For everyday people, the benefits of AI are tangible and growing. For the large organizations that are the backbone of our society, hospitals, financial institutions, and telecommunications companies, turning that potential into real results has been much harder.
Companies across nearly every industry have poured massive resources into AI, but most are still struggling to see meaningful returns, and the cost of getting it wrong is measured not just in wasted budgets, but in outcomes that affect the people and communities these organizations serve.
That's why today, in partnership with Reuters Insights, we're releasing The Six Percent Report, a study of nearly 500 senior AI decision-makers from around the world. The study profiles the companies that have figured out how to make AI genuinely work, and offers a practical roadmap for everyone else.
The central finding is that just 6% of companies have made enterprise AI genuinely work at scale. A year ago, MIT found that only 5% of business pilots were successfully driving measurable results. Although the studies were measuring different things, and despite massive investment across the industry and rapid advances in AI model performance, AI progress for enterprises has been remarkably slow.
Nevertheless, when looking at what's driving success for the 6%, we found three consistent traits. First, they have strong data foundations. They treat data quality, labeling, governance, and feedback as core infrastructure for AI. Next, the 6% front-load the hard organizational work. They invest early in change management, employee training, workflow redesign, and senior leadership sponsorship. Lastly, they take a different approach to build versus buy. The 6% don’t rely only on off-the-shelf tools. They combine internal expertise with specialized partners to build systems that fit their real workflows, data, and business goals.
Our study doesn't just diagnose the problem, it lays out concrete steps any organization can take to join the 6%. Over the course of the year, we’ll continue sharing research and guidance for enterprises working to make AI work. And we'd like to thank every leader who took the time to share insights for this study. Your contributions are helping leaders across industries move forward.
The full report, produced by Reuters Insights in partnership with Scale AI, is now available for download at scale.com/six-percent
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