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Accenture · May 2025 · Playbook

The front-runners' guide to scaling AI: Lessons from industry leaders

The front-runners' guide to scaling AI: Lessons from industry leaders is a 2025 guide from Accenture. Its core idea: lead with value, reinvent talent, build a secure digital core, close the responsible-AI gap, keep reinventing.

Read the original report ↗Cite2 min read · Summary updated
Front-runners have scaled far more of their strategic AI betsAverage percent of industry strategic bets fully scaled, by maturity group, 2025
Front-runners
34%
Fast-followers
0%
Progressing with AI
8%
Experimenting with AI
5%
Source: Accenture, The front-runners' guide to scaling AI, 2025, Figure 3.

Key ideas

  1. 01
    Only 8% of the 2,000 companies surveyed are 'front-runners' scaling AI enterprise-wide; 15% are 'reinvention-ready'.
  2. 02
    Front-runners pair table-stakes AI investments with a few strategic bets; companies that scale even one bet are nearly 3x likelier to beat ROI expectations.
  3. 03
    Five imperatives: lead with value, reinvent talent and ways of working, build a secure digital core, close the responsible-AI gap, drive continuous reinvention.

By the numbers

8%of 2,000 surveyed companies are front-runners scaling AI enterprise-wide
Nearly 3xmore likely to have gen AI ROI beat forecasts when at least one strategic bet is scaled
13%average productivity increase companies expect within 18 months of scaling gen AI
Only 8% of companies are AI front-runnersPercent of 2,000 surveyed companies, by AI maturity group, 2025
Progressing with AI
43%
Experimenting with AI
42%
Front-runners
8%
Fast-followers
7%
Source: Accenture, The front-runners' guide to scaling AI, 2025, Figure 2.

What it means for you Draft

For executives at $10–100M companies

The useful idea is the split between table stakes (what everyone must do) and one or two strategic bets that could set you apart. Mid-market leaders can read the imperatives and skip the revenue and shareholder-return comparisons, which draw on very large companies.

Limitations

Medium trust.Large survey, but method details are thin on the landing page, and Accenture is one of the largest sellers of AI implementation services.

About the publisher: Sells AI strategy and implementation consulting.

Cite the original

Accenture. "The front-runners' guide to scaling AI: Lessons from industry leaders." May 6, 2025. https://www.accenture.com/en/insights/ai-data/front-runners-guide-scaling-ai

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