The state of Generative AI in the enterprise, Q4 report

Read the fourth article in the series via our global site.

The next phase of GenAI won’t wait. Regardless of industries, leaders must navigate adoption and start growing with confidence to move their AI goals from boardroom visions to bottom-line impact. The fourth report in our quarterly GenAI survey reveals how organizations have discovered new ways to translate innovative potential into measurable business value. But to deliver sustainable results at scale, organizations must learn to bridge the gap between AI capability and operational reality.

Read The state of generative AI in the enterprise: Generating a new future
 

Key findings from the global Q4 report

Adoption is moving at the speed of business—not the speed of technology

• Enterprise-wide adoption requires careful testing and thoughtful implementation, regardless of how quickly GenAI technology evolves.
  
• Most companies surveyed expect less than 30% of their AI experiments to reach full scale within six months.
• Confidence remains high—78% of organizations plan to boost their AI investment next year, suggesting a shift from the hype cycle to strategic, real-world implementation.
  
  

Regulatory and risk concerns remain key barriers

• Regulatory compliance has surged as the primary roadblock for GenAI deployment, jumping from 28% to 38% between survey waves.
• The governance challenge looms large, with 69% of organizations expecting it will take at least a year to implement a comprehensive strategy.
   

Scaling is still a work in progress

• Return on investment (ROI) indicators are promising—nearly all organizations see measurable returns on their scaled GenAI initiatives, with IT teams leading the charge at 28% of advanced adoption.
• Cybersecurity adoption rates also stand out, with 44% of implementations exceeding ROI expectations.
  
  

Agentic AI, is here and will be a key enabler of sustainable value—but it’s no silver bullet

• Leaders see agentic AI with its ability to autonomously execute tasks and learn from past interactions as the key to unlocking GenAI's full potential.
• 26% of companies we surveyed indicate they are heavily investing in autonomous agent development and another 42% are actively exploring it.
• However, old challenges haven't gone away—regulatory uncertainty, risk management, data quality, and workforce readiness are even trickier to navigate with autonomous systems.
  
  

The experimentation phase is over. As leading organizations scale GenAI investments, the focus shifts from potential to proven impact.

The pressure is on to show concrete results. But the future belongs to those who prepare today.

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