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EP 001
32 Min
Despite near-universal gen-AI adoption, meaningful profits will emerge only when CEOs pivot from generic copilots to agent-driven, vertically focused automations that rewire workflows and overcome trust and governance barriers.
The widespread deployment of generative AI (gen AI) has yet to translate into significant business impact, creating a "gen AI paradox." While nearly eight in ten companies use gen AI, a similar number report no material contribution to earnings. This is primarily due to an imbalance between widely adopted, diffuse "horizontal" use cases (e.g., enterprise-wide copilots) and high-potential "vertical" use cases (e.g., function-specific automations) that remain stuck in pilot mode. AI agents offer a solution by automating complex business processes, moving gen AI from a reactive tool to a proactive, goal-driven virtual collaborator. This shift promises not just efficiency but also operational agility and new revenue opportunities. Unlocking this potential requires a fundamental reimagining of workflows with agents at the core, a new "agentic AI mesh" architecture, and, most critically, overcoming human challenges related to trust, adoption, and governance. The time for gen AI experimentation is over; a CEO-led transformation is now essential to scale AI's impact.
Research referenced in this episode comes from QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, the AI consulting arm of McKinsey & Company.
