New report reveals 5X growth in Gen AI initiatives and key strategies for scaling impact
MIAMI, April 07, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT), a leading generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) strategic consultancy and executive advisory firm, today released findings from its 2025 Key Issues Study, revealing that 89% of executives are accelerating Gen AI initiatives – up from just 16% last year. This surge reflects a pivotal shift from exploration to acceleration, as enterprises fast-track Gen AI to achieve their top business goals.
Gen AI is reshaping business – but execution is the critical hurdle
Executives are betting on Gen AI to support their top business priorities in 2025, with more than 50% of organizations planning to use Gen AI to achieve their No. 1 objective – enhancing customer satisfaction and experiences.
Companies that have implemented Gen AI solutions are already seeing up to 25% improvements in the areas of quality, productivity, customer experience, operating cost reduction and full-time equivalent reductions. Some enterprises even reported improvements of 40% or greater, highlighting the transformative potential of Gen AI when deployed effectively.
While AI is rapidly becoming a competitive necessity, many organizations struggle to make the jump from pilot projects to enterprisewide impact. Significant execution hurdles exist around process and technology complexity (59%), unrealistic expectations (58%), data quality concerns (58%), and AI talent shortages (52%).
"In 2025, scaling Gen AI isn’t just about implementation – it’s about transformation," said Andy Warzecha, principal, Executive Advisory and Market Intelligence at The Hackett Group. "Enterprises that rethink their operating models to fully integrate AI will unlock new levels of performance, resilience and competitive advantage."
Four critical actions to scale AI and drive impact
The report outlines key actions leaders must take now to scale AI effectively, overcome execution challenges and drive transformational value.
1. Pivot from learning the fundamentals to scaling Gen AI. Enterprises that continuously advance Gen AI will see the best results, and maintaining momentum is key. To do so, engage leaders early, and make sure finance plays a proactive role in evaluating use cases and setting realistic benefit expectations. Establish clear benchmarks or key performance indicators to set targets and measure progress as you develop and deploy solutions.
2. Embrace co-intelligence and move beyond isolated use cases. Cultivate an environment receptive to the notion of AI-based digital workers and humans collaboratively working alongside each other. Encourage innovation and reimagine processes by involving domain experts to identify opportunities, deploy AI assistants and agents to boost productivity, and modernize technology platforms for seamless AI integration.
3. Focus on readiness to tackle complexity. Overcoming complexity is key to AI scalability. Prioritize process opportunities, use benchmarks and best practices to identify and resolve specific complexity, data quality, and technology issues.
4. Invest in AI talent and change management. To increase employee readiness, focus on redefining employee development programs, leveraging Gen AI training resources, partnering with key personnel who have knowledge of how work gets done, accelerating upskilling, and providing employees with AI agents to complement your talent with basic AI skills.
Executives who take these steps to strategically integrate and scale Gen AI will set the pace for enterprise performance and competitive advantage. The time for action is now.
The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT) is an IP and platform-based, Gen AI strategic consulting and executive advisory firm that enables Digital World Class® performance. Using AI XPLR™ and ZBrain™ – our ideation through implementation platforms – our experienced professionals help organizations realize the power of Gen AI and achieve quantifiable, breakthrough results, allowing us to be key architects of their Gen AI journey.
Our expertise is grounded in unparalleled best practices insights from benchmarking the world’s leading businesses – including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 89% of the Fortune 100, 70% of the DAX 40 and 55% of the FTSE 100. Visit us at www.thehackettgroup.com.
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