Generative artificial intelligence could generate between 2.6 trillion and 4.4 trillion dollars in annual economic value across 63 identified use cases, according to McKinsey's state of AI research. Capturing that value, the firm cautions, depends on changes most organizations have not yet made.

Adoption itself is widespread. McKinsey reports that 78 percent of organizations now use AI in at least one business function, up from 72 percent in early 2024. Generative AI use has climbed even faster, with 71 percent of organizations regularly deploying it across marketing, product development, service operations, and information technology.

The value gap appears in how few companies have restructured to take advantage. Only about 21 percent of firms have redesigned workflows end to end, and a small group of high performers, roughly 5.5 percent, account for an outsized share of returns. Those leaders are three times more likely to have strong senior leadership engagement, set outcome based objectives tied to business metrics, invest in agent ready infrastructure, and rigorously measure adoption and quality.

The agentic shift is underway but early. McKinsey found that 23 percent of respondents say their organizations are scaling an agentic AI system somewhere in the enterprise, while an additional 39 percent have begun experimenting with AI agents. The data points to a market where the technology is broadly available, yet the economic payoff concentrates among firms that pair adoption with disciplined workflow redesign and governance.

Source: McKinsey & Company - https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai