The numbers are staggering. Leading companies using AI are measuring an average of 37% productivity improvements. Klarna’s AI assistant is saving them a projected $40 million in profit while handling two-thirds of their customer service chats. Indeed increased job applications by 20% with their GPT-powered features. Lowe’s improved their product tagging accuracy by 20% and error detection by 60%.

These aren’t modest gains either! They’re transformation-level results that should have every business leader paying attention.

Yet here’s what makes this story fascinating: while some companies are experiencing these dramatic wins, the majority are still fumbling around in the dark. The 2025 State of Marketing AI Report reveals a stark reality gap that explains why AI is creating winners and losers at an unprecedented pace.

The Training Desert

The most telling statistic isn’t about productivity gains. It’s about the 68% of companies that provide no AI training whatsoever to their employees. Think about that for a moment. We’re in the middle of what many consider the most significant technological shift since the internet, and more than two-thirds of organizations are essentially telling their people to figure it out themselves.

This isn’t just about being behind on trends. When companies don’t invest in AI literacy, they’re creating a productivity ceiling that no amount of expensive tools can break through. It’s like handing someone a Formula 1 race car without teaching them how to drive – you might get movement, but you’re not getting performance.

The companies seeing those 37% productivity gains? They understand that AI tools are only as good as the humans who know how to use them strategically. They’re not just buying software; they’re building capability.

The Governance Gap

While 60% of companies have moved into either piloting or scaling AI (up 9 percentage points from last year), most lack the fundamental infrastructure to make AI work effectively:

• 75% don’t have an AI roadmap or strategy for the next 1-2 years
• 63% have no generative AI policies in place
• 60% lack AI ethics guidelines
• 67% don’t have an AI council or governance structure

This creates a fascinating paradox. Companies are racing to adopt AI tools while skipping the foundational work that makes those tools valuable. It’s like building a house starting with the roof… technically possible, but structurally unsound.

The research shows that companies with an AI roadmap are roughly twice as likely to have proper training, governance, and policies in place. They’ve figured out that successful AI implementation isn’t about the technology, it’s about the system around the technology.

Why the Winners Keep Winning

The companies achieving breakthrough results share common characteristics that go far beyond their choice of AI tools. They treat AI adoption as an organizational capability, not a technology purchase.

Take the approach we’re seeing at leading organizations: they’re not just rolling out ChatGPT company-wide and hoping for the best.

• They’re developing rigorous evaluation processes to measure how AI models actually perform against benchmarks.
• They’re creating custom solutions tailored to their specific workflows.
• They’re empowering the people closest to the work to experiment and innovate.

BBVA, for example, empowered their employees to create 2,900 custom GPTs. That’s not just tool adoption: that’s cultural transformation. They’ve moved from “let’s try this AI thing” to “let’s systematically reimagine how we work.”

The Real Barrier Isn’t Technology

What’s really interesting about the current moment? The biggest barriers to AI success aren’t technical anymore. The tools work. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini… they’re all remarkably capable. The models are getting better every month, and the costs keep dropping.

The barrier is organizational:

• Companies are struggling with change management, not change technology.
• They’re dealing with skill gaps, not capability gaps.
• They’re fighting internal resistance, not external limitations.

This explains why 62% of companies still don’t provide training on prompt engineering or AI-specific skills. Not because these skills are hard to teach, but because teaching them requires admitting that work needs to fundamentally change, and that makes people uncomfortable.

The Strategic Opportunity

The reality gap we’re seeing creates an unprecedented strategic opportunity. While most companies are stuck in pilot purgatory or governance paralysis, the organizations that get their foundational approach right are pulling ahead at breathtaking speed.

The path forward isn’t complicated, but it does require commitment.

1. Start with AI literacy for your team.
2. Develop clear policies and governance frameworks.
3. Create a strategic roadmap that connects AI capabilities to business outcomes.
4. Measure relentlessly and iterate quickly.

Most importantly, stop thinking of AI as a tool and start thinking of it as a capability that requires development, just like any other core business competency.

The 37% productivity improvements aren’t happening by accident. They’re the result of organizations that understood early that the real AI revolution is about reimagining how work gets done when humans and AI collaborate effectively.

The question isn’t whether AI will transform your industry. It’s whether you’ll be among the companies leading that transformation or struggling to catch up.

I Can Help You Get Started!

If you’re ready to bridge your own AI reality gap but need help figuring out where to start with your AI strategy and roadmap, or if you want to advance AI literacy across your organization, I’d love to help.

Reach out and let’s explore how to turn your AI experiments into the kind of productivity breakthroughs that create real competitive advantage.