78% of companies use AI. Almost none of them feel it in their results.

McKinsey just published one of the most honest things about AI adoption in years.

Nearly 8 in 10 companies report using AI, and nearly the same number report no significant impact on earnings.

They called it the "gen AI paradox." Companies are everywhere on AI. And almost nowhere on results.

Here's what the data actually shows (McKinsey State of AI, 2025):

→ 88% of companies deploy AI in at least one function

→ Only 6% of companies see more than 5% of EBIT directly attributed to AI

→ Nearly two-thirds have not begun scaling AI across the enterprise

→ Fewer than 30% of CEOs personally sponsor their company's AI agenda

The technology is not the problem. The leadership approach is.

The real diagnosis

Most companies bolted AI onto existing processes. Copilots on top of old workflows. Chatbots next to manual work. Assistant tools that assist nothing at scale.

McKinsey calls this "horizontal" adoption. Wide, visible, and nearly impossible to connect to revenue.

The 6% who see real results did something different: they redesigned the workflow itself. Not just the tool. The process, the team structure, the decision rights.

McKinsey's data is specific: AI high performers are 2.8x more likely to have done fundamental workflow redesign.

What this means for you as a CEO. The question isn't whether your company uses AI.

The question is whether you personally sponsor the AI agenda or whether it's a tech committee project waiting for you to care.

The pattern is consistent across all the research: organizations where AI is a CEO-level priority outperform those where it isn't. Not slightly. Significantly.

The pivot from experimentation to transformation is one only the CEO can make.
Is your AI agenda a board-level priority or a pilot graveyard?

Location: Orlando, FL, USA

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