The Deloitte AI Institute™ has unveiled the fourth quarterly edition of its “State of Generative AI in the Enterprise” report, revealing the current landscape of GenAI adoption and deployment and how organisations are overcoming barriers to create value at scale. “The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise: Now decides Next” is based on a survey of 2,773 director- to C-suite-level respondents across 14 countries. While respondents have a range of self-reported levels of GenAI expertise, all are experienced with AI and are piloting or implementing GenAI in their organisations.
The report features case studies covering how GenAI is boosting software security in banking, as well as how it is accelerating sales success in the technology industry and powering social media content creation in the consumer industry.
“GenAI use cases are rapidly proliferating in leading enterprises across industries. We are seeing a shift as leaders move past the initial hype to strategically deploying GenAI in the core of their businesses. Focus is essential, prioritising demonstrated use cases with measurable return on investment,” said Joe UCUZOGLU, Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte Global.
“Amid the promise of AI agents and the evolution of foundational models, future-thinking organisations are as bullish as ever in building bridges to ROI, all while understanding the need for nuance — and patience — as we embrace this next wave of GenAI. Anticipation is high, and now is the time for leaders to take the long view of their GenAI investments, with a focus on governance, collaboration and continued iteration as key accelerators in the race for sustainable value,” added Jim ROWAN, Applied AI Leader and Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP.
Adoption is moving at the speed of business, not the speed of technology
The initial fervour for GenAI has gradually given way to a positive yet pragmatic mindset among business leaders at all levels. More than two-thirds of respondents say that 30% or fewer of their experiments will be fully scaled in the next three to six months, revealing that no matter how quickly the technology advances—or how hard the companies producing GenAI technology push—organisational change in an enterprise can only happen so fast. Despite this, a vast majority of respondents (78%) expect to increase their overall AI spending in the next fiscal year – a positive outcome in terms of helping organisations move past the hype cycle and take time to test where GenAI’s capabilities can help the most.
The uneven pace of change has put a spotlight on regulatory and risk concerns as major barriers
As businesses and policymakers navigate the moving target of regulating a technology with capabilities are still taking shape, the need for disciplined action has grown. Concerns around regulatory compliance have emerged as the top barrier holding organisations back from developing and deploying GenAI tools and applications – increasing by 10 percentage points from the Wave 1 survey (28%) to Wave 4 (38%). Sixty-nine percent of respondents say fully implementing a governance strategy will take more than a year to resolve, underscoring the need for perseverance and a strategic approach to setting the correct governance foundation. To act decisively in the face of uncertainty, organisations should focus on market sensing and scenario planning, with an eye on uncovering potential blind spots in their strategies and make more informed decisions today.
Scaling is still a work in progress — some uses are outpacing others
A strategic shift is emerging, from technology catch-up to competitive differentiation with GenAI, and return on investment for organisations’ most advanced (scaled) GenAI initiatives has been generally positive . Almost all organisations report measurable ROI, and almost a quarter (20%) report 31% or more from GenAI. GenAI usage in IT appears to be furthest along, with 28% saying their most advanced initiative is in that function. Cybersecurity implementations have also emerged as a standout, with 44% saying ROI has surpassed their expectations, more than any other function. Despite making strides with centralised governance, phased adoption, collaborative partnerships and continuous iteration, scaling and value creation remain key challenges for organisations.
Agentic AI will be a key enabler of sustainable value — but it’s no silver bullet
Agentic AI has captured leaders’ attention, with 26% of surveyed organisations already exploring autonomous agent development to a large extent and 42% to some extent. As software systems designed to meet objectives with minimal intervention, agents have the potential to accelerate the creation of long-lasting business value. However, the key barriers currently faced by GenAI — regulatory uncertainty, risk management, data deficiencies and workforce issues — still apply and are arguably even more critical due to the increased complexity of agentic systems.
About “The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise”
This is the fourth in a series of quarterly surveys intended to track the adoption of GenAI in the enterprise. This research builds from Deloitte’s previous “State of AI in the Enterprise” report, which has been running for six years. This wave of the survey, conducted between July and September 2024, connected with 2,773 AI-savvy business and technology leaders directly involved in piloting or implementing Generative AI at major organisations across 14 countries and six industries: consumer; energy, resources and industrials; financial services; life sciences and health care; technology, media and telecom; and government and public services.
