- The report, “The Widening AI Value Gap” (BCG, 09/2025), shows that only 5% of global businesses are generating AI value at scale, while 60% generate almost no value, despite significant investment.
- The leading group, called future-built companies, excels with 1.7x higher revenue growth, 1.6x higher EBIT margin, 3.6x higher 3-year Total Shareholder Return (TSR), and 3.5x more patents compared to the laggards.
- About 70% of AI value comes from core functions such as sales, marketing, manufacturing, supply chain, and pricing; R&D accounts for 15%, and IT increased to 13% in 2025, a 6 percentage point rise compared to 2024.
- Agentic AI is the biggest catalyst widening the gap: it accounted for 17% of total AI value in 2025 and is projected to increase to 29% by 2028.
- Future-built companies allocate 15% of their AI budget to agents, while only 12% of “scaling” businesses and nearly 0% of laggards do this.
- These leading businesses spend 26% more on IT, allocate 64% more of their IT budget to AI, and have 120% higher overall AI investment compared to laggards, creating a “virtuous” value loop.
- Conversely, lagging companies are stuck due to a lack of leadership commitment, scattered experimentation, and a focus on small-scale automation instead of end-to-end process redesign.
- BCG emphasizes the 10-20-70 rule: 70% of effort must be dedicated to people, organization, and processes; 20% to technology; and only 10% to algorithms.
- By sector and region, software, telecommunications, and fintech lead in AI maturity; Asia-Pacific allocates the highest percentage of its IT budget to AI (5.2%) and expects a 10% revenue increase by 2028, higher than Europe and North America.
- The report’s final message is clear: time is not on the side of the majority; the future-built group is widening the value gap every week that passes.
📌 Summary: The BCG report reveals a shocking truth: AI is not generating uniform value but is amplifying the difference between leading businesses and the rest. With 5% of companies capturing the benefits and 60% gaining almost nothing, Agentic AI and core AI strategy are determining who breaks away and who falls behind. About 70% of AI value comes from core functions such as sales, marketing, manufacturing, supply chain, and pricing; R&D accounts for 15%, and IT increased to 13% in 2025.
