# McKinsey's 2025 AI Report: Why 90% of Companies Are Still Just Playing Theater **URL:** https://genserv.ai/blog/ai_theater_mckinsey_ai_2025 **Published:** November 13, 2025 **Author:** Mark Mobley, President & Co-Founder **Category:** Business --- ## Summary McKinsey's latest report reveals 90% of companies claim AI adoption but 67% remain stuck in pilot mode. Learn what separates the transforming 6% from corporate AI theater. --- ## Full Article McKinsey just released their [2025 AI report](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai), and the numbers tell a story you've probably lived. Ninety percent of companies claim they "use AI," but 67% are stuck in perpetual pilot mode—running proof of concepts that prove nothing except that AI technically works. There's a massive gap between companies that experiment with AI and companies that transform with it. And that gap is getting wider. ## The Theater of AI Adoption Walk into most boardrooms and you'll hear impressive statistics about AI initiatives. Your competitors are announcing pilots. Your vendors are selling AI-powered features. Everyone's "doing AI." But the impact numbers reveal the truth. Sure, 64% say AI helps with innovation. But only 39% can point to actual EBIT gains—the kind that show up on financial statements. That's a 25-point gap between feeling innovative and being profitable. ## What the Top 6% Actually Do Differently McKinsey identifies a small group—just 6% of companies—that are seeing outsized returns from AI. These aren't the organizations with the biggest tech budgets or the most data scientists. They're the ones who approach AI fundamentally differently. **They think bigger from the start**: Instead of asking "Can AI help with document processing?" they ask "What's preventing us from doubling capacity without doubling headcount?" They identify the constraint first, then determine if AI can remove it. **They rebuild workflows**, not just speed them up: Average companies use AI to make existing processes faster. High performers use AI to eliminate entire steps. There's a crucial difference between processing invoices 30% faster and eliminating manual invoice processing entirely. **They set growth goals**, not efficiency targets: While most organizations measure how much time AI saves, top performers measure how much new capacity AI creates. They're asking: "Can we serve 200 clients instead of 100?" not "Can we serve 100 clients with fewer people?" And here's the kicker: these leaders own AI personally. Companies where executives take direct ownership of AI initiatives are three times more likely to scale successfully. You can't delegate transformation to an innovation team and expect it to work. ## The AI Agents Reality Check Average companies measure agent efficiency—how quickly the agent completes a task. High performers measure agent velocity—how fast the agent can respond to changing business conditions. An agent that can process claims 50% faster is useful. An agent that can automatically adjust to new insurance regulations without reprogramming is transformative. This distinction matters because it reveals whether you're using AI to optimize existing constraints or remove them entirely. If your loan processing takes three days because of manual verification steps, an agent that does those verifications faster still leaves you with a three-day process. An agent that eliminates the need for manual verification removes the constraint. ## The Workforce Impact Nobody Understands Yet McKinsey's most honest finding might be this: nobody really knows what AI will do to workforce size. Thirty-two percent of companies expect headcount reductions. Thirteen percent expect growth. Everyone else is guessing. But here's what we're seeing in practice: the companies that approach AI as a capacity multiplier rather than a cost cutter end up in a different position entirely. If your goal is to handle 10,000 transactions per month with five people instead of ten, you're probably cutting headcount. If your goal is to handle 50,000 transactions per month with ten people instead of fifty, you're probably growing. The workforce question is really a strategy question in disguise. Are you using AI to defend margins in a flat market, or are you using it to capture market share in a growing one? ## What This Means for Your Business The question isn't whether you should adopt AI. The question is whether you're going to join the 90% doing AI theater or the 6% driving transformation. That choice starts with how you frame the problem. If you're asking "What can AI do for us?" you're already on the wrong path. The right question is "What's preventing us from achieving our strategic vision, and can AI remove that constraint?" Because the gap between pilot mode and transformation mode isn't about technology maturity or data quality. It's about strategic clarity. You can't transform what you haven't clearly defined. ## Are You Ready for Transformation? The companies that make it into McKinsey's top 6% didn't get there by accident. They started by understanding whether their organization was actually ready to move from pilots to transformation. Take our [AI Readiness Assessment](https://genserv.ai/ai-readiness-assessment) to quickly determine if you have the strategic clarity, organizational alignment, and operational foundations needed to deliver transformative value—not just more pilots. Remember: AI adoption without readiness is just expensive theater. Transformation happens when you know you're prepared to execute on what matters. --- ## About GenServ AI GenServ AI is an AI transformation consultancy helping mid-market companies ($10M-$100M revenue) implement AI solutions with measurable ROI. - **Website:** https://genserv.ai - **All Blog Posts:** https://genserv.ai/blog - **LLM Content Index:** https://genserv.ai/llms.txt - **Schedule a Call:** https://genserv.ai/schedule