertise stacks, and inconsistent governance all restrict AI’s capability to ship significant insights.
- Change administration: Regardless of solely 39% of high-performing AI adopters citing devoted change administration frameworks as a key success issue, leaders who make investments on this space see smoother rollouts and stronger adoption.
- Efficient AI governance: Solely 22% of organizations with AI governance councils persistently monitor bias detection metrics, signaling that oversight continues to be evolving. Whereas many companies depend on present committees or compliance groups, formal governance frameworks—full with cross-functional councils—show more proficient at curbing dangers like bias, regulatory pitfalls, and moral missteps.
- The Expertise equation: Regardless of energetic recruitment efforts, 57% of surveyed firms nonetheless lack enough inner experience to satisfy present AI wants.
This research is predicated on a mix of quantitative survey information and qualitative insights from in-depth CEO interviews, providing a complete view of how enterprise leaders are navigating AI adoption. The twin strategy ensures each breadth and depth, capturing overarching traits whereas delving into nuanced management views that convey the information to life.
The survey element of this analysis included 213 CEOs from organizations with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion. Respondents have been screened to make sure they held important management roles, resembling regional or world CEO positions, reflecting a strategic degree of decision-making authority. The survey coated a variety of industries, together with monetary companies, manufacturing, retail, and healthcare, and was designed to discover AI adoption throughout numerous useful areas and challenges. Latin America, and different areas have been included to supply a worldwide perspective. The survey employed a structured questionnaire with Likert-scale, multiple-choice, and open-ended questions, producing statistically important information throughout key themes.
Complementing the survey, 20 CEOs participated in in-depth interviews carried out throughout November and December 2024. These 30-minute interviews supplied a possibility to discover particular person experiences, challenges, and techniques in larger element. The interviews have been structured round core themes resembling AI governance, change administration, integration challenges, and expertise acquisition. Insights from these discussions have been qualitatively analyzed to uncover rising patterns, particular examples, and distinctive views that enriched the broader survey findings.
By combining the quantitative scale of the survey with the qualitative richness of CEO interviews, this research offers a balanced and actionable evaluation of how leaders are approaching AI. The methodology ensures that the outcomes are each statistically sturdy and contextually grounded, providing useful insights for organizations navigating AI’s complicated and transformative panorama.
