Hackett Group® research finds AI momentum accelerating as companies reimagine work

hackett group® Study finds AI momentum accelerating as companies rethink work

2026 Key Issues Study Shows AI Driving Over 25% Improvements Across Key Customer, Employee, and Productivity Outcomes

Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT), a leading AI generation consulting and enterprise digital transformation company, today announced findings from its 2026 Enterprise Key Issues Study, revealing that businesses are beginning to realize the transformative impact of investing in artificial intelligence (AI). According to this study, leading organizations are rethinking their operating models beyond incremental AI adoption to drive significant improvements in customer and employee experience, risk management and compliance, and business productivity.

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AI investments are paying off: The percentage of organizations reporting levels of transformational value in achieving specific business goals and outcomes is encouraging. Some organizations have reported breakthrough improvements in quality and productivity of more than 40%. The Hackett Innovation Awards and our work with dozens of organizations on agent workflows support these findings.

“What sets these leading organizations apart is that they are leveraging AI to redesign work,” said Kyle McNabb, Principal and Gen AI Executive Advisory Program Leader at The Hackett Group.®. “They are moving beyond historical rules-based automation approaches and leveraging the cognitive automation synergies of AI to structurally reimagine operations, employees, and corporate performance.”

How leading organizations are connecting Gen AI to enterprise impact

Data from the report shows that companies are advancing AI across a wide range of objectives. Although the magnitude of benefits varies, the percentage of organizations reporting improvements of 25% or more is significant and indicates increased operational maturity. Key findings:

AI is reshaping the customer experience. 54% of organizations are augmenting AI to improve customer satisfaction and experience, and 76% of them are seeing improvements of 25% or more in key metrics. This signals a broader shift in how companies use AI to deepen engagement, personalize interactions, and create new value paths across the customer lifecycle.
Risk and compliance are entering a new era of maturity. 50% of leaders are expanding AI to improve risk management and compliance. These early efforts are paying off, with 57% seeing a 25% or more improvement in their employee experience.
Improving business productivity and employee experience demonstrate the operational maturity of AI. 69% of organizations are expanding AI to improve employee productivity, with 80% reporting improvements of 25% or more. Organizations are beginning to design core processes around AI to accelerate decision-making, improve execution efficiency, and improve employee experience.

Building the foundation for enterprise-scale Gen AI

To move from piecemeal adoption to sustained enterprise-wide impact, organizations need to strengthen governance, clarify their AI talent strategy, simplify underlying processes and technology environments, and establish a more disciplined approach to measuring impact on value and performance. Hackett Innovation Award winners highlight what’s possible when companies take advantage of the generational opportunity to reimagine work with AI. Bosch, Johnson & Johnson, MTN Group, and Roche Torquier are demonstrating the potential of agent workflows to dramatically reduce cycle times, achieve significant returns on investment (200% to 2,500%), improve the overall employee, customer, and clinical experience, and unlock new levels of enterprise value.

The path to becoming an agent company

This research identifies a set of behaviors that distinguish high-performing leaders from those who still struggle to derive value.

A clear, fact-based assessment of AI opportunities and threats that anchors your corporate strategy.
Build robust process intelligence capabilities that expose complex workflows and enable purposeful and impactful collaboration between talent and AI agents.
Rather than trying to fix people or data, take a pragmatic, problem-specific approach. Or ethical challenges also arise at the same time.

The future is an agent

According to this research, organizations that act urgently to leverage AI and evolve their operating models will be best positioned to realize the agent enterprise’s full potential: faster decision-making, higher productivity, improved customer and employee experiences, and new competitive advantages.

“What we are seeing is a clear disconnect between organizations that treat Gen AI as an efficiency tool and those that see it as a catalyst for enterprise-level transformation,” said Andy Warzecha, principal and executive advisory practice leader. “As cognitive automation and agent workflows mature, that gap will widen, rewarding organizations that take bold steps to rethink their operating models, but making it increasingly difficult for others to catch up.”

Download the report.

About Hackett Group®

The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT) is a Gen AI strategy consulting and digital transformation firm that enables digital world class.® performance. Using Hackett AI XPLR™, ZBrain™, XT™, AIXelerator™, AskHackett™, Quantum Leap® The company’s experienced experts and engineers can be the primary architects of your Gen AI efforts, helping organizations realize the power of Gen AI from conception to implementation and achieve quantifiable, breakthrough results at unprecedented speed. The company’s expertise is based on unparalleled best practice insights from corporate performance benchmarks of the world’s leading companies, including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 90% of the Fortune 100, 70% of the DAX 40, and 51% of the FTSE 100. Visit www.thehackettgroup.com.

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