Publicis Sapient has released a global survey showing that most large companies use artificial intelligence on a regular basis, but very few say it is core to their operations. A survey of 1,550 AI decision makers found a gap between adoption and organizational readiness.
Overall, 73% of respondents said AI is used regularly or in most business processes, but only 10% said AI is core to how their business operates. Almost half, 47 percent, said AI is already capable of meeting today’s business needs, but 42 percent said their organizations are not ready to take advantage of its value.
This finding suggests that operational structure, rather than the technology itself, is the major barrier. About 22 percent of those surveyed said the way their organization operates is the main barrier to AI success, but only 38 percent said AI is fundamentally changing the way businesses operate today.
Taken together, these numbers show that many companies are moving beyond experimentation and implementing AI into their day-to-day operations, but without making widespread changes to their systems, workflows, or management models. The report identified legacy infrastructure and outdated operating models as recurring barriers.
“This company was not designed for the speed, scale, and autonomy that AI enables,” said Nigel Vaz, CEO of Publicis Sapient.
He continued: “Many organizations have successfully implemented AI, but implementation alone does not create an advantage. The winners will be those that redesign the way they work, modernize their operations, and embed AI into the fabric of their business.”
Local situation
The survey surveyed respondents in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, and United Arab Emirates, and found significant differences in the extent to which AI has changed business operations.
The UK has the highest reported impact on AI-enabled business transformation among the markets surveyed. There, 51% said AI is fundamentally changing the way their business operates, and 60% said AI is highly or fully integrated into their workflows.
In the US, 41% say AI is fundamentally changing business, and 34% say organizational design is the main constraint to success. This suggests that more advanced adopters are increasingly focusing on the inner workings of the tool rather than access to it itself.
France shows a different pattern, with 24% saying AI is fundamentally changing the way their business operates. More than half, or 51%, cite internal data as the main constraint to AI success.
German organizations appear to be more likely to use AI within their teams than across the company. According to the survey, 35% said AI acts as a “colleague” that their teams use to support and deliver their work, and 10% said AI is fully integrated across the enterprise.
The UAE demonstrated strong levels of coordinated adoption across teams, but low levels of full integration. About 60 percent say AI is connected in a coordinated way across teams and workflows, and 5 percent say AI is fully integrated across individuals, departments, and teams across the enterprise.
focus on australia
In Australia, research says progress has been steady but uneven. They found that 53% of organizations say AI is highly or fully integrated into their workflows, and 38% say it is fundamentally changing the way their business operates.
This suggests that a significant proportion of Australian businesses are embedding AI into their day-to-day operations without having to restructure their broader organizations around AI. The report also notes that the burden of maintaining legacy IT environments is holding back broader transformation.
Harsh Deshpande, vice president and product and engineering lead for Australia at Publicis Sapient, tied the issue to technology spending.
“Australian organizations are under pressure to accelerate their AI initiatives, and while the embedding of AI into enterprise workflows is increasing, that momentum will stall if the majority of IT budgets continue to be focused on maintaining legacy systems,” Deshpande said.
Deshpande further added, “Modernizing these environments to strengthen their digital foundations is critical to supporting the next phase of AI adoption. Without that foundation in place, it will be much more difficult to scale AI across the organization.”
preparation gap
The findings also highlighted widespread mismatches between expectations and preparedness. In the U.S., 71 percent of respondents said they expect significant AI expansion over the next 12 to 24 months, but only 20 percent said their organizations are currently well-prepared to meet that expectation.
Similar gaps were found across all markets surveyed, showing that ambition is ahead of execution for many large companies. Respondents were from organizations with 500 or more employees and $100 million or more in annual revenue, and included executives responsible for evaluating, impacting, or selecting enterprise AI technologies and platforms.
Across all markets, just 38% of respondents say AI is fundamentally changing the way businesses operate today.
