What is holding up AI adoption for businesses? (Image courtesy of EPAM Systems, Inc.)
There is a notable disconnect between perception and reality in enterprise AI adoption, reports EPAM Systems in its recently released AI research report, From Hype to Impact: How Enterprises Can Unlock Real Business Value with AI.
The digital transformation, services and product engineering company polled 7,300 business leaders from across nine countries and eight industries to examine the current state of AI adoption with the aim of identifying challenges and opportunities for businesses looking to generate tangible business value from AI investments.
Nearly half of the respondents from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Singapore and Argentina rated their companies as advanced in AI implementation, with five per cent identifying as disruptors, 32 per cent as competent, and 14 per cent as beginners, however only 26 per cent of those who self-identified as advanced or disruptors have successfully delivered AI use cases to market.
“Following the release of ChatGPT and throughout 2023 and 2024, we witnessed companies across industries experiment with AI and develop proofs of concept, primarily targeting immediate gains in productivity improvements and operational efficiencies,” said Elaina Shekhter, chief marketing and strategy officer at EPAM. “This new research clearly shows that we’re now entering a new phase where success depends on identifying high-value use cases and prioritizing them strategically to achieve broad organizational impact. Enterprises that can effectively align their talent, data and technology around these priority-use cases will be the ones that actually deploy AI to scale and capture business value from their AI investments in 2025 and beyond.”
According to the report, companies are looking to accelerate investment in AI, bumping up spending on it by 14 per cent year-over-year in 2025. And while 30 per cent of technology-advanced companies have successfully implemented AI at scale, many organizations reported a struggle to bridge the gap between experimentation and enterprise-wide deployment.
Respondents indicated a direct impact on business though, with disruptors attributing 53 per cent of their expected 2025 profits to AI investments.
The path to proper implementation is not immediate, however. Businesses anticipate a minimum of 18 months to implement effective AI governance models, which highlights the complexity of aligning AI with the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.
And with change comes opportunity. Some 43 per cent of all companies surveyed plan to hire AI-related roles throughout 2025, with machine learning engineers and AI researchers being the most in-demand positions.
“Improved productivity and operational efficiency are universal goals, but true transformation lies in bridging the gap between tech teams and the business,” said Dmitry Tovpeko, vice-president of engineering at EPAM. “As AI reshapes the enterprise, developers are evolving from task-oriented users to strategic experts, responsibly harnessing AI for end-to-end scenarios. Success hinges not on tech stacks or cloud infrastructure, but on aligning tech teams with business objectives to solve real-world customer problems.”
The potential of AI
To realize the full potential of AI, the report highlights the importance of aligning people, data and technology to unlock real business value. According to the report, effective AI implementation requires strong executive leadership that clearly articulates priorities and focus areas, as well as a modern approach to business and technology.
While 31 per cent of executives see outdated technology as a barrier to AI adoption, the real challenge reported is the lack of alignment between business and technical teams. Once a clear organizational purpose is established and communicated, engineering teams can then map out a modernization strategy.
As with all things on the technology frontier, security remains a universal priority for senior executives and engineering teams, particularly regarding data protection, data quality and cloud security. Thirty-five per cent of businesses reported that their top challenge to achieving modernization is their lack of sophisticated security programs.
While 75 per cent of advanced companies claim to have established clear AI strategies, only four per cent of disruptors say they have developed comprehensive governance frameworks even with the understanding that effective governance is typically 18 months away.
“In 2023, the race to harness AI saw many experimenting, but a select group of pioneers emerged, transforming bold ideas into scalable realities,” said Nir Kaldero, chief AI officer at EPAM NEORIS. “These leaders see challenges as opportunities, regulations as non-negotiables and uncharted territories as spaces for innovation. The next phase of AI is not just experimentation but deployment at scale, focusing on enterprise-wide, high-impact use cases while continuing the effort to align people and culture, data and cloud and new processes to unlock true exponential business value.”