ADAPTOVATE has released new research revealing that more than 61% of business leaders believe their organisation could cease to exist within two years if it fails to successfully embed artificial intelligence, yet the overwhelming majority admit they are struggling to implement AI at scale.
The survey, conducted by Wakefield Research among 300 C-suite executives across the United States and Canada, found 90% are concerned promising AI initiatives and pilots are not being effectively scaled.
A further 81% said their organisation is better at identifying AI opportunities than acting on them.
While the survey was conducted in North America, the findings point to challenges facing large organisations more broadly, including the difficulty of moving from isolated AI experiments to enterprise-wide implementation.
Paul McNamara, CEO and Co-Founder of ADAPTOVATE, said the findings highlight a fundamental shift in the AI conversation.
“The research shows the question is no longer whether organisations should invest in AI. Most already are. The real challenge is whether they can transform their organisation quickly enough to realise value from that investment,” McNamara said.
He said the scale of concern among executives showed the issue had moved beyond technology adoption and into leadership, organisational design and execution.
“More than six in 10 executives believe their organisation could cease to exist within two years if it fails to successfully embed AI, yet 90% are concerned they aren’t scaling successful AI initiatives and 81% admit they’re better at identifying opportunities than acting on them. That’s a leadership and execution challenge, not a technology challenge.”
McNamara said many of the barriers holding back AI adoption already existed inside organisations before the technology became a major business priority.
“Across almost every large transformation I’ve led, the technology has rarely been the biggest barrier. AI doesn’t create organisational weaknesses – it exposes them. If decision-making is slow, teams work in silos or governance is unclear, AI simply amplifies those issues.”
While many organisations continue launching AI pilots and experimenting with new tools, McNamara said the survey suggests too many remain focused on isolated initiatives instead of enterprise-wide transformation.
“It’s relatively easy to launch an AI pilot. It’s much harder to redesign the way work gets done across an organisation. That’s why so many organisations are struggling to move from experimentation to scale.”
The research also identified organisational structures, skills shortages and resource constraints as significant barriers to broader AI deployment.
“The survey shows that 82% of executives believe innovation is slowed by gatekeepers controlling AI implementation or workflow redesign, 86% report a shortage of AI-capable talent, and 78% say they know what needs to change but lack the resources to make it happen,”
“These aren’t technology problems – they’re organisational capability problems.”
McNamara says the findings reinforce that AI should be viewed as a business transformation agenda rather than an IT project.
“The organisations that succeed won’t necessarily be the ones investing the most in AI. They’ll be the ones that remove organisational friction, empower leaders to make decisions closer to the work, build the capability to execute change, and create the conditions for AI to scale across the enterprise.”
He said leadership capability and the speed at which organisations can implement change would become increasingly important as AI adoption accelerates.
“Leadership will become one of the defining competitive advantages of the AI era. The next phase of AI won’t be won by organisations building more pilots or deploying more AI tools – it will be won by organisations that can implement change faster than their competitors,”
“The businesses that redesign how work gets done, strengthen leadership capability and embed AI into everyday operations will be the ones that outperform over the next decade.” said McNamara
