CBInsights conducted a survey with 50 senior strategy professionals to examine their approaches to generative AI (genAI) implementation and understand why some teams are achieving better results than others.
According to the findings, generative AI is the top technology priority for corporate strategy teams in the upcoming year.
However, only 32% of strategy leaders report having active genAI deployments at their organizations.
To gain insights into both the challenges and successes of genAI adoption, CBInsights gathered detailed input from these professionals, representing a range of industries.
The report focuses on how successful strategy teams are adopting genAI, the hurdles they face, and the strategies that distinguish successful deployments from those that are stagnating.
Despite its prominence, only 32% of the surveyed strategy leaders have fully implemented genAI, while 54% are still in the pilot or evaluation stages.
The research highlights that genAI is the number one priority for strategy teams across industries.
A significant 94% of respondents regard genAI as a key focus, whether moderate or significant. Other priorities include AI development (86%), data management (84%), and cybersecurity (78%), which are essential to supporting secure genAI applications.
Although generative AI remains in the early stages of adoption, with only 32% of respondents having deployed it, a majority (54%) are still in pilot or evaluation phases.
In contrast, more than two-thirds have already implemented more mature technologies like data management, cybersecurity, and cloud solutions.
A senior executive at a large financial institution shared concerns about the potential security risks posed by genAI.
While no production environments have yet encountered issues, the executive emphasized the importance of careful pacing to avoid vulnerabilities.
One of the key challenges is the tension between long-term innovation goals and the short-term resource constraints that many companies face.
In response, companies are taking a structured approach to prioritizing projects.
For example, a financial services executive described how they established “tiger teams” to address specific pain points, ensuring focused expertise and rapid resolution.
The research report also highlights how organizations are progressively deploying genAI across different business functions.
Initially, the focus has been on customer-facing departments, where use cases are clearer, and outcomes are easier to measure. Customer service (38%) and marketing (30%) lead in current genAI deployment.
In customer service, organizations are using genAI to enhance response times, improve customer satisfaction, and gather valuable data.
One financial services leader explained how predictive analytics are being used to anticipate customers’ needs based on changes in behavior, thus enhancing debt collection efforts and offering credit solutions.
The transition to internal operations such as finance and operations is also gaining momentum, particularly in process automation, which shows strong pilot activity.
This measured approach reflects a strategy of expanding genAI in specific, well-defined use cases rather than implementing broad, transformational initiatives.
Additionally, strategy teams prefer partnering with external providers rather than building genAI solutions in-house, with 85% opting for partnerships or purchases.
This trend is particularly common in regulated industries, where security and compliance requirements present substantial barriers to adoption.
When it comes to selecting vendors, 40% of teams cite risk management as their primary criterion.
Organizations prioritize providers with strong security frameworks and compliance protocols, such as Microsoft, AWS, and IBM, since these capabilities would take years to develop internally.
Research Methodology:
In August 2024, CBInsights surveyed 50 corporate strategy leaders (Director-level or higher) working at companies with more than 200 employees, both public and private.
The respondents held titles such as Director of Strategy, VP of Strategy and Corporate Development, and SVP of Strategy and Innovation, among others.
Over half (54%) work at companies generating more than $1B in revenue, with the largest company reporting nearly $80B in revenue.
The largest group of respondents reportedly came from the healthcare industry (34%), followed by technology (28%) and financial services (24%).
