Artificial intelligence (AI) remains a top priority for business leaders worldwide in 2025. They are strongly focused on reaping tangible results from their AI initiatives. This year, one in three companies globally plans to allocate over $25 million to AI.
For the second year, Boston Consulting Group (BCG)’s AI Radar global survey captured the mood of business executives regarding AI. The findings revealed optimism and significant challenges in realising AI’s full potential.
In the latest edition of the AI Radar report, titled: ‘From Potential to Profit: Closing the AI Impact Gap,” BCG surveyed 1,803 C-level executives across 19 markets and 12 industries, including South Africa, Nigeria and Morocco.
CEO of BCG, Christoph Schweizer, said: “In my discussions with CEOs, it’s clear they are prioritising AI to drive productivity.
“Our latest survey uncovers a crucial challenge: while 75 per cent of executives rank AI as a top three strategic priority, only a quarter report meaningful value from their AI initiatives. Leading AI adopters have cracked the code on achieving impact by focusing on a targeted set of AI initiatives, scaling them rapidly, transforming core processes, upskilling their teams, and systematically measuring operational and financial returns. Many companies have an immense opportunity to close the gap between their ambitions and reality.”
The study disclosed that leading companies allocate more than 80 per cent of their AI investments to reshaping core functions and inventing new offerings. In comparison, other companies focus 56 per cent of their AI investments on smaller-scale, productivity-focused initiatives. Leaders also set clear goals and track top- and bottom-line impact. However, 60 per cent of companies surveyed fail to define and monitor any financial KPIs related to AI value creation.
In Africa, for instance, 35 per cent of companies are not defining and monitoring any financial KPIs related to AI value creation. 62 per cent of these companies lack maturity in effective AI organisational change management, and 68 per cent have indicated challenges in hiring AI talent and upskilling their existing workforce.
Leading companies focus on depth over breadth, prioritising an average of 3.5 use cases, compared with 6.1 use cases for other companies. These companies anticipate generating 2.1 times greater ROI on their AI initiatives than their peers.
The study noted that autonomous agents will be a key consideration in AI transformation worldwide.
It noted that agents are autonomous AI systems that achieve goals using tools, analysing data, and working across systems—with minimal human input. While still in the early days of deployment, 67 per cent of executives consider autonomous agents as part of their AI transformation, with optimism around agents consistent across geographies.
At least 65 per cent of African companies surveyed have shown optimism about the role of AI agents moving into 2025, either exploring AI agents or viewing them as playing a central or complementing role in their AI transformation. African executives see talent and AI as complementary across all regions: 19 per cent see AI taking the lead, but humans keeping oversight; 66 per cent see AI and humans collaborating with complementary roles; and 15 per cent prioritise human talent and using AI only when necessary.
According to the report, only seven per cent of executives anticipate AI automation will lead to an overall decrease in headcount.
Sixty-eight per cent of executives globally anticipate maintaining their current workforce size, focusing on enhanced productivity and upskilling existing talent to meet AI demands. That contrasts with the fact that fewer than one-third of companies have upskilled even a quarter of their workforce—an improvement from last year, but still far from the level needed to help employees feel secure in adapting to a technology often perceived as a job threat.
In Africa, the report showed that only six per cent of executives expect AI to lead to job losses. And, interestingly, 37 per cent of these executives say that they see significant value in AI. This is supported by the finding that 86 per cent of African companies are planning to increase tech investments in 2025, pushing for a more disruptive usage of AI, and prioritising investments in higher-impact areas.
Asia-Pacific (34 per cent) and Africa (31 per cent) lead in AI/GenAI upskilling, while the Middle East (27 per cent) and South America (20 per cent) are falling behind.
Meanwhile, 17 per cent of executives globally expect AI to reshape the workforce by introducing new roles to replace redundant ones. Eight per cent foresee AI driving an increase in headcount, while only seven per cent predict a reduction in workforce size due to AI automation.
Global Leader of BCG X, Sylvain Duranton, said successful leaders adopt the 10-20-70 framework to unlock AI’s business potential, allocating 70 per cent of their efforts to transforming people, processes, and culture; 20 per cent to data and technology; and just 10 per cent to algorithms.
“However, two-thirds of companies face significant challenges in reimagining workflows, driving cultural change, recruiting talent, and upskilling their workforce. Ensuring the success of AI initiatives requires disciplined execution, a relentless focus on value creation, and a workforce ready to adapt and thrive in a rapidly evolving environment,” Duranton.
Executives identified data privacy and security (66 per cent), lack of control or understanding of AI decisions (48 per cent), and regulatory challenges and compliance (44 per cent) as the top three AI risks to navigate. Cybersecurity is a critical concern, with 76 per cent of executives acknowledging that their AI cybersecurity measurements require further improvements.
At least 64 per cent of African executives surveyed have raised data privacy and security risks, 37 per cent have highlighted the lack of control or understanding of AI decisions and 46 per cent are concerned with regulatory and compliance challenges.
Interestingly, the report revealed that 60 per cent of African companies surveyed are starting to build their geopolitical muscle, citing regulations as a factor in their AI adoption pace. This is the highest across the globe, followed by North America (58 per cent), Europe (56 per cent), the Middle East (54 per cent), APAC (52 per cent) and South America (45 per cent).
