January 21, 2025 — International administration consulting partnership Kearney, and Futurum, a analysis, intelligence and advisory agency, immediately 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 could already expertise.
The research relies on surveys and sit-down interview periods with CEOs of firms with annual income over $1 billion all over the world. 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, taking part CEOs agreed to handle presently debated points like AI governance and moral concerns, the arrival of Agentic AI, change administration and workforce dilemmas pertaining to AI adoption.
In contrast to 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 vital change-management plans and initiatives. In accordance with the research, firms level to constructing cross-functional alignment (62%) and adjusting workflows and processes (63%) as their main hurdles when integrating AI into day by day operations. Past cultural resistance, sensible challenges like integrating with present tech stacks (32%) or navigating IP and licensing complexities (24%) typically 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 typically 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 concerns and historic knowledge migrations.
One of the crucial telling insights was the early shortcomings of AI implementation amongst firms, the place the efforts have been particularly spearheaded by the C suite. Information reveals 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 quite than a hands-on supervisor, useful resource allocation and ROI measurement (49% vs. 17% amongst unsuccessful friends) develop 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 consider of their capacity to information AI, solely 28% of mid-level managers share this optimism about their agency’s total 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 stage.
- Established organizations see marathon, not dash in AI: In comparison with the digital native companies, established enterprises place heavier emphasis on enhancing 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 typically 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 concerns and historic knowledge migrations.
- AI “patch paradox”: solely 19% of CEOs say they actively place AI for transformative development quite than near-term positive factors. Whereas most leaders see AI as a game-changer for operational efficiencies or price discount, few have absolutely mapped out find out how to leverage superior capabilities for higher-impact use instances. That hole partially explains why industries like Power, Manufacturing, and Expertise report the very best charges of AI success—every nearing or exceeding 60%—as they combine AI into advanced workflows extra readily comparable to predictive upkeep and automatic high quality checks.
- Delicate demand by clients: Many CEOs report minimal direct strain from clients to undertake AI—solely 24% cite express shopper requests for AI-based options—but over half acknowledge feeling a powerful inner crucial to arrange for AI-driven disruption. Leaders confused that ready for exterior calls for may go away 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 knowledge readiness and upskill groups, aiming to be ready when market pressures inevitably rise.
- Strategic alignment: A putting 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 targets.
- Information readiness and integration: Practically two-thirds of CEOs cite disconnected or low-quality knowledge as the principle barrier stopping AI options from scaling past pilot phases, underscoring how crucial sturdy knowledge readiness is to any AI initiative. Siloed infrastructures, fragmented know-how 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 constantly observe 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 lively recruitment efforts, 57% of surveyed firms nonetheless lack enough inner experience to fulfill present AI wants.
This research relies on a mix of quantitative survey knowledge 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 developments whereas delving into nuanced management views that deliver the info 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 vital management roles, comparable to regional or international CEO positions, reflecting a strategic stage of decision-making authority. The survey lined a variety of industries, together with monetary companies, manufacturing, retail, and healthcare, and was designed to discover AI adoption throughout varied practical areas and challenges. Latin America, and different areas have been included to supply a world perspective. The survey employed a structured questionnaire with Likert-scale, multiple-choice, and open-ended questions, producing statistically vital knowledge throughout key themes.
Complementing the survey, 20 CEOs participated in in-depth interviews carried out throughout November and December 2024. These 30-minute interviews provided a chance to discover particular person experiences, challenges, and techniques in higher element. The interviews have been structured round core themes comparable to 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 gives 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 precious insights for organizations navigating AI’s advanced and transformative panorama.
