Who’s Really Winning the AI Race?
AI adoption is accelerating across retail and consumer packaged goods, but the value organizations are generating from those investments varies significantly. While many organizations have moved beyond experimentation, only a select group is successfully scaling AI across business processes, decision-making and customer-facing operations.
This report explores what separates AI Leaders from AI Followers and identifies the capabilities retail and consumer packaged goods organizations need to move from isolated AI use cases to enterprise-wide transformation.
The Gap Between AI Leaders and AI Followers is Widening
These findings show that AI Leaders are not simply deploying AI faster; they are building the organizational and technological capabilities needed to continuously innovate, adapt and create value.
Of the sample are AI Leaders
Of organizations are AI Followers
Of AI Leaders report delivering superior customer experiences, compared with 48% of AI Followers
AI Leaders are nearly four times more likely to scale agentic and autonomous systems across the enterprise
AI Leaders are nearly twice as likely to identify innovation and product development as AI's greatest area of impact
The Four Foundations of AI Leadership
The organizations leading the AI race are taking a holistic approach. They are aligning AI with business value, preparing their people, building trusted data foundations and modernizing the environments required to scale AI.
Leading from the front
The human edge
Fixing the data reality
Modernize at scale
Leading from the front
Define value. Align leadership. Scale with purpose.
AI Leaders connect AI investments to defined business use cases and measurable business value, supported by strong executive sponsorship, accountability and alignment with business priorities.
Key stat:
60% of AI Leaders say their AI strategy is driven by defined use cases and measurable business value, compared with 27% of AI Followers.
The human edge
Redesign work for the AI-enabled enterprise.
As AI takes on more operational activities, organizations must rethink roles, decision-making and accountability. Workforce transformation, continuous learning and human-AI collaboration will become critical to realizing AI's value.
Key stat:
95% of AI Leaders prioritize comprehensive, organization-wide upskilling strategies, compared with 12% of AI Followers.
Fixing the data reality
Build trusted data foundations to scale AI.
AI at scale depends on data that is accessible, consistent and trusted across customer channels, supply chains, merchandising, inventory and commercial functions. Data governance must evolve from a compliance requirement into a business capability.
Key stat:
AI Leaders are nearly 19 times more likely to express confidence in their data foundations for GenAI initiatives than AI Followers.
Modernize at scale
Build the architecture that enables AI to scale.
Legacy environments can limit the ability to connect data, applications and workflows. A deliberate, composable approach to modernization can help organizations develop, deploy and scale AI without disrupting critical operations.
Key stat:
Nearly 89% of organizations acknowledge that they do not yet have the architecture required to scale AI investments effectively.
AI Leadership is About More Than Technology
In retail and consumer packaged goods, AI advantage comes from how well organizations can sense and respond to consumer demand in real time. The leaders are building the capabilities to continuously learn, act on data across the value chain and consistently deliver the right experience in the moments that drive loyalty and margin.”
Chief Growth Officer and Global Head,
Retail, CPG and Luxury, HCLTech
The Next Phase of the AI Race Will Be Won by Those Who are Ready to Scale
Winning with AI is proving to be about far more than deploying new technologies. AI Leaders are aligning AI initiatives to business outcomes, building workforce readiness, strengthening data foundations and modernizing the environments needed to support AI at scale.
As agentic and autonomous AI capabilities mature, organizations that build these foundational capabilities will be better positioned to respond to change, unlock new opportunities and sustain competitive advantage.
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