The AI Strategy Execution Gap: Why Most Companies Fail to Deliver Results

DXC Technology’s Pete McEvoy offers commentary on the AI strategy execution gap and why most companies fail to deliver results. This article originally appeared in Insight Jam, an enterprise IT community that enables human conversation on AI.

AI has become a priority that most business leaders agree on, yet few know how to implement this rapidly evolving technology successfully or realize its full value.

The findings from a recent global study surveying technology decision-makers tell the story: 77% of technology leaders say AI is a strategic board-level priority, yet 94% face significant implementation challenges.

The findings demonstrate that the AI execution gap extends beyond planning to five interconnected execution challenges spanning strategy, deployment focus, leadership alignment, organizational readiness, and technical capability.

Closing the AI execution Gap

The window for AI competitive advantage is open, but it won’t stay that way. Organizations must rethink AI in three critical ways:

1. Bridge the execution gap, and make it every leader’s next mandate

Organizations often make the mistake of treating AI too narrowly as a trendy tech investment or an efficiency play – without a thoughtful examination of desired outcomes. Instead of asking, ‘How can we do what we already do, but faster and cheaper?’ leaders should think longer-term and ask, ‘What can AI help us do that we were never able to do before?’

This last question is more important than ever, as AI increasingly drives business-critical functions. While many leaders deployed AI in IT operations over the past year, AI adoption will likely grow fastest in business-critical functions like R&D, compliance and ESG reporting over the next three years.

This shift is telling. AI delivers the most value in business-critical functions facing complex data and regulatory demands. However, most leaders still believe technical teams should lead AI adoption. This represents a missed opportunity: business teams must play a central role in AI strategy, as they best understand the workflows, challenges and regulatory requirements AI needs to address.

R&D, compliance and ESG teams are already proving AI’s value, often without the executive backing or enterprise-wide coordination that would amplify their impact. These teams could accomplish far more if organizations make closing the AI execution gap their next leadership imperative.

2. Link AI to your people and processes

AI transformation fails when organizations treat it as purely a technology implementation. Successful adoption requires rethinking not only who does the work but also how the work gets done.

This approach is critical, given the essential role humans play in successful AI transformation. To accommodate a workplace where people increasingly collaborate with AI, organizations will need to redesign workflows, decision rights, and governance models. Further, leaders will need new capabilities, as AI creates demand for new skills from all.

Ultimately, AI creates new workflows that require new skills. If leaders implement AI without redesigning the processes it will touch and without developing the workforce capable of operating in these new workflows, they’re unlikely to see the results they anticipate.

3. Build strategic partnerships

Organizations realize they can’t build AI capabilities alone, and they shouldn’t try.

While many business leaders are actively exploring partnerships or collaborations with external organizations for AI projects, others have already formed these agreements with AI or automation solution providers, as well as data and analytics partners to enhance customer or employee experiences.

These partnerships provide specialized expertise to help organizations accelerate AI deployment while managing risk.

The path forward is clear. Companies that treat AI as executive strategy, prepare their workforce, and engage in strategic partnerships will be the ones defining the competitive landscape for the next decade. That work starts today.