THE BELIEF GAP
Organizations of all sizes agree on where AI is heading:
92% believe AI will fundamentally reshape how work gets done, while 96% believe AI agents will be essential to staying competitive.
Believe AI will reshape work
96% believe AI agents are essential to staying competitive
SMB
97%
Midmarket
93%
Majors
96%
Enterprises
94%
But belief is not the same as progress.
Nearly everyone agrees AI is becoming essential, but only 18% have fully embedded it. What do those organizations do differently?
of organizations remain in the exploration stage
are actively deploying
report that AI is fully embedded into operations
The real difference is how organizations operationalize it.
Gauging AI maturity is an important starting point among CX leaders for deploying AI. Across the board, the research data validates strong belief about how AI will reshape work, and how AI agents will be essential for remaining competitive. Their AI maturity level falls short, however, with only 18% having AI fully embedded - hence the belief gap at this point in time.
Jon Arnold Principal Analyst, J Arnold & Associate
Organizations further along the maturity ladder tend to share several behaviors in common:
1. They formalize an AI strategy early
Among the highest-performing size segment, Majors organizations, 91% have a formal AI strategy. Most are integrating AI across business functions rather than evaluating isolated use cases one at a time.
By contrast, only 76% of SMBs report having a formal strategy, suggesting that strategic clarity may be a prerequisite for scaling. Organizations that wait to formalize AI until after proving individual use cases are more likely to remain stuck in pilot phases.
Organizations that have an AI strategy in place
Majors
91%
Midmarket
83%
Enterprises
82%
SMB
76%
Fully integrating AI across all business units
Majors
43%
Enterprises
39%
Midmarket
35%
SMB
30%
2. They scale through multiple initiatives, not single use cases.
The more organizations test AI in real operational settings, the more they learn where it works, where it does not, and what is needed to scale it responsibly. Among organizations that have launched AI initiatives, net satisfaction reaches 95% among Majors, reinforcing the connection between operational experience and successful scaling.
Running multiple AI initiatives
Enterprises
Majors
Midmarket
SMB
Net satisfied with AI results
Majors
Midmarket
SMB
Enterprises
3. They trust AI to make complex decisions and inform them
Trust in AI recommendations is relatively consistent across all segments of respondents with an AI strategy in place. The bigger differences appear when organizations move from using AI to inform decisions to trusting it in more complex operational contexts.
Trust AI to inform decisions
Majors
Midmarket
SMB
Enterprises
Trust AI to make complex decisions
Majors
Midmarket
Enterprises
SMB
Majors and Midmarket organizations report somewhat higher confidence in AI for complex decision-making than SMBs and Enterprises do.
That pattern may reflect differences in operational familiarity, deployment complexity, or organizational structure, though the broader trend across all segments remains clear: confidence grows through repeated exposure and real operational usage over time.
4. They treat AI as core business infrastructure
Among respondents with an AI strategy in place, Retail organizations report the highest rate of treating AI as a strategic investment, even ahead of Technology organizations. That distinction matters because organizations that frame AI strategically are more likely to expand it across functions rather than limit it to isolated use cases. The operational footprint of AI already reflects that shift. While IT remains the most AI-active department today, adoption has expanded well beyond technical teams into customer support, marketing, finance, and HR.
AI treated as strategic investment (by sector)
Retail
92%
Tech
89%
Banking
86%
Legal
85%
Healthcare
84%
Departments currently using AI
IT
75%
Customer Support
65%
Marketing
54%
Finance
47%
HR
46%
As organizations move up the maturity ladder, AI becomes less of a departmental tool and more of an operational layer embedded across the business.
The organizations progressing furthest are not necessarily adopting AI earlier than everyone else. They are building the coordination, governance, and operational consistency required to sustain AI across systems, workflows, and teams over time.
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