The AI boom isn’t delivering returns

In 2025, our Nordic survey showed that 98 percent of companies were already using artificial intelligence. More than half used generative AI weekly or daily. Yet only 15 percent had integrated the technology into core processes in a way that fundamentally changed how they work.

A year later, the picture remains largely unchanged. What is most striking is not how quickly AI has been adopted, but how little has changed within organisations. Data from PA Consulting in the UK shows that around 70 percent of companies use AI in parts of their business, but as many as 75 percent of them fail to realise meaningful returns on their investments. That supports what we are seeing in Norway.

Most companies today have access to powerful AI tools. Employees use them to write texts, analyse data and automate simple tasks. Productivity at an individual level is increasing.

But at company level, the impact is far smaller. The figures show that most organisations are still stuck at an early stage. In 2025, 58 percent had not progressed beyond using AI for general-purpose tasks and knowledge assistance. Only a small minority had moved on to using it for decision support and autonomous solutions.

The most common explanation we hear is that the technology is still immature. That more data, better integrations or new platforms are needed.

That is wrong. The companies succeeding with AI largely use the same technology as everyone else. The difference lies elsewhere: in how they are organised.

To make AI effective, companies have made structural changes. They have changed how work is organised, how decisions are made and who holds responsibility.

When the benefits fail to materialise, it is because the organisation is still designed for a different reality.

Our clear advice to Norwegian business leaders is therefore:

• Shift the focus from technology to organisational design: Don’t ask what AI can do, but how responsibilities, decision-making and ways of working need to change.
• Design for impact, not rapid change: Organisations built for yesterday’s ways of working will not unlock the full value of tomorrow’s technology.
• Lead from the front: Companies where leadership teams actively use AI and change their own ways of working are far more likely to succeed.
• Combine experimentation with structural change: Without redesigning the organisation, AI remains a support tool rather than a true driver of value creation.

Norwegian companies now stand at a crossroads if they want to generate real value from their AI investments. They can continue experimenting with AI on the sidelines of the core business, or they can make the necessary changes to fundamentally transform how the organisation operates. The companies that succeed will not be those that simply use AI the most, but those most willing to change.

Read the article in Finansavisen in Norwegian.