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McKinsey & Company · November 2025

The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation

McKinsey & Company's The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation (November 2025; n=1,993, fielded Jun 25–Jul 29, 2025) found that 88% report regular AI use in at least one business function (up from 78%).

Read the original report ↗Cite2 min read · Summary updated
Expected change in total workforce size from AI in the next yearPercent of respondents, 2025 (remaining 12% not shown)
Decrease of 3% or more
32%
Little or no change
43%
Increase of 3% or more
13%
Source: McKinsey, The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation, 2025, Exhibit 17.

Key findings

  1. 01
    Nearly two-thirds say their organizations have not yet begun scaling AI across the enterprise.
  2. 02
    62% are at least experimenting with AI agents; 23% report scaling an agentic system somewhere in the enterprise.
  3. 03
    39% attribute any EBIT impact to AI; most of those say it is under 5% of EBIT. About 6% qualify as high performers.

By the numbers

88%report regular AI use in at least one business function (up from 78%)
39%attribute any enterprise-level EBIT impact to AI
23%are scaling an agentic AI system somewhere in the enterprise
Where organizations stand with AI agentsPercent of respondents, 2025
Experimenting with agents
39%
Scaling an agentic system in at least one function
23%
Source: McKinsey, The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation, 2025.

What it means for you Draft

For executives at $10–100M companies

Almost everyone is using AI somewhere, but very few can point to it on the P&L. McKinsey found 29% of respondents at companies under $100M revenue had reached scaling, versus nearly half above $5B, so being behind is normal for firms our size. The practical signal is that the few who get results redesign a workflow rather than adding a tool to an old one.

Limitations

Medium trust.Large, transparent global sample with size mix disclosed; self-reported, GDP-weighted. McKinsey sells AI transformation services (QuantumBlack).

About the publisher: Sells AI strategy and implementation consulting.

The headline figure measures the “Tried it” stage of adoption (any use of ai).Why adoption numbers disagree

Cite the original

McKinsey & Company. "The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation." November 5, 2025. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-2025

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