AI investments in operations are paying off faster, but leading organizations are outpacing the rest, per a study by MIT and McKinsey. AI adoption leaders see performance improvements 3.8 times higher than those in the bottom half of the study. While higher digital investment explains some of that gap, the research also points to executive sponsorship as one of four critical factors that separate today’s AI leaders from the rest, note Senior Partner Delphine Nain Zurkiya and coauthors. Forty-four percent of leading companies in the study have CEO or board-level support, more than double the rate of bottom performers and a 17-percentage-point increase from the previous study.
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A pair of stacked bar charts compares the level of the employee in an organization leading the company’s digitization efforts, among leaders and the bottom 50% of companies. Among the leaders, 4–5 years ago, 36% were at the middle level, 36% were at the VP level, and 27% were at the CEO and board level. In the past 2 years, there was an upward responsibility shift, with 44% of leaders at the CEO and board level, 33% at the C-suite level, 17% at the VP level, and 6% at the middle level (no primary leaders). The segment for the bottom 50% shows that at 4–5 years ago, 13% were at the middle level, 22% at the VP level, 44% at the C-suite level, and 22% at the CEO and board level. In the past 2 years, there was a downward responsibility shift, with 28% at the middle level, 22% at the VP level, 31% at the C-suite, and 17% at the CEO and board level.
Note: This image description was completed with the assistance of Writer, a gen AI tool.
Source: MIT MIMO; McKinsey analysis.
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To read the article, see “Bold accelerators: How operations leaders are pulling ahead using AI,” August 19, 2025.